I was already familiar with John Milton before this reading because of his 1667 poem Paradise Lost. Even in my family, with a generally relaxed approach to religion, I am well acquainted with his work. It is definitely one of the most influential works of literature, with thousands of stories inspired by its events. It is for this reason that a lot of the Areopagitica surprised me. More so than the actual text, I was enthralled by the historical context. I am absolutely obsessed with military history, so English Civil War as his motivation for writing the Areopagitica immediately enthralled me. I also found it interesting that he was motivated from his own personal experiences regarding divorce. I had never really studied John Milton aside from his work on Paradise Lost, so his work on so many other texts was intriguing to say the least. Given that he is writing from his own personal experience with censorship and has an incredible skill in storytelling and writing, it is no surprise to me that he was able to write an amazing pamphlet. I have only taken a single week of Introductory Logic, and I can already tell that he has mastered the art of persuasion. I do find it somewhat strange that he would assert the unwavering strength of truth when he is trying to argue for its protection, but the rest of his argument is definitely strong enough that it does not impact the overall writing. I was especially impressed by his argument that exposure to falsity is valuable in the appreciation of truth. In our world today, with echo chambers and other news outlets spewing out what people want to hear, those words could not ring more true. I have grown up skeptical of everything I hear on the news and everything I read online for this reason, and his assertion that this is important for my understanding of truth is absolutely correct. It is also amazing to remember that electricity was not even invented at his time. I think his work is incredibly written, and has many layered lessons that could benefit our modern society.