Paradise Lost: Book 1 Arrival in Hell

Part 1 The Fall from Grace

After the invocation of the muse, the text moves on to Satan, who has been lying on a lake of roiling fire, together with all the other fallen angels. He recalls, in abstract terms; this is a poem after all, the failed rebellion and the casting down of the rebellious host out of heaven. For 9 days he and the others lie there, immortal but still able to feel pain, unable to die, in tempests and whirlwinds of fire, at the bottom of an abyss, designated chaos.
Then the Morningstar lifts up his head and recognizing beside him, the second highest of the fallen after him, he calls out to him and responding to that one's despondency in the light of their complete failure and fall, he proposes a new ideology. one that is firmly and squarely opposed to God and that one's whims and designs.

Part 2 The Birth of Pandemonium

Satan rises and then calls out to the as yet unmoving host of the fallen angels and shames them into rising from their stupor, and from their bed of fire. A rollcall ensues, with a caveat that though most of these fallen have as yet no names, they will earn their names in due time, in the ages yet to come.
The Host then proceeds to build a city out of a sulphur-spewing mountain, and Pandemonium is born.
A blaring of horns then announces a gathering of council for the worthiest among the multitudes.

Interesting Bits

Thoughts on Description

I mentioned at the start that the descriptions are abstract, but in reality the setting is so primordial that It could simply not be described other than this. A summoning up of hellish imagery with fire and smoke, with an emphasis on light and dark. Archetypes that define the world and the characters in them. This is, and should be, after all, the text that comes before all others. An allegory for a growing imbalance in chaos. An imbalance that pushes that chaos aside and in its stead places Order supreme. Composed of Good and Evil. Light and Dark. God and the Devil.

I love the lyricism and the awesome and terrifying images it demands the reader creates. Reading it out loud, which is really the way these types of things should be read makes it seem like a litany, an invocation that summons up awe and horror.

The Devil and the Details

As a reader who always reads with a sympathetic view towards characters, someone who needs his villains to be well constructed and explained. I must say, Satan obviously comes out very reasonable and understandable in this. Prideful and arrogant, sure. But not even close to the despondant being, who as he was just cast down out of a paradise, he really ought to be. Though, like the other fallen, he exists for a while in a state of shock, he is the first to rally himself, and soon after, is the one to also rally the others, through guile and confidence. the host looks to him for surety, and he in turns provides it. It is courageaous and determined. He rises with the immediate idea to oppose himself completely to God and his creation.

Clad in War

Every angel is a warrior, all have weapons and are clad in armour.

God is frequently described as having 'thundered'. Satan himself is scarred by it and, though still magnificent, his light is dimmed. It's something that is present in some of the other books as well.

The Devils, named

One of the more surprising things was that when Satan shames the fallen angels and calls on them to arise, a host of recognizable names start to present themselves; most of them demonic entities and false gods that are referenced in the bible, but also some others from main religions, and references to the Greek and Roman Pantheons.
Other recognizables are Belial, Azazel (who you might know from the badass Denzel Washington movie; Fallen, If you haven't; go watch it, old but very moody and cool) and Dagon. which might have been the biggest surprise. I always thought that Dagon sprung forth out of Lovecraft's imagination but apparently he's been around a while already.

Bad-Ass Quotes

-Is this the region, this the soil, the clime?
This the seat that we must exchange for Heaven?
This mournful gloom for that celestial light?-

-Furthest from Him is best-

-Hail Horrors, Hail Infernal World!-

-The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.-

-Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.-