Today's Topics:
Re: Blake at MLA
current Blake scholarship
Blake as a Romantic
Re: Blake as a Romantic
Re: Blake as a Romantic
Re: current Blake scholarship
Re: Blake as a Romantic
pre and post lapsarian blake
Re: pre and post lapsarian blake
Re: current Blake scholarship/NASSR papers on-line
England's other anthem
Re: NASSR papers: update
Re: yet once more/Nassr/eureka!
Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Re: Theology vs. psychology -Reply
Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Re: England's other anthem
Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Re: England's other anthem
Urizenic world
Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Unidentified subject!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 12:20:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Joseph Viscomi
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake at MLA
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, DR. JOSIE MCQUAIL wrote:
> There were a several critics known for work on Blake that read papers at the
> conference: Tilottama Rajan and Alicia Ostriker, as well as Joseph Viscomi
> who, as someone already pointed out, spoke on the Blake Archive (I would be
> interested in reading what was said on this subject if you are reading,
> Prof. Viscomi!)
I would be happy to oblige if I could, but at NASSR and MLA I
merely engaged in a bit of show and tell, demonstrating how
the Archive can be used in our research and teaching, and did
not read a paper. So, I have no text to offer from either
session, but the MLA talk was recorded and may eventually make its way to
the session's Web site
()
This site is designed to continue the discussion on Reconfiguring
Romanticism in the Information Age.
But the best way to find out about the Archive is to visit it and to
explore the three copies of Thel and three copies of VDA that are now
publicly accessible. Try running two browsers so you can have images
in one and transcriptions (or images from other pages or books) in
the other. There are other illuminated books waiting in the
wings--or, more precisely, for the search engine to be fully operational,
which will take at least a few more weeks. The Archive will also include
Erdman's text and bibliographies for the study of Blake and each of his
books.
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/blake
With multiple copies of nearly every illuminated book, selected from
each printing of a book to reveal its history, copies of all the
commercial and original prints, a healthy selection of paintings and
drawings and works by Blake's contemporaries, the ability to display
images at their original size and at 3x
that size and multiple documents at the same time, as well as to search
text and images and provide an annotating tool that lets you write
comments on an image and download comments and image to your hard
drive, the Archive, I would like to think,
will provide the grounds for--and perhaps even stimulate--future
contributions to Blake studies, which I believe are in a healthier state
than some recent messages to this list would suggest.
For more info about the shape the Archive will eventually take, see the
Plan and the Archive Update on the Archive' front end at the address
above.
Joe Viscomi
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:50:57 -0600
From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: current Blake scholarship
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The flyer I just got from SUNY Press gives top billing among its new titles
to Kathryn Freeman's _Blake's Nostos: Fragmentation and Nondualism in The
Four Zoas_. Since I happen to know Kathy, I'm biased in favor of her book
before reading it, but I mention it in the context of the current
discussion.
Incidentally, I think the only NASSR papers on the Romantic Circles site
are those from the plenary session and the seminar on electronic
texts--unless I'm missing a link, in which case I hope someone will point
me in the right direction.
Jennifer Michael
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:41:50 -0800
From: Steve Perry
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Blake as a Romantic
Message-Id: <32DD32FE.229F@infogenics.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I would be interested in getting opinions as to how Blake fits into the
"Romantic Poets" grouping, I know some of the arguments, but I have a
nagging sense that he stands outside of the group just as Turner who is
often grouped with the "Impressionists" stands apart from them.
I know that Blake was definitely aware of Wordsworth, and late in life
met with Colridige, and apparently Keats was aware of Blake. It seems
to me in some senses that Blake stands Wordsworth on his head in his
views on Nature, and I see Blake's heroes almost antithetical in
character than those of Byron. Any thoughts.....
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 14:32:57 -0600
From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Steve, it all depends on what you mean by Romantic. You're absolutely
right that Blake often seems to take the opposite view from Wordsworth on
Nature (Geoffrey Hartman has a lot to say about this, among others), and
it's very hard for me to see affinities between Blake and Byron, except
when Blake is at his most satiric. (Then again, Byron is often set apart
from the other Romantics, isn't he?)
To me, what defines most if not all the Romantics is a belief in the power
of human imagination to create its own reality. In that regard, Blake
leads the pack. (Steve, where did you find that Keats was aware of Blake?
I didn't know that.)
This is a large and complex question and I'd like to drop back into the
discussion later; in the meantime I have more pressing (but less
interesting) tasks piled up on my desk.
Jennifer Michael
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 12:37:54 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic
Message-Id: <199701152037.MAA23308@dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com>
Dear Steve,
Just to give you a quick-thought reply, as that's all I have time for
now:
In graduate school at Boston College Blake was grouped both with the
Romantics and with eighteenth-centurians in course offerings. This is
often true in anthologies as well--I won't get into a recitation of
titles. I will always think of him as one of the "big six" along with
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, and Shelley, but others more
knoweledgable may perhaps have more to contribute on the subject of his
place in the canon.
S. Reilly
You wrote:
>
>I would be interested in getting opinions as to how Blake fits into
the
>"Romantic Poets" grouping, I know some of the arguments, but I have a
>nagging sense that he stands outside of the group just as Turner who
is
>often grouped with the "Impressionists" stands apart from them.
>
>I know that Blake was definitely aware of Wordsworth, and late in life
>met with Colridige, and apparently Keats was aware of Blake. It
seems
>to me in some senses that Blake stands Wordsworth on his head in his
>views on Nature, and I see Blake's heroes almost antithetical in
>character than those of Byron. Any thoughts.....
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 13:02:26 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: current Blake scholarship
Message-Id: <199701152102.NAA27409@dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com>
Jennifer:
I spoke with Carl Stahmer (who maintains the RC research website) at
NASSR in November. AT that time the plan was to eventually have all the
conference papers go on-line at Romantic Circles. But because not
every paper-giver or panel organizer is familiar with STG or HTML
mark-up language and the process of transmitting texts for electronic
viewing, I don't know where the project stands at the moment.
Bruce Graver established his own website (naturally enough, as his
panel had to do with electronic transmission of text and the like) and
all the papers in his panel appear there. Maybe someone else can list
the website-it doesn't stay bookmarked for me and I'd have to sift
through several pounds of paper to find it again. Papers can,
obviously, be viewed in full and printed from that site. I just went
into RC and tried to print one of the papers (Bill Keach's)
highlighted in green (which I had presumed to indicated a link to the
site somewhere), but after loading several thousand bytes it shut down.
I will send an e-mail message to Carl and see what I can find out about
other links.
You wrote:
>
>The flyer I just got from SUNY Press gives top billing among its new
titles
>to Kathryn Freeman's _Blake's Nostos: Fragmentation and Nondualism in
The
>Four Zoas_. Since I happen to know Kathy, I'm biased in favor of her
book
>before reading it, but I mention it in the context of the current
>discussion.
>
>Incidentally, I think the only NASSR papers on the Romantic Circles
site
>are those from the plenary session and the seminar on electronic
>texts--unless I'm missing a link, in which case I hope someone will
point
>me in the right direction.
>
>Jennifer Michael
>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 14:21:25 -0800
From: Steve Perry
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic
Message-Id: <32DD5865.718E@infogenics.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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J. Michael wrote:
-- SNIP!
(Steve, where did you find that Keats was aware of Blake?
> I didn't know that.)
I had thought it was in the Ackroyd biography, but I just checked and
couldn't find it there. It may be in the Gilchrist biography, but it is
not so well indexed. I have just finished reading both over the last
couple of months and I am afraid the details have not been so carefully
kept in my mind. I simply remember a comment that Keats had mentioned
Blake in passing in a letter. To what extent he knew of Blake's work as
an engraver or author of the earlier public works, or as of a friend or
acquaintance of one of Keat's friends, I don't know.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 18:44:49 +0400
From: dkenny@wow.net (Daniel Kenny)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: pre and post lapsarian blake
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi there,could someone explain to me the pre and post lapsarian elements
in the introductions of both songs of innocence and expierence? I am lost
Daniel
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:15:20 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: pre and post lapsarian blake
Message-Id: <199701160015.QAA22753@dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com>
Daniel,
I can offer very briefly some places for to you to start
investigating and thinking about these 2 opposing states of man and the
world (or as Blake said in his subtitle, "of the Human Soul."
Innocence is portrayed by the images of child, lamb, flower, piper,
shepherd--all edenic images and conventions of pastoral poetry,
anciently used to depict bucolic life. (As it often is in Romantic
poetry, rural or rustic life is equated with a state of edenic
simplicity and innocence or the uncorrupted condition).
Notice in the introduction to experience, however, the use of the words
"lapsed" and "fallen" and the depiction of the world in postlapsarian
darkness. Apparently the stars were thought to be remants of the light
of eternity. Check too, as I did, the introductions to collected works
of Blake such as Johnson and Grant. They can tell you where to look in
Scripture and in other writings for the sources of Blake's allusions
and his cosmology.
You wrote:
>
> Hi there,could someone explain to me the pre and post lapsarian
elements
>in the introductions of both songs of innocence and expierence? I am
lost
>Daniel
>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 08:47:03 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: current Blake scholarship/NASSR papers on-line
Message-Id: <199701161647.IAA09627@dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com>
I received a reply from Carl Stahmer this morning. He explained that
he and his colleagues are running into trouble attempting to put the
NASSR conference papers on-line at the Romantic Circles website,
because the participants are not forwarding their papers to them as
quickly as they would have liked. This, as I have suggested, may well
be due to the fact that many of us still find the process of marking up
e-text a daunting one.
Carl is hoping that the interest in the conference expressed at
albion.com will be a spur to paper-givers hoping to see their work on
the net.
S. Reilly
You wrote:
>
>The flyer I just got from SUNY Press gives top billing among its new
titles
>to Kathryn Freeman's _Blake's Nostos: Fragmentation and Nondualism in
The
>Four Zoas_. Since I happen to know Kathy, I'm biased in favor of her
book
>before reading it, but I mention it in the context of the current
>discussion.
>
>Incidentally, I think the only NASSR papers on the Romantic Circles
site
>are those from the plenary session and the seminar on electronic
>texts--unless I'm missing a link, in which case I hope someone will
point
>me in the right direction.
>
>Jennifer Michael
>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 16:48:18 -0000
From: Owen Eden
To: "'Blake, William'"
Subject: England's other anthem
Message-Id: <01BC03CD.19E442E0@pool41.netcom.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
As perhaps everyone knows, the lines from the "Preface" to
Milton that begin, "And did those feet" and end "in England's green
& pleasant Land," constitute an unofficial second anthem in England,
where it is known as "Jerusalem."
I mention this because I read some years ago in a source that I've
forgotten, but which I remember was a full-length work on Blake,
the author's view that this was ironical in the extreme, because in
the "anthem" he was attacking the very things that it is thought
to revere and celebrate.
At the time, I was convinced of the validity of the argument,
but I remember that I found it not too easy to follow. I'd be grateful if
someone could explain this argument -- or contradict it -- or if it is too
well-worn ground point me in the direction of a source that would help.
Owen Eden
ode@netcom.co.uk
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 09:13:36 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: NASSR papers: update
Message-Id: <199701161713.JAA21524@dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com>
Just received another message from Carl that the plenary panel papers
are up at RC on the features page. These papers would have to do with
"Romantic Hybridity" and were presented by Stuart Curran, Theresa
Kelley, Jon Klancher, Tilottama Rajan, and William Keach. The topic
would seem to have some relevance to the recent list discussion of who
and what are where in the R canon.
I did try to pull up Bill Keach's paper the other day, and it seemed to
be loading up to several 10's of 1000's of bytes, but then shut down
with a _string 'Keach' not found_ message, or something like it. So
it's there, but maybe it's just my confounded computer that can't get
at it!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 09:25:09 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: yet once more/Nassr/eureka!
Message-Id: <199701161725.JAA22316@dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com>
I was quickly successful (using the text-only browser of the web) in
pulling up Jon Klancher paper from the RC website under the plenary
panel heading. I may have had problems with loading Keach because his
are moderating comments which head the list.
I promise to shut up now.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 11:30:18 -0600
From: David Medearis
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Message-Id:
I seem to recall reading a letter that Blake wrote in which he talked about
Wordsworth. In this letter, Blake made some pejorative comments about
Wordsworth's poetry.
