From: blake-d-request@albion.com Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 1996 1:15 PM To: blake-d@albion.com Subject: blake-d Digest V1996 #31 ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 31 Today's Topics: Blake: where to start GOLGONOOZA INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE RE: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE RE: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE golgonooza responses Howdy, y'all! Re: Question: God's Hiddeness and Songs of Experience -Reply -Reply Re: Plato & Milton -Reply Golgonooza Re Los's reunion with Enitharmon Poem Re: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Golgonooza the return theories... Re: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Re: Golgonooza ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 13:35:01 -0500 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Blake: where to start Message-Id: <9604081839.AA04982@uu6.psi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Heather recommends the Songs and Jerusalem. I would add that if Jerusalem seems too daunting (as it does to many of us!), you might want to read some of the shorter prophecies as an intermediate step--not just Europe, America, and Visions of the Daughters of Albion, which get a lot of attention, but also the Books of Urizen, Ahania, and Los. These are a good introduction to Blake's adaptations of Genesis and the story of the fall/creation, as well as introducing the main "characters" of the myth, Urizen, Los, and Fuzon who becomes Orc. When I was an undergraduate doing an honors paper on Blake, I worked my way through these early prophecies and then wrote my paper on the adaptation of those prophecies in The Four Zoas. As for the question (I paraphrase) "what's so great about Blake," you can only answer that for yourself. Jennifer Michael jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 17:05:36 -0400 (EDT) From: izak@igs.net (Izak Bouwer) To: blake@albion.com Subject: GOLGONOOZA Message-Id: <199604082105.RAA16741@host.igs.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Somebody recently asked for suggestions on how to tackle a course on Golgonooza.I think you can do your students no bigger favour than to let them study meticulously the building of Golgonooza as described in Blake's own work, before they are exposed to any of the critics. In my view the building of Golgonooza is central to an understanding of Blake, and to expose them to the sometimes contradictory ideas of most critics on this subject before they have a clear concept of what Blake said, is unfair to your students. Of modern critics Ault's several pages on Golgonooza in "Visionary Physics" is as far as I am concerned the most intensive and honest attempt to grapple with this subject.However, I do not find acceptable Ault's insistence on the archetypal nature of Golgonooza. J.M.Murray's chapter on Golgonooza in "William Blake" (1933) I would consider a must, if only for this single paragraph: "Golgonooza, we know from an isolated instant in Milton.. 'is nam'd Art and Manufacturing by mortal men.' Therefore readers of Blake are familiar, even to weariness, with the equation of the commentaries 'Golgonooza=Art'.In itself, the equation is quite barren..This is an algebraical method, the method of the Ratio." I find suspect all critics that want to convince me that Golgonooza is only Jerusalem-in-the- making.(Unfortunately, numerous critics,and that includes Northrop Frye,must be counted among them.) Eileen Sanzo in "Blake and the City as Paradise" at least does not fall into this trap. However, this is not the definitive work on Golgonooza either. Sanzo, Raine and June Springer have all pointed out the kinship of Blake and Teilhard de Chardin. I would go further and argue that Golgonooza and Teilhard's Noosphere are comparable concepts. Gloudina Bouwer ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 14:04:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Message-Id: <199604082104.OAA04353@igc2.igc.apc.org> I am not an English professor, but I couldn't help being intrigued by the following publication I noticed when leafing through the MLA publications catalog: Gleckner, Robert F.; Greenberg, Mark L. APPROACHES TO TEACHING BLAKE'S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE. 1989. 162 pp. (Approaches to Teaching World Literature) paper, $18. Does anyone have any familiarity with this book? Is it relevant to a researcher as it is to a teacher? What exactly is in the book anyway? Do you think I would gain from having this book? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Apr 1996 18:46:37 -0500 (CDT) From: RPYODER@ualr.edu To: blake@albion.com Subject: RE: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Message-Id: <960408184637.4020a2a9@ualr.edu> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT As a teacher and student of Blake, I find Gleckner and Greenberg's book quite useful, but I'm not sure this will say much in its favor to you, Ralph. Gleckner directed my 1992 dissertation, so I may be biased . . . anyway, the book is divided into Materials and Approaches, with John Grant and Mary Lynn Johnson, and Brian Wilke contributing essays. The Approaches part includes sections "Emphasizing Theory" (Mitchell on image and text, David Simpson on Ideology, ML Johnson on Feminism, and Joseph Viscomi on "Reading, Drawing, Seeing Illuminated Books"), "Addressing Specific Teaching Contexts" (Thomas R. Frosch, Irene Tayler, Jenijoy La Belle, Stephen Cox), "Emphasizing Literary Context and the Idea of Context (Essick, Les Tannenbaum, Philip J. Gallagher, Wallace Jackson) and "Emphasizing Individual Songs" (Brian Wilkie Harold Pagliaro, Thomas A Vogler, Donald Ault). The Works Cited is fairly extensive. Simpson probably addresses your concerns most explicitly, but I can't say what you'll think. Tannenbaum is great on Blake and the Bible, but you may not be interested. It's part of the on-going "Approaches to Teahcing X" series, and is available in paperback. Paul ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 17:46:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Ralph Dumain To: blake@albion.com Subject: RE: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Message-Id: <199604090046.RAA03532@igc2.igc.apