Our guest for this episode is Professor Stanley Fish, who became one of the world's leading scholars of the work of John Milton upon the publication of Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost in 1967. His scholarly work on Milton is collected in the 2001 book How Milton Works. He has also solidified himself as one of the formidable public intellectuals of the last fifty years.   SHOW NOTES How to accidentally becoming a world-class expert on Milton [2:00] A bracing description of how the character of Satan works [4:30] Viewing Satan after realizing you've been duped [12:30] Milton's techniques for describing the indescribable [16:23] Paradise Lost as a presentation of the political and cultural conflicts [20:28] Introducing George Herbert: champion of stringency of thought [27:00] The core challenge of cultural literacy in the 21st century [30:50] An individual's intimate and immediate relationship to liberty [37:42] Inner versus worldly prosperity. Achieving the paradise within [41:50]