I think the problem Blake had with Wordsworth ( and I guess this is what
separates him from other romantics as well) was Wordsworth's love of
nature. In his letter, Blake often reveled a fondness for nature, but it
seems to me that Blake associates nature with empiricism; and thus, not
see it as fit art. Even in his own visual art, the emphasis is always on
the human form (or horses), and never on nature itself.
I am no expert, however, so I would look forward to hearing what you
guys think of this.
Thanks
David Medearis
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 14:52:36 -0500
From: Virginia DeMeres
To: blake@albion.com
Cc: vdemers@mailnews.rsad.edu
Subject: Re: Theology vs. psychology -Reply
Message-Id: <32DE8704.5C52@rsad.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I am uncontrollably drawn to comment on Pam's battle with the Urizens
among us. First, it seems to me dangerous to equate any person wholly
with any one spectre or emanation or zoa. Surely we are all mixtures.
I sympathize with the basic urge to see the hyper rational individual as
Urizenic, but not as Urizen!!! I associate Urizen strongly with Lockean
thought, the materialistic and pseudo-objective stance of the absolute
western scientist--as well as with the tyrranical One Way political
thinker--whether Christian, atheist, muslim, left-wing or right-wing.
Rationality, left-brain sequencing, grammar-based logic occupies each of
us to one extent or another and at one time or another in one sphere of
activity or another.(It happens that WITNESS AGAINST THE BEAST which I'm
reading right now seems to point to Locke's thinking as a key antagonist
for Blake--not news to anyone here, I expect.) It is the Urizenic
influence in all things which makes it most difficult to concur in that
prime tenet: Everything which lives is holy.
I am also fascinated by the utter absorption in Blake's system which I
find here. I, who am admittedly a dilletante among connoisseurs, see
him as yet another filter through which to view the world. An
idiosyncratic parsing out of human features and metaphysical /
psychological / theological concepts. At times, he corresponds,
certainly to some other of our vast collection of thinkers here and
there. At others he appears to me isolated in his convictions and
absurd in his conclusions. But I personally believe that his strongest
claim to my attention is his unflinching conviction that THIS matters:
this world, these visions (mundane and otherwise). And further, that
existence is a thoroughly remarkable and divine adventure not to be
overwhelmed by our everyday emergencies and, viewed correctly, including
those emergencies in its very sacred fabric.
Thanks to all of you for a very stimulating experience. I'll probably
just listen again for awhile now. *)* Virginia *)*
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 21:23:47 -0600
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Message-Id: <97011621234708@wc.stephens.edu>
Blake's comments on Wordsworth's poetry occur primarily in the
marginal annotations to his edition of Ww's poems--e.g. "I see in
Wordsworth the Natural Man rising up against the Spiritual Man
Continually & then he is No Poet but a Heathen Philosopher at
Enmity against all true Poetry or Inspiration" and "Natural
Objects always did & now do Weaken deaden & obliterate Imagination
in Me Wordsworth must know that what he Writes Valuable is Not to
be found in Nature Read Michael Angelos Sonnet vol 2
and "Imagination is the Divine Vision not of The World nor of
Man nor from Man as he is a Natural Man but only as he is a
Spiritual Man Imagination has nothing to do with Memory"
These are only a couple of the annotations, but show the
connections with other Blakean statements and no doubt will
prompt further discussion of the Urizen factor.
Tom Dillinghamm
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 10:19:43 +0000
From: timli@controls.eurotherm.co.uk (Tim Linnell)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: England's other anthem
Message-Id: <13945.199701171019@merlot.controls.eurotherm.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>I mention this because I read some years ago in a source that I've
>forgotten, but which I remember was a full-length work on Blake,
>the author's view that this was ironical in the extreme, because in
>the "anthem" he was attacking the very things that it is thought
>to revere and celebrate.
>At the time, I was convinced of the validity of the argument,
>but I remember that I found it not too easy to follow. I'd be grateful if
>someone could explain this argument -- or contradict it -- or if it is too
>well-worn ground point me in the direction of a source that would help.
