I so smart

This is my first post in the field. I decided to bring my laptop to school because one of my classes was canceled. Instead of doing homework, this is what I am doing; but it is in response to homework.

When is metaphor too much metaphor? Is it possible to use too much metaphor? This reporter asserts that it is possible to overdue metaphor. This is in specific response to John Milton's Paradise lost, which I am currently reading for a class, but can be seen in countless other epic poems, poems in general, conceited books etc. In paradise lost, the use of metaphor interferes with the idea that the metaphor is trying to present. Satan's dominions, as they assert different strategies to battle heavan, take 300 lines to say "let's take them directly, who cares if we lose, we are already dead and in Hell. Can't get much worse than this."
Sure the metaphors (I'm not even going to bother sharing some because they are too long to even right,) add interesting depth to the characters and insight to the general tone of the situation, but after about 100 lines of deep intertwining metaphor the meaning is lost in obscurity. Once the punch line is reached, the beginning is lost so you ahve to go back and reread the whole convoluted mess again. At what point does the metaphor go too far? when the meaning has become lost in words.
This over-doing of the academic is not unique to epic literature; music is a major culprit as well. The idea behind a lot of music being written in colleges these days is to make it as complex as possible and basically take the human element of music out (they do not think this explicitly but it is the result of their conceits). The composers are making music for other composers, basically preaching to the choir. The only other people who enjoy the music, or at the very least understand the music are other composers doing similarly "academic" things. This is the same with these pieces of literature. Milton constructs these eleaborate metaphors to prove his writing prwess, not needing "the jingling sound of like endings," to show he is a good poet. What is more effective; 1,000 academics reading your work and praising for its technical excellence, or 1,000,000 everyday people reading your work and having their lives changed, minds altered, posititions altered even if only a mm?

Today's photo is me thinking very hard about this subject.