------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 17 Today's Topics: Ideas Re: blake and german idealism? Re: Intro and Feuerbach Re: Intro and Feuerbach for news or is it too late? Re: WEIRD BLAKE SIGHTINGS -- strange language Re: Introduction Re: Introduction Re: Re: blake and german idealism? "divinely inspired" what? Re: Introduction Re: Axiom Mailing List "Unbar the ..." (was: Re: BARD'S VOICE / EARTH'S ANSWER -Reply -Reply -Reply (fwd) -Reply) Re: Intro and Feuerbach Re: "divinely inspired" what? Re: "divinely inspired" what? inspired madman? Inspired Madman? Thanks Re: "divinely inspired" Puppy Dogs Re: "divinely inspired" what? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 21:33:08 -0500 From: wildcelt@p3.net To: blake@albion.com Subject: Ideas Message-Id: <199603130233.VAA12091@p3.net> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Any ideas out there what Blake was trying to tell us with the Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Innocence and Experience and do you think that there is a relationship with the Chimney Sweeper and Holy Thursday. I have just been exposed to Blake and I want to learn more Thanks Leo ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 23:13:17 -0500 From: WaHu@aol.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: blake and german idealism? Message-Id: <960312231317_244687679@emout08.mail.aol.com> Thank you Ralph, for taking my phone message in exactly the spirit it was intended. And remember, the only good didact is an auto-didact. The only thing wrong with autodidacts is they tend to over value literature. Hmmm. Who said that? It falls in the truth with bad intent category. Hugh Walthall wahu@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 21:32:01 -0800 From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Intro and Feuerbach Message-Id: <199603130532.VAA22630@igc4.igc.apc.org> Robert, rarely do I get such inspiration in cyberspace. Your insights and suggestions are most valuable. >The difference between Marx and the poets is that his vision of >reconcilation happens in the real world rather than in the >imagination, and what Doskow, Morton, Paananen, myself, and >possibly you as well recognize, is that Blake, certainly more >than the other poets, aside possibly from early Shelley, can >(and should?) be read as having at least the possibility of real >world manifestations. My view exactly! How uncanny! >Your "thinking in terms of abstract and concrete" is very >similar to what Doskow, Morton, et al., are saying, except that >they (we) might use the terms material and ideal instead. I have nothing against the concept of the material. I just want a convenient way of pointing to what is materialist about an ostensible "idealist" like Blake, or conversely, pinpoint what is idealist about an ostensible materialist. >I believe one of Paananen's main points is to deemphasize the >artificial division between the two I don't understand this point. >Perhaps the scholarship on Blake or Emerson that deals with >Swedenborg might be helpful, and might even lead to some >insights into the Feuerbach connection. I don't understand this point, nor am I familiar with such scholarship. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 09:40:35 -0500 From: grayrobe@pilot.msu.edu (Robert M. Gray, Jr.) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Intro and Feuerbach Message-Id: <199603131440.JAA50029@pilot07.cl.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Ralph et al, Concerning your question about Paananen's argument about the artificial division between the material and ideal, I should probably leave that to him (I notified him of this list, and I believe he joined yesterday), but I'll quickly try to explain. At least with Emerson, Marx, and Lenin, there is a sense (quite explicit in Lenin, although I don't have a reference on me) that the perceived division between the material and the ideal/spiritual is a misperception of bourgeois thought, that they are actually the same thing (you know the Blakean notion of all gods residing in the human breast). To tacitly deny the existence of one or the other misses the point. Have a quick look (if that's possible) at Emerson's NATURE, especially the "Idealism" chapter and the chapters that immediately follow. That might help out a bit. I'll make sure that Vic gets all this so that he can bail me out and clear things up. As for your final question: >>Perhaps the scholarship on Blake or Emerson that deals with >>Swedenborg might be helpful, and might even lead to some >>insights into the Feuerbach connection. > >I don't understand this point, nor am I familiar with such >scholarship. I'm not sure that I understand it either, and I don't know how much "such" scholarship exists; however it is most probable that there is some out there, considering the openly acknowledged influence Swedenborg had on both of them. Like I said, I plan to look into this, probably this summer. I'll get back to you. Thanks, Rob ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 13:57:56 -0500 (EST) From: Morris Eaves To: blake@albion.com Subject: for news or is it too late? Message-Id: <01I2AJD86BC28Y5ACI@db1.cc.rochester.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT At 09:55 AM 3/12/96 -0800, you wrote: >Anyone on the Blake list in the San Diego area can see a small show, "Still >Life (in her vision)," which uses text from Blake in juxtaposition with oil >on canvas still lifes (themselves equally inspired by sixteenth century >Spanish still life painters). The artist, Cheryl Parry, with whom I share >life, has previously done similar work involving Walt Whitman and Rachel >Carson. At the "Next Door" Gallery in Golden Hill through April 10. > > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 96 12:56 CST From: MLGrant@president-po.president.uiowa.edu To: blake@albion.com, Ralph Dumain Subject: Re: WEIRD BLAKE SIGHTINGS -- strange language Message-Id: <199603131900.NAA11913@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> The quatrain in the strange language quoted a few days ago appears to be "The Lilly"; at least the first two lines sound like "The modest Rose puts forth a thorn / The humble sheep a threatning horn." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 16:25:38 -0500 (EST) From: "Ronald M Jou" To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Introduction Message-Id: <199603132125.QAA118238@pilot15.cl.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Length: 375 Hey Florence, I love NY also, but I am sure that you are trying to say that you live there. I am not quite familiar with sunflower. Which collection is it in? I am mostly familiar with Innocence and Experience, and my vision of these is rather narrow. I will find this "Sunflower" and perhaps you can help me to see what Blake did. I thank you for your words. Ron ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 17:13:20 -0500 From: rooney@travel-net.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Introduction Message-Id: <199603132213.RAA05160@travel1.travel-net.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" No you are not the only ones in high school!! i am too! what's a freshmen? it's not a term used in canada. Sunflower is good but i like the clod & the pebble amanda >HEy ronald, >Im a high school freshman,,,, and i beleive that we are nearly the opnly ones >that are still in hoighsschool. >I love in NY, Long island. > do you have a favorite poem by him? Mine is AH! sunflower. >do you know of that one? > w/b > Florence > > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 17:49:14 -0500 From: richard@wmblake.com (Richard Blumberg) To: blake@albion.com Cc: djones@uclink.berkeley.edu, jschwart@freenet.columbus.oh.us Subject: Re: Re: blake and german idealism? Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >... I'm still trying to fight the commonplace notion >that Blake was a divinely inspired madman, whose thoughts are >beyond the realm of systematic understanding of any kind. That's a tough fight to take on. To the average inhabitant of Ulro, divine inspiration _is_ madness; the only way you could convince said Ulronian that Blake was _not_ "a divinely inspired madman" would be to demonstrate that Blake was not, after all, divinely inspired. Rather, you would have it, Blake was just working out a "systematic understanding" of this Real World we share; an uncommonly abstruse system, perhaps, and not always precise and formal, but still a single, coherent system, objectively comparable to other competing systems and capable of exhaustive explication. I don't think you'll convince the average Ulronian, and I don't think that Blake himself would take that rap. I feel the agony of Los's cry, "I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans". And I am convinced, by Northrup Frye and others, and again from the years of reading Blake, that there is coherence in Blake's vision through his life, but I don't see that coherence deriving from a single developing system (at least, not in any sense that preserves some utility in that word, some imputation of completeness, intellectual purpose, logical rigor). Rather, I see the coherence deriving from the distinctive personality that was William Blake from childhood through age; that personality identifies Blake at the center of his every vision no matter where, in time or space, the vision unfolded. Let us define the term "system" loosely, as a set of formally related symbols that map to real world clusters of meaning in ways that reveal the dynamics by which meaning shifts, in the real world. Systems in this sense litter Blake's universe: Orc & Urizen, Druids & Christians, spectres & emanations, the Elect, the Redeemed, and the Reprobate -- each set of symbols is at the core of one system or another, and each system has relevance