I must admit that I'd always thought this was what Blake meant, to the point
where I'd recently started to think that I must be looking at it too
simplistically. To summarise what I thought (I'm quoting from rather shaky
memory, apologies for errors in the text):
Question: "and did those feet, in ancient times, walk upon Englands
pastures green?, and was the holy lamb of god, in Englands
pleasant valleys seen?'
Implied Answer: "No, however rooted in the tradition of the country the
Church seems to be, it is an English invention and has not
been visited by the holy spirit"
Therefore: "I will work to create Jerusalem by spreading the true word of
Christ, overturning the established church".
And I always thought it highly amusing to watch it being sung in the very
establishments it's having a pop at. It's a great tune though.
Tim
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 05:33:01 -0800
From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Message-Id: <199701171333.FAA11689@dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com>
(Okay, okay, so I broke my promise)...
No one else has responded to David's excellent comments and queries, so
I was prompted to look for references by Blake to Wordsworth's poetry.
Johnson & Grant came once again to the rescue (I think theirs is the
best annotated edition of Blake available). They offer selections from
Blake's marginalia, with several on Wordsworth's _The Excursion," and
_Poems: Including Lyrical Ballads_.
Of _The Excursion_ Blake commented that he could not be brought "down
to believe" in the "fitting & fitted"ness of the
individual Mind... to the external World (Wordsworth, Prospectus to
_The Excursion_, 62,64).
Henry Crabb Robinson noted in his diary that Blake both delighted in
and reproached WW's poetry, and that Blake disdained especially
Wordsworth's "imputed worship of Nature---which in the mind of Blake
constituted Atheism" (HCR DIary 1826 entry on the 24 Dec 1825 visit to
Blake; J&G 499).
Blake's notes to the Poems and Lyrical Ballads Vol. I are very
revealing:
"One power alone makes a Poet---Imagination" which Blake took to be
"The Divine Vision."
"There is no such Thing as Natural Piety Because the Natural Man is at
Enmity with God."
and my two favorites:
I cannot think that Real Poets have any competition. None are greatest
in the Kingdom of Heaven; it is so in Poetry."
"I do not know who wrote these Prefaces; [to the Lyrical Ballads, the
critical apology; remember that LB was (ostensibly) a collaboration
between Coleridge and Wordsworth] they are very miscievious & direct
[sic] contrary to Wordsworth's own Practise."
So Blake takes exception to Wordsworth's pantheism, and I think the two
poets differ as to the degree to which they each privilege experience.
I do think Blake celebrates all Nature, i.e. in the woman's form, (can
you imagine Wordsworth doing that?) but his relationship to the
corporeal in complicated, too, as you suggest, by the potential for
estrangement from the spiritual. Whereas Wordsworth seems to hope
experience will lead him back, via Imagination, to something akin to
the child-like state, Blake seems to view God, Imagination, and
experience quite differently than Wordsworth, and as existing on an
equal plane. Both poets I think, however, are moving in the same
direction with respect to the view of the fallen state of man (the
"unnatural") in that they see experience as a catalyst--one necessary,
one essential--for experiencing the divine state in this world, and not
just in the Redemption of the next (a big shift in thinking, based,
ironically, on the empiricist writings of Locke and others).
You wrote:
>
>I seem to recall reading a letter that Blake wrote in which he talked
about
>Wordsworth. In this letter, Blake made some pejorative comments about
>Wordsworth's poetry.
>
>I think the problem Blake had with Wordsworth ( and I guess this is
what
>separates him from other romantics as well) was Wordsworth's love of
>nature. In his letter, Blake often reveled a fondness for nature, but
it
>seems to me that Blake associates nature with empiricism; and thus,
not
>see it as fit art. Even in his own visual art, the emphasis is always
on
>the human form (or horses), and never on nature itself.
>
>I am no expert, however, so I would look forward to hearing what you
>guys think of this.
>
>Thanks
>
>David Medearis
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 13:08:47 -0600
From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: England's other anthem
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Question: "and did those feet, in ancient times, walk upon Englands
> pastures green?, and was the holy lamb of god, in Englands
> pleasant valleys seen?'
