From: blake-d-request@albion.com Sent: Saturday, November 09, 1996 10:21 PM To: blake-d@albion.com Subject: blake-d Digest V1996 #128 ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 128 Today's Topics: departure Broken commandments Bible-quoting Re: Golgonooza Golgonooza Re: Golgonooza Re: Fwd: Halloween Humor Re: "GOD" and Mr Blake? Re: Golgonooza Golgonooza Re: Golgonooza Re: good-bye Re: Golgonooza Re: Golgonooza Golgonooza sublimity sublime acts Brief Introduction Golgonooza Laocoon engraving of 1818 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 11:05:47 EST From: joelmw@juno.com (Joel M Wasinger) To: blake@albion.com Subject: departure Message-Id: <19961108.085737.2463.1.joelmw@juno.com> This is a great list, but I've come to the realization that you all write too much (that's a good thing, by the way; and, despite the volume, a substantial portion of the mail is substantive, thoughtful and creative) for me to keep up and my mail client doesn't have the message-handling features that could make it simple to sort through. I always felt a bit of dismay and regret when someone unsubscribed, so I decided it's at least as important to issue a departure as it is to send an introduction. The nice thing is that, thanks to Seth, I can keep up by reading the archives. And, I'll be back . . . seeya joel ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 96 10:12 CST From: MLGrant@president-po.president.uiowa.edu To: blake@albion.com, jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) Subject: Broken commandments Message-Id: <199611081617.KAA31221@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> This discussion of the Orc-like commandment-breaking behavior of Blake's Jesus in MHH gives me a chance to correct a footnote in our Norton Critical Edition's (the first two errors were pointed out to us several years ago in a letter from a student, Kristin Eager, who was using the text in a course at DePauw university). In footnote 9, page 100, we say: The broken commandments are the fourth (Mark -- SHOULD BE MATTHEW -- 12:2-13, sixth (Matthew 3: -- SHOULD BE 2: -- 16-18), eighth (Luke 9:13; 22:8-14 -- OR PERHAPS BETTER EXAMPLES WOULD HAVE BEEN LUKE 8:3; 10:4-8), ninth (Matthew 27:13-14), and tenth (Matthew 10:9-14). There are so many things we'd do better if we were starting all over! These typos and little goofs are like fleas -- can't seem to get rid of all of them at once -- sorry about that. -- Mary Lynn Johnson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 96 10:41 CST From: MLGrant@president-po.president.uiowa.edu To: blake@albion.com, WaHu@aol.com Subject: Bible-quoting Message-Id: <199611081642.KAA32153@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> I know this is a Blake group, not a Bible group, but the pitfalls of taking evidence from a single passage are similar. In making a point about disapproved-of violence in Blake, as opposed to all-out violence in the Bible and elsewhere, WaHu cites Mark 14:47, where the high priest's servant's ear is just cut off and that's that -- but in Luke 22:51 Jesus "touched his ear, and healed him." This is what keeps the proof-text-seekers busy! -- Mary Lynn ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 11:20:19 -0600 From: rpyoder@ualr.edu (paul yoder) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Hi Giles, Golgonooza is the "spiritual four-fold London" (quoted from memory, I think that's plate 5, line 4? of *Milton*). Have fun. Paul Yoder ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 96 15:18 EST From: "Elisa E. Beshero 814 862-8914" To: blake@albion.com Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: <9611082018.AA27938@uu6.psi.com> Hey, Giles, Well, it's pretty simple: If someone asks you how you're building Golgonooza, you can tell them, "by writing Blake-inspired hymns for people who most likely have never read his work." I, for one, think you're doing a terrific job of slyly bringing people to fourfold vision w/o their knowing it! --Elisa - - The original note follows - - Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 09:47:59 -0500 (EST) To: blake@albion.com From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) Subject: Golgonooza Resent-From: blake@albion.com Reply-To: blake@albion.com Turns out a friend of mine is throwing a cocktail party this weekend - you'll never guess the name of the house. Golgonooza at Frog Level! Straight up! He's quite a celebrated poet hereabouts - most recent book being 'Visions of Dame Kind' published by The Jargon Society. They do great covers. Anyway, if I'm gonna go party with the poets, and not be a total pumpkin, I'm gonna need some stuff on Golgonooza. Somebody help me out here. Tell me from the inside. A few choice soundbites will