to the current vision -- to the particular person that Blake is, at the center of that vision, at that point in time, in that place. And there is no doubt that the systems are related in various ways; Orc -> Urthona -> Los is pretty persuasive. But I believe that the idea of a Blake meta-system, that somehow relates all the symbols, from all of Blake's visionary utterances, in a way that reveals meaning that would have remained hidden without it or that clarifies utterances that have hitherto seemed impossibly confused -- that idea, I believe, is a chimera, though it has stimulated some vastly entertaining and otherwise illuminating scholarship. The need of Los to create a system was, above, all, a need to create, a need to respond to Divine Inspiration completely, coherently, and explicitly, at every moment. Secondarily, I read the cry of Los as an acknowledgment that any system that presumes to be comprehensive and complete and objectively true -- so that it may be shifted to "another Man", standing at a different point in space, with his own heart beating out the moments of eternity -- is inevitably enslaving. That took longer than I expected it to. I hope it made some sense. Richard ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 18:20:53 -0600 From: tomdill@womenscol.stephens.edu To: blake@albion.com Subject: "divinely inspired" what? Message-Id: <96031318205366@womenscol.stephens.edu> Would someone be kind enough to supply real citations that would lead us to the sources of "the commonplace notion that Blake was a divinely inspired madman"? Who shares this commonplace notion? Is it all the academic puppy dogs on the list? Show us! What reputable biographer, critic, serious reader whether professional or amateur, degreed or autodidacted, in the 20th century shares this "commonplace notion" and disseminates it? I am mystified by this, since I read widely in Blake studies and I have not seen anyone who has written on Blake in the last 60 yers, at least, who has done anything but dismiss the notion that he was a madman. I suppose I can understand as well as anyone the occasional need to create a straw man or two to join the other bugaboos in one's closet of resentments, but could we please have some substantiation for these repeated allegations? Tom Dillingham (tomdill@womenscol.stephens.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 19:59:41 -0500 From: SaddClown@aol.com To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Introduction Message-Id: <960313195941_167914062@mail02.mail.aol.com> hey ron, The poem ah sunflower is in songs of innocense and experience. here it goes: Ah sunflower! weary of time who countest the steps of the sun; Seeking after that sweet golden clime where the travellers journey is done, Where the youth pined away with desire, And the pale virgin shrouded away in snow; Arise from their graves and aspire where my sun flower wishes to go. u like? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 09:03:16 +0800 (SST) From: LIM WEE CHING To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Axiom Mailing List Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Say....what's this all about? On Tue, 12 Mar 1996 axiom@aloha.net wrote: > If you have received this information by mistake, please let us know and > you'll be quickly removed from the Axiom mailing list. Thank you from > > > > > AXIOM > presents > McKenna/ Novelty: > The Approaching New Millennium, Its Perils and Promise > > TERENCE MCKENNA > A THINK ALONG TOUR > SPRING - 1996 > > > "If only a fraction of McKenna's thought is true, he will someday be > regarded as the Copernicus of consciousness..."--The Village Voice. > > "Terence McKenna, with a quarter of a century of hallucinogens behind him, > has become the Timothy Leary (and much more) of the discreetly psychedelic > 90's."--The NY Times > > "Those who know and enjoy Joseph Campbell's work will almost certainly > appreciate Terence McKenna."--L.A. Weekly > > "Terence McKenna, the only person who has made a serious effort to > objectify the psychedelic experience--and done a good job of it."--Jerry > Garcia > > "An eloquent proposal for recovering something vital...before it's too > late."--Larry Dossey, M.D. > > "Put simply, Terence is a hoot."--Esquire > > > Terence McKenna has been called a prophet, a madman, and the most important > visionary scholar in America. Author Tom Robbins describes him as having > "the ability to let out the waist on the trousers of perception and raise > the hemline of reality." The television program Sightings called him "the > Nostradamus of our time" because he devotes his attention to pondering our > global future and devising alluring exotic scenarios that integrate > time-tested wisdom from the past. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley majoring in > shamanism and a world explorer, McKenna has roamed the jungles of the > Amazon, plunged into the mysterious realms of human consciousness and > brilliantly synthesized his above the edge innovations and speculations. > His unique vision has been disseminated in books like "The Archaic > Revival," interviews with publications such as The New York Times, Playboy, > The San Francisco Chronicle, Omni and Esquire, and trance dance CD's such > as a double platinum release in England with The Shamen. > > > You're invited to join the irreverent chief boo-hoo of the Fractal Cult of > the Unspeakable for a progress report on human fate during his national > Think Along Tour, with stops in NYC, Santa Fe, Boulder and LA. > > With minutes to go before the end of human history psychoactivist Terence > McKenna proposes hard wiring the soul to hot wire the UFO within. The > forward escape into the psychedelic cyberspace of post history is > happening. The ships are leaving soon and are taking no ghosts. Learn how > you are a part of the Great Adventure. > > The approaching new millennium, its perils and promise will be the theme. > We will examine human attitudes toward the Other, discuss Time and its > mysteries, the nature of language and the techniques of ecstasy that have > developed in non-Western societies to navigate to and from invisible > worlds. We will analyze and review the past thousand years with an eye to > trends and opportunities that the future may bring. The role of > hallucinogenic plants will be discussed in depth--their role in shamanism, > and their impact on the general evolution of human cultures and social > forms. We will discuss making reasonable choices about spiritual > development and techniques, and roles we may each play in the proper > unfolding of the post-historical future. Psychedelics, virtual reality, > nanotechnology and the transformative power of magic and language will be > topics for discussion. The aim will be another conjuration of philosophy as > you like it. Join us for a lively exploration of the unfolding drama of > the human family's entry into hyperspace. > > "We are part of a symbiotic relationship with something which disguises > itself as an extra-terrestrial invasion so as not to alarm us." > > During the last twenty-five years Terence McKenna has studied the > ontological foundations of shamanism and the ethno-pharmacology of > spiritual transformation. He has authored Food of the Gods, a study of the > impact of psychotropic plants on human culture and evolution; The Archaic > Revival, a book of essays and conversations; Trialogues at the Edge of the > West, with mathematician Ralph Abraham and British biologist Rupert > Sheldrake; The Invisible Landscape, with brother Dennis McKenna. His > latest book is, True Hallucinations, a narrative of spiritual adventure in > the jungles of the Colombian Amazon. He recently appeared on a number of > CDs and live performances with musical groups such as The Shamen and Zuvuya > in England and Space/Time Continuum in San Francisco. Other titles and CD > releases are also being planned. > > McKenna founded Novelty Theory and co-created the resultant Timewave Zero > computer program based on fractal mathematics. This prophetic work is > receiving growing national attention as time winds in toward Dec. 21, 2012. > During the tour weekends, there are sure to be vigorous explorations of > Timewave Zero, and of an impending transformation of the human world that > will involve everyone. > > > > TOUR SCHEDULE > > NEW YORK CITY > Thursday Evening Think Along - April 25 - Cathedral of St.John the Divine > Synod Hall. 8:00pm > Weekend Gathering - April 27 & 28 - Source of Life Center, > 22 West 34 St. 5th flr. - 10:00am > > SANTA FE > Tuesday Evening Think Along - April 30 - James A. Little Theater - 1060 > Cerrillos Road. 8:00pm > The Santa Fe evening may be considered as part of Rocky Mountain > Gathering. > > ROCKY MOUNTAIN GATHERING > Friday Evening Think Along - May 3 - Flat Iron Theater, Boulder,Colorado - > 8:00pm > Weekend Gathering - May 4 & 5 - Gold Lake Mountain Resort near Ward,CO. > (This place is an outrageous hideaway - lodging & camping available by > calling: 1-800-450-3544) > Days begin-10:00am > > LOS ANGELES - UCLA > Friday Evening Think Along - May 10 - Wadsworth Theater, UCLA - 8:00pm > Weekend Gathering - May 11 & 12 - Franz #1178, UCLA - 10:00am > > > Special Guests with global perspectives and psychedelic poetics are being > invited to join Terence for discursive chats during weekend gatherings - > Keep in touch with AXIOM for updates. > _____________________________________________________________ > > FEES > > Evening Think Alongs - $17.50 advance ($20.00 door) > > Full Weekend Gatherings - $250 ($200 early registration) Includes evening > & weekend. > Early Registration Dates > NYC - $200 by 3/28; $225 by 4/10 > Colorado - $200 by 3/28; $225 by 4/17 > UCLA - $200 by 3/28; $225 by 4/23 > > Confirmations will be mailed or telephoned following receipt of