>
>Implied Answer: "No, however rooted in the tradition of the country the
> Church seems to be, it is an English invention and has not
> been visited by the holy spirit"
>
>Therefore: "I will work to create Jerusalem by spreading the true word of
> Christ, overturning the established church".
>
>And I always thought it highly amusing to watch it being sung in the very
>establishments it's having a pop at. It's a great tune though.
>
>Tim
I would modify Tim's reading just slightly, with the answer being "Yes,
Jerusalem was here, but you sure can't recognize it now, with these dark
satanic mills of the established church (and state) that have replaced it."
My support for Jerusalem and the Lamb being in England comes from the
beautiful lyric that prefaces Chapter Two of _Jerusalem_, in which the
fields in and around London "were builded over with pillars of green / And
there Jerusalems pillars stood." In fact, it's Jerusalem who "walks upon
our meadows green," which has led me on occasion to think that it's *her*
feet in the more famous lyric.
Jennifer Michael
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 11:54:21 -0800
From: Steve Perry
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Urizenic world
Message-Id: <32DFD8ED.4039@infogenics.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Actually, vis a vis Pam, turning to the Cabala is valuable when
regarding the character of Urizen. If you view Urizenic as the sepherah
Binah, isolated from the rest of the sepherah you get a good picture of
Urizen, that is, reason acting without the influence, guidance of mercy,
understanding and even will. Certainly the ever stronger
intellectual/spirtual trend in the late 18th and early 19th century
England infused with empiricism and scepticism made the Urizenic loom
particulary large to Blake, and makes Urizen then and now the biggest
enemy towards harmony. However, any of the Zoas or their emanation who
run amuck, it seems to me, could easily become the source of disharmony,
not unlike the Bacchae. The battle of the Zoas plays out on a personal,
even day to day, and historical/cosmic playing field.
Steve Perry
"Did he ho made the Lamb make Thee"
Virginia DeMeres wrote:
>
> I am uncontrollably drawn to comment on Pam's battle with the Urizens
> among us. First, it seems to me dangerous to equate any person wholly
> with any one spectre or emanation or zoa. Surely we are all mixtures.
> I sympathize with the basic urge to see the hyper rational individual as
> Urizenic, but not as Urizen!!! I associate Urizen strongly with Lockean
> thought, the materialistic and pseudo-objective stance of the absolute
> western scientist--as well as with the tyrranical One Way political
> thinker--whether Christian, atheist, muslim, left-wing or right-wing.
> Rationality, left-brain sequencing, grammar-based logic occupies each of
> us to one extent or another and at one time or another in one sphere of
> activity or another.(It happens that WITNESS AGAINST THE BEAST which I'm
> reading right now seems to point to Locke's thinking as a key antagonist
> for Blake--not news to anyone here, I expect.) It is the Urizenic
> influence in all things which makes it most difficult to concur in that
> prime tenet: Everything which lives is holy.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 13:47:25 -0800
From: David Rollison
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake as a Romantic -Reply
Message-Id: <32DFF367.1BB9@marin.cc.ca.us>
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David Medearis wrote:
>
> I seem to recall reading a letter that Blake wrote in which he talked about
> Wordsworth. In this letter, Blake made some pejorative comments about
> Wordsworth's poetry.
>
> I think the problem Blake had with Wordsworth ( and I guess this is what
> separates him from other romantics as well) was Wordsworth's love of
> nature. In his letter, Blake often reveled a fondness for nature, but it
> seems to me that Blake associates nature with empiricism; and thus, not
> see it as fit art. Even in his own visual art, the emphasis is always on
> the human form (or horses), and never on nature itself.
>
> I am no expert, however, so I would look forward to hearing what you
> guys think of this.
>
> Thanks
>
> David Medearis
Blake wrote on his copy of Wordsworth's "Poems 1815:" "I see in
Wordsworth the Natural Man rising up against the Spiritual Man
Continually & then he is No Poet but a Heathen Philosopher at Enmity
against all true Poetry or Inspiration
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 15:02:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Robert Snell
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Unidentified subject!
Message-Id: <199701172302.PAA24219@iberia.it.earthlink.net>
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SET BLAKE DIGEST
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End of blake-d Digest V1997 Issue #3
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