I can tell Wendell Berry is influencing my reading of Paradise Lost. As I read Book IX, I thought it was fascinating that on the day Eve succumbs to the Serpent's temptation, the reason Eve wants to be alone from Adam (and thus more susceptible to temptation) is her inordinate desire to do efficient work. When Adam and Eve get up that morning, Eve says to Adam,

     Let us divide our labours—thou where choice
     Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind
     The woodbine round this arbour, or direct
     The clasping ivy where to climb; while I
     In yonder spring of roses intermixed
     With myrtle find what to redress till noon.
     For, while so near each other thus all day
     Our task we choose, what wonder if so near
     Looks intervene and smiles, or objects new
     Casual discourse draw on, which intermits
     Our day’s work, brought to little, though begun
     Early, and the hour of supper comes unearned! (ll. 214-26)

Here, Eve thinks that because they are working together, they will get less done. In response, Adam reminds her that work is not an end in itself. God gave us work for our enjoyment, not for our misery. And when work is exalted to a place where it divides us from each other, there's a problem.

     ... Not so strictly hath our Lord imposed
     Labour as to debar us when we need
     Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
     Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse
     Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow
     To brute denied, and are of love the food—
     Love, not the lowest end of human life.
     For not to irksome toil, but to delight,
     He made us, and delight to reason joined. (ll. 235-43)