suffice. Just enough so's I can pass muster when some bearded professor or other asks, "How exactly ARE you building Golgoonaza?" High and lofty ideals about Blakean egalitarianism is one thing, putting your money where your mouth is, is another! There's a fish eggs on biscuit through the post, for the first among you who gives me the jem I'm looking for. Giles ............................................................................... "Is a kerygma possible after Finnegan's Wake? Perhaps only by assuming the posture of a clown can one succeed in obliquely communicating a serious message" (Joseph S. O'Leary, 'The Spipitual Upshot of Ulysses' in An Introduction to Celtic Christianity edited by James P. Mackey.) ............................................................................... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 15:40:12 -0500 From: TomD3456@aol.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: <961108154011_1948650819@emout17.mail.aol.com> Giles- "Terrible, eternal labour!" (looking down and shaking your head wearily) gets my vote for snappiest soundbite (Jerusalem, 12:24), to which you might add, grumbling, "ever building, ever consuming" (Jerusalem, somewhere...). My favorite description of Golgonooza is Jerusalem, plate 12, lines 25-44 ("What are those golden builders doing...?"). There's lots more on the plates following that passage, but it's dense and difficult reading -- not soundbite material. As a final entry for the fish egg prize (ugh!--can I request a different menu?), I'd venture "Ah yes, 'A Painter, A Poet, A Musician, An Architect -- the Man or Woman who is not one of these, is not a Christian,' wot? Would you like to hear a hymn I've been working on?...." (Quote is from B's engraving of the Classical sculpture of Laocoon and his sons being devoured by serpents.) --Tom Devine ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 15:56:18 -0500 (EST) From: "P. Joubert" To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Fwd: Halloween Humor Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Fri, 8 Nov 1996, Leigh A Vrabel wrote: > > Pieter Joubert: > > Although I agree that excluding humor from every aspect of our > academic lives would constitute fragmenting the Eternal Man, I would have > to argue that balance and proportion are still the order of the day. I > enjoy a good laugh more than just about anybody, but there is an > appointed time for everything under the sun (shameful paraphrase of > Ecclesiastes). When one Zoa intrudes into the dominion of another and > tries to usurp its functions, Albion shatters. > I do applaud your effort to incorporate a Blakean twist into the > "Bart-Man"'s intrusion. I suppose I am also a little biased, as I know > Scott fairly well on a professional level...and I assure you that he is a > highly amusing fellow around the office...:) > > Leigh Vrabel > > I don't find your reply biased-- it sounds quite balanced and sincere. And in all seriousness, I'm sure we all feel strongly about our professional workspace (I know I sure do, sometimes!) Pieter Joubert ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 13:46:55 -0800 From: "Joseph W. Murray" To: Subject: Re: "GOD" and Mr Blake? Message-Id: <199611082238.OAA02871@post.everett.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I believe Christ restored the ear to the man whose ear Peter had cut off, according to the Gospel accounts. At the same time he used the opportunity to admonish Peter for his violence and to warn Peter against bearing arms and violence , both of which are hallmarks of all of the governments of man. At the same time he told his disciples that his Kingdom had no similarity to the kingdoms or governments of this world and established that his disciples should have nothing to do with such governments or their disputes, wars and violence. Lilberation theology was about as far from what Christ was preaching as can be imagined. What Christ taught if looked at with an unpredjudiced eye and without preconceptions was eschatological, or what we have come to call apocalyptic. Remember when Jesus was tempted in the Wilderness after his baptism? What did Satan tempt Jesus with? He offered Jesus ALL the kingdoms of the world if he would do an act of worship to him. That being the case scripturally, then who has ownership or control of the world's kingdoms or governments? How can you tempt somebody by offering them something that you cant deliver. Hence Jesus' instructions that his Kingdom is no part of the world. As far as Jesus' statement to his Father when dying, according to prophecy about Jesus in the Hebrew scriptures Jesus was to feel a complete removal of God's spirit in the last moments of his life. Hence Jesus' statement. Anyway, all other statements about Jesus' Father that are made in the Bible never denote anything that would indicate any rebellion against his God. Just as we can take Blake's sayings and writings and fit them to our own inclinations , even more so with the Bible. Anyway- As far as Milton is concerned I cant but recommend again the latest book by Roger Shattuck(just published in Sept of 96) called FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE. And certainly Blake was in reaction/response to the institutionalization of Christianity into Christendom and its literal death-dealing as well as spirit-killing ways. And he was by no means orthodox but heterodox in his writings. The Church in the majority of its forms in Blake's day historically was responsible for most of the bloodshed in Europe and was carrying it over into the New World as well as the Middle East. What is any different today? Blake being a man of conscience and imbued with a deep sense of justice, as well as extremely thoughtful and deep in his thinking, was in revolt against the structures and strictures of Christendom and its denial of Christs teachings. Whether Blake had a unprejudiced and clear understanding of Christs teachings free from the murkiness and corruption which Christendom had cast on them is doubtful. His heart was in the right place tho. BTW Milton was a man intensely involved in the politics of his day and this is reflected throughout Paradise Lost, especially in his portrayal of Satan. Joe Murray aeolian@everett.com ---------- > From: WaHu@aol.com > To: blake@albion.com > Subject: Re: "GOD" and Mr Blake? > Date: Thursday, November 07, 1996 7:10 PM > > In a message dated 96-11-07 14:02:16 EST, you write: > > << When did Jesus, in The Bible, ever challenge his father? >> > > Maybe "Eli,Eli, lama sabathanai?" (Say it in a cadenced chant, like a > football cheer). And of course we know in Paradise Lost that Poppa God lets > junior drive the car. He shows up for the War in Heaven in the Chariot of > Paternal Dietie....a scene straight out of Road Warrior. Kickin some rebel > angel butt. > > What I miss in Blake that is in most every other poet of his scope and > ambition is lots of passages of unselfconscious slaughter and mayhem. And > sex. The sex is wilder and kinkier and stranger in Spenser. And in Milton. > I mean, there is violence in Blake, but some jerk in the background is > always feeling bad about it. > > When Christ's buddy cut off the soldier's ear, Christ didn't offer to glue it > back on.[Mark14:47--just before the appearance of the streaker] > > Blake doesn't believe in God. Belief is always in a fiction. Blake KNOWS > God. I know it snows in Winter. I don't believe it snows in winter. What I > believe in is aliens from other planets. They don't exist, so I have to > believe in them. Maybe they exist, but even at warp speed, Mr. Sulu, they'd > never get here. > > Hugh Walthall wahu@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 17:28:14 -0500 (EST) From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: <199611082228.RAA14347@argus.acpub.duke.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I've ironed a decent shirt. And am all set to sip Brandy Alexanders til the cows come home. But one more question before I launch myself in at the deep end with bearded poets. My moles in the Blake trade tell me there was a jolly fine builder by the name of Aethelred, working on a Golgoonoza construction sometime during the sixties or seventies. Anyone know more about the geezer? How did he set about it? Bricks and mortar? Hymns like myself? Or was he working in detritus? As Sappho said - If you are squeamish, do not prod the beach rubble. Salut! Here's to fishy stuff, poetry in the godhead, and warp factor nine. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 17:56:20 -0500 (EST) From: bouwer To: blake@albion.com Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: <199611082256.RAA03027@host.ott.igs.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am going to take my Bow of burning gold and shoot in the foot any one trying to say what Golgonooza is in eight words or less. Because I do not want to bore the listgroup again, I communicated directly with Giles David my feeling that Blake's Golgonooza and Teilhard de Chardin's Noosphere are one and the same thing: an ever-present construct in the intelligible world, "an envelope of thinking substance" in which we live and move and have our being as surely as we live in the Biosphere. Constructed by the fallen Imagination as a shelter for the fallen emanation of Urthona. Giles, I do not mind caviar. Could you hold the cracker - too messy over the telephone wires. And if I don't win, could you at least call me a Blesspoppet? Gloudina Bouwer ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 20:55:55 -0500 (EST) From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: <199611090155.UAA12368@argus.acpub.duke.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I knew this list could come up trumps. Cheers luvahs. I can now sally forth, scrubbed and confident, to shmooze Golgonooza with the best of them. You'll hear all about it next week of course. I'll do a reccy to find out why the place is called G-za at Frog Level. It's so exciting to be your man on the front line. =20 Incidentally, if anyone even hints that Gloudina isn't 100% worthy of the blesspoppetting I'm about to bestow, they'll answer to me. So here, Gloudina, (your sisterlet at Morris & Morton will be beaming with pride) is your sacrament of grace. Sing it it the bathtub. Raise the rooftop. Raise merry hell. Boldly go where no woman has gone before.=20 SHE BEATS A WING =20 She beats a wing to raise a storm, =09 And gathers all things in; =09 She fires the clay and plays with form, =09 To bear all life within. She moves a star and turns a stone, To make each atom sing. Salt in her kiss, She greets each bone! God savours everything! She reaches out to stretch belief, Embracing birth and death; The rising tide and falling leaf Both dance upon her breath. Each moment tells the ancient tale, In ceaseless dying ebb, And all who dare to raise the veil, Shall see her seamless web! Behold the loom of language fails, =09 For nothing's what it seems; When we admit all God entails, She shimmers like a dream. =09 See in the dark her deep delight, As truth takes us in hand, =09 Yet hear her shout and shed her light, On lies that shame each land. In her one life the whole of life =09 Is floodlit by one flame, Yet we God's children struggle hard To know God by one name. In her, both ends of time shake hands Across one vast domain, Yet God unveils in all ways here And now, her vibrant reign. =09 =A9 1996 Giles David =20 =20 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 22:13:24 -0600 From: "Carrie Ricaud" To: Subject: Re: good-bye Message-Id: <19961109041559.AAA20262@octigon> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am currently studying Blake (among other British poets), and find the comments interesting, but am unable to keep up with the reading - or responding - so would ask that I be removed from the list. Thanks for the insightful comments over the past month, however, and keep up the fantastic exploration of a fantastic mind! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 01:40:55 -0800 From: Steve Perry To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: <328451A7.41FE@infogenics.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I noted at one time or another that Golgonooza has some potentially enlightening etymology: Golgotha -- The "place of the skull" or even the skull. The name in Jerusalem of the hill on which Christ was crucified. Nous -- (as bouwer points out) from consciousness. I like to imagine the ever encrusting and falling man building with, "Terrible, eternal labour" the petrific skull that limits us. To view alas, eternity from the holes of our self imposed limitation. The constricted sockets of our eyes. But it is interesting that Golgotha is the physical place and point in history from whence comes redemption. The nous the source of redemption lies within the walls of the contracting Jerusalem, which is Golgonooza. Steve Perry bouwer wrote: > > I am going to take my Bow of burning gold and shoot > in the foot any one trying to say what Golgonooza is > in eight words or less. > Because I do not want to bore the listgroup again, > I communicated directly with Giles David my feeling > that Blake's Golgonooza and Teilhard de Chardin's > Noosphere are one and the same thing: an ever-present ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 11:04:38 -0600 (CST) From: Suzanne Araas Vesely To: blake@albion.com Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Some remarks about the building of Golgonooza and other places introduces one of my favorite passages: ...every Generated Body in its inward form, Is a garden of delight & a building of magnificence..." _Milton_ I, 26 [28]: 31-32, Erdman _Complete Blake_ 123. Suzanne Araas Vesely ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 14:25:13 -0500 (EST) From: bouwer To: blake@albion.com Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: <199611091925.OAA05449@host.ott.igs.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Steve Perry says: =93But it is interesting that Golgotha is the physical place and point in history from whence comes redemption. The nous the source of redemption lies within the walls of the contracting Jerusalem,=20 which is Golgonooza.