payment. > Additional information will be included where applicable. > > > REGISTRATION FORM > > Check Gathering Place: > NYC ___, Santa Fe ___, Colorado ___, Los Angeles ___ > > Name(s) ________________________________________________ > > Address ________________________________________________ > > City __________________________ State ______ Zip _________ > > Daytime Phone (___) _________ Evening Phone (___) __________ > > Fax (___) ___________ Email ___________ > > Please reserve space for ______ person(s) at $250 or at early registration > fee of $______(see early reg. schedule) per person. This includes Evening > Think Along & Sat./Sun.. > > Please reserve _______ tickets at $17.50 for Evening Think Along only. > > Total Amount Enclosed $_________ > We encourage payment in full for gatherings but accept a 50% deposit. > Cancellations will be given a credit for any future AXIOM event. > > I am paying by: > > ( ) Check (payable to AXIOM) > > ( ) Credit Card (a service charge will be added for payment by credit card) > > Visa _____ MasterCard _____ Discover _____ > > Card No. _________________________________________________ > > Expiration Date ____________ > > Cardholder Signature _____________________________________ > > Mail Registration to: > Axiom, P.O. Box 190, Makawao, HI 96768 > > Telephone: 1-800-76-AXIOM > Fax: 1-808-572-5079 > EMAIL: axiom@aloha.net > http:// www. aloha. net/~axiom/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ******************************************** > > AXIOM > axiom@aloha.net > http://www.aloha.net/~axiom/ > > ******************************************** > > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 22:29:47 -0500 (EST) From: Nelson Hilton To: blake@albion.com Subject: "Unbar the ..." (was: Re: BARD'S VOICE / EARTH'S ANSWER -Reply -Reply -Reply (fwd) -Reply) Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Well, if the stern Bard can be ashamed of his own song in 1793, I imagine one can be ashamed on his behalf in 1794. "Clouds of reason" seems rather more than an instance of `kabbalistic synchronism' as "The Voice of the Ancient Bard" finally pairs with the _SE_ introductory "voice of the Bard" to frame the whole collection (and what, too, about the bars of the oversized harp in that illustration?). Concerning the suggestion that "the bard" echoes "the barred," I would add that a poet Blake avowedly imitates uses the verb form "bard" five times (e.g. _FQ_ 1.8.13.9), as against a single instance of "barred". Nelson Hilton -=- English -=- University of Georgia -=- Athens Was ist Los? "Net of Urizen" or "Jerusalem the Web"? http://virtual.park.uga.edu/~wblake ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 20:15:52 -0800 (PST) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Intro and Feuerbach Message-Id: <199603140415.UAA18734@igc4.igc.apc.org> As it happens, the current issue of AGAINST THE CURRENT (#61, March/April 1996) has an article by Michael Lowy and Robert Sayre on the Romanticism of E.P. Thompson & Raymond Williams (pp. 31-38), which of course links Romanticism with Marxism. Naturally Blake gets mentioned a number of times, along with discussions of William Morris and others. Lowy and Sayre have also published REVOLTE ET MELANCOLIE: LE ROMANTISME A CONTRE-COURANT DE LA MODERNITE (Paris: Payot, 1992). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 20:27:54 -0800 (PST) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: "divinely inspired" what? Message-Id: <199603140427.UAA19692@igc4.igc.apc.org> I forgot: isn;t there one Freudian book onBlake that dismissed him as a psycho? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 20:25:57 -0800 (PST) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: "divinely inspired" what? Message-Id: <199603140425.UAA19546@igc4.igc.apc.org> Simple, Tom. I am not talkiong about any Blake scholarship at all, not a word of it, but popular perceptions, almost never documented, among readers of Blake outside the Blake industry. Naturally all of these instances are anecdotal, but i have experienced enough of them to know the trend. when I talk about fighting it, I mean fighting it among people I have encountered, none of whom are Blake scholars. Doesn't the reception of Blake among the general public -- which in the final analysis is the destination of literature -- matter to you? You've never encountered this reaction among people you know? among other intelelctuals outside of litereary studies? IN this instance I am at one with "the academic puppy dogs" in combatting popular prejudices. I don't have good stats, but the popular prejudice is there. You don;t believe me? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 07:56:13 -0500 (EST) From: "Victor N Paananen" To: blake@albion.com Subject: inspired madman? Message-Id: <199603141256.HAA35679@pilot16.cl.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Length: 351 1On the question of Blake's "madness," the following book is possibly the sort of example that you're looking for: Paul Youngquist, Madness and Blake's Myth. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1989. Youngquist argues that Blake's myth dramatizes Blake's own psychological conflicts. I don't see that in the myth myself. Vic Paananen ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 07:58:20 -0500 (EST) From: "Victor N Paananen" To: blake@albion.com Subject: Inspired Madman? Message-Id: <199603141258.HAA147844@pilot16.cl.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Length: 351 1On the question of Blake's "madness," the following book is possibly the sort of example that you're looking for: Paul Youngquist, Madness and Blake's Myth. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1989. Youngquist argues that Blake's myth dramatizes Blake's own psychological conflicts. I don't see that in the myth myself. Vic Paananen ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 09:32:56 -0500 (EST) From: "Michelle L. Gompf" To: blake@albion.com Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Thanks Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I just wanted to thank everyone who replied with suggestions for my conference paper. You've been very helpful and I'll let you all know how it goes. Michelle ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 09:21:55 -0500 (EST) From: Alexander Gourlay To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: "divinely inspired" Puppy Dogs Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Many dogs of all shapes and sizes still say Blake was nuts as a way of avoiding further thought, and such dogs should be left to lie. But the question of madness seems to me to be legitimate (even if it is finally irrelevant to most other important questions about Blake). Although it hardly constitutes a resurrection of the old canard about madness, Aileen Ward's article about the Blake/Cromek affair in Blake Quarterly (22:3/Winter 88-89) argues that Blake was profoundly delusional about some things in the period after Felpham. G. E. Bentley has stoutly defended Blake's behavior and to some extent his sanity in a subsequent article in Studies in Romanticism (30/1991), and I think Ward is wrong about some important things. Paul (?) Youngquist has published a book and article arguing, as I recall, that much of Blake's work constitutes a struggle against madness, and W. J. T. Mitchell's "Dangerous Blake" of the 1980's is certainly a bit of a nut -- see the festschrift issue for Erdman of SiR (1982) for part of that argument. There are lots of other pieces here and there by more or less capable Blake readers that conclude that at one time or another he was "mad" in some way. I'd say that Blake only weakly embraced quotidian reality -- but as Johnson said when told that Smart was mad because he did not love clean linen, "I have no passion for it." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 09:25:10 -0600 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: "divinely inspired" what? Message-Id: <9603141529.AA10918@uu6.psi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" "Systematic philosopher" and "divinely inspired madman" are not the only possible definitions of Blake. I fear that many of those who concern themselves above all with Blake's "thought," be it mystical or philosophical, end up forgetting or obscuring the fact that he is a poet and artist. As such, his media differ from that of Hegel, Feuerbach, Freud, or (fill in the blank), who did not, as far as I know, write poetry or engrave designs. I do not use the words "poet" and "artist" in order to mystify his work or divorce it from the realm of real life, but frankly, the one course I took in philosophy in college had less to do with real life than all my literature courses. Although I have always read Los's line, "I must create a System, etc." as a defense against chaos and enslavement rather than an affirmation of systems as good in themselves, I would also point out that poetry and painting have their own systems and structures for those who care to investigate them. Having been on this list for about a year and a half, I find it puzzling that we spend more time trying to "fix Blake up with philosophers," or set him up *as* a philosopher, than we do discussing the poetry *as* poetry. If someone hadn't just uploaded the text of "Ah! Sunflower," you'd hardly know this Blake guy wrote poetry. Again, I don't mean to "fetishize," "valorize," or "privilege" poetry over other forms of expression, but we can't get around the fact that Blake wrote all but two of his works primarily in verse, and he clearly saw poetic forms as valuable in themselves. Why the tendency to ignore that? Jennifer Michael (who is perhaps mad, but not divinely inspired) -------------------------------- End of blake-d Digest V1996 Issue #17 *************************************