Media, Mediation, and Milton's Eve

In Milton's Paradise Lost, creation is mediated from the beginning. The Fall of humanity changes some modes and degrees of mediation, but the epic suggests that considering differences among kinds of mediation is more fruitful than seeking to avoid it. Paradise Lost offers a useful context for our own debates about incessant digital distractions by exploring the affordances and challenges of different kinds of mediation, by positing links between femininity and mediation, and by considering how mediation affects attention.