=94 Thank you for consenting to think about Golgonooza in other terms than the simplistic explanation for it that was unfortunately fathered, together with some earlier critics, by Northrop Frye. I refuse to see it as a Jerusalem-in-the-making. It demeans the radiance of the coming Jerusalem, and refuses to face the hard task of figuring out what Golgonooza is all about. Surely Blake would not have spent so much time in the description of the building and the structure of Golgonooza, if he did not attach tremendous importance to it. It distresses me that so little Blake criticism is=20 specifically about Golgonooza. Are we not missing breaking a very important code here, if we do not give detailed attention to the place of Golgonooza in the Blake canon, and therefore also in the philosophic implications that flow from it. One is grateful for people like Ault who consented to concentrate on Golgonooza for longer than five minutes. (I cannot agree though with his conclusion that Golgonooza is the repository of archetypes.) I have, however, to disagree with you when you talk of =93the contracting Jerusalem, which is Golgonooza.=94 It again demeans Jerusalem. I agree with you that Golgo- nooza is in the skull, in the brain, in the nous: a vast all-encompassing shared construct in the mind of man that makes it possible for Blake to start thinking of man as one Man (and which makes it possible for a paleonto- logist like Teilhard de Chardin to start thinking of it as a Noosphere): constructed by the fallen Imagination as protection for his fallen emanation, until The Break of=20 Day. Gloudina Bouwer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 16:51:15 -0600 From: "Jeffrey Skoblow" To: blake@albion.com Subject: sublimity Message-Id: <9611092003.AA27113@daisy.ac.siue.edu> The proverb "The most sublime act is to set another before..." has always struck me as problematic (along with all of the other hell proverbs!), and the recent discussion on the list sparks this response. It seems obvious that often Blake intends this as a kind of advice--i.e., go ahead and set others before thee. But it seems equally obvious that this is not blanket advice-- there are times when setting another before yourself is mere mushiness, or something: when imposing yourself upon others is what Blake calls for. Maybe that's not the right way to put it-- but I'm thinking of the angel who flies Blake down to that vision of monkeys eating each other's tails and so on (am I remembering this right?)-- when it would not behoove Blake to set the angel before himself, but to resist instead. Anyway, the point I want to make, or the question I want to raise, is this: what is the value of sublimity here? The proverb doesn't say it is always best to set another before thyself, he says that doing so is the most sublime act-- but maybe the most sublime way isn't always the way to go. If you want sublime action, set another before you. If you want to fly with your own wings, though, you must set yourself first. I'm simplifying here-- my point though is that the proverb is more complicated than it may seem. Jeffrey Skoblow ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 14:51:43 -0600 From: enghhh@showme.missouri.edu (Howard Hinkel) To: blake@albion.com Subject: sublime acts Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Ah, the Proverbs; they open up so much. Another way to think of "The most sublime act is to set another before you" is to read "another" as "another act," thereby putting this proverb in the company of so many things in his works that encourage us to get on with things, with the building of Golgonooza. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 14:55:33 -0600 (CST) From: Arlene Jay Petty To: blake@albion.com Subject: Brief Introduction Message-Id: <199611092055.OAA22770@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu> Content-Type: text Hello, I am a senior at the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee (a returning student after some years outside of academia) taking, among other English courses, an excellent one on William Blake. I decided to subscribe after reading many back issues of discussion from your html site as well as more recent postings from my professor's e-mail file of your group. I found the exchanges on Blake's attitude toward women particularly engaging, and since I am currently writing a paper on the "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" found it quite interesting to read the differing points of view expressed on that subject. I am looking forward to reading more insightful and intelligent postings from this group and thank you for expanding my Blakean experience so far. Hopefully I will be able to contribute a worthy idea or two at some point. In appreciation, Oody Petty ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 17:02:07 -0500 (EST) From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: <199611092202.RAA27187@argus.acpub.duke.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'd like to pop a quick blessing on Jennifer for welcoming untidy raggamuffins such as myself into your community. Every village needs them in order to keep the breeding stock in the manor amused after hours. Seriously though, hats off to the Blake list for welcoming the intellectually differently abled. I use a duke.edu webserver 'cos it's a borrowed computer. I never went to University (became a monk instead) - but I've got vision, a story and reasonable headgear up top and that's what counts. My exploration is as valid as anyone else's. I'm slowly digesting your offerings, and will let you know who wins fish biscuit. The soiree by the way, was a grade A success. I snuck in as many soundbites as possible, actually much easier than anticipated, as we all had Blake characters pinned to our backs. So the whole affair stayed in sharp focus. But I write on another matter. I've hit upon a glitch in my use of Blake viz my own handiwork. I'll be straight up, and shoot from the hip. Saves alot of time. Blake without graffix. There I've said it. The words alone are great for cocktail shmooze and seminar (I'm guessing about the latter) but it's a lot more fun with the pictures. Try imagining Dr Devine's joke about Lacoon without the picture. Doesn't work. Blake knew a thing or two. That's what made him a genius. And be honest, doesn't he get our vote today, because when the chips are down and head hits the hay, we yearn for the magic forests of childhood? Who among you, given half a chance, wouldn't take a torch under the sheets to fly magic carpet and suck gingerbread roof again. Grimm's Fairy Tales. Arabian Nights. D'you rememember how they used to smell? High Mass and nutmeg junket. What a hit! Or Asterix and Tintin if you're younger (You can't have it all in life) Anyway you're ahead of me as usual. And I talked with some of the writers at the Blake do on this. If my hymn's gonna take, it needs the same approach. So here's the scoop. If you've come across Howard Finster, you'll know what I'm talking about. His angel boxes struck us all as the best road to walk down. Plenty of scope for layers with a mirror at the back to suggest 'the veil' and all that. Relatively easy to produce a limited edition (500 or so). I spit on Grub St, so there's no inclination towards a mass market. Unwanted Christmas presents, and all that. It'll all be done in the best possible. Which is where the professors and the scholars you come in. I'm on the look out for serious ideas. It's a serious hymn, so please rule out painted popcorn surrounds along with Pitt as Christ and Depp as Blake, scratch and sniff cards, and other such stuff. Unless you think these can be worked in to say something serious about the times we live in. Of course, the context of the song is now wider than Albion's druidic shores, so pictures of Glastonbury in its present day New Age garb will not push my button either. And once again, you'll find I'm not without a flow of largesse. In this instance I imagine it might be possible to list contributors' names on the back of each box. And if that ain't biscuit... Giles ................................................................................ Let's restore childhood to the godhead - playing on the shoulder of the giant. ................................................................................ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 18:07:56, -0500 From: LVDP51A@prodigy.com ( PAUL SCANLON) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Laocoon engraving of 1818 Message-Id: <199611092307.SAA09162@mime4.prodigy.com> Sorry for raising yet another topic, but I am currently working on connections between Milton's _Samson Agonistes_ and, with your promptings, its connections with Orc. I am currently wondering what connections can be drawn between Blake's perceptions of the artist/revolutionary depicted in Orc and Los, and those witnessed in his 1818 etching of Laocoon. Although I am familiar with the origins of the painting Blake mimicked and added his aphorisms to, I am interested in any references you may be able to direct me to regarding what may have prompted Blake to engrave this painting and whether he intended it to be independent of or combined with his poetry. Are the aphorisms to be used to evaluate Blake's other works? Does God (Laocoon) represent just God or might he represent Albion? Any ideas? -------------------------------- End of blake-d Digest V1996 Issue #128 **************************************