Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Quoting Satan

Have you ever seen this bumper sticker?


Well, I'm reading Paradise Lost right now and I keep thinking that this quote is going to pop up somewhere. Satan gets way more words in Paradise Lost than he does in the Bible, so if it was going to be anywhere I would guess that it would be in Milton's work.

I imagine the quote going something like this:
"Whence and what are thou, execrable Shape,
That dar'st, through grim and terrible, advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? Through them I mean to vote pro-choice,
That be assured, without leave asked of thee."
Of course in this passage "vote pro-choice" is a simple indicative, not the imperative that the bumper sticker would have you believe. But I think that the people who thought up the bumper sticker aren't all that concerned with context.

Oh, and I don't think that any pro-choicers are going to be dissuaded of their current position because someone's car was garnished with a made-up quote from Satan designed to lambaste their beliefs. That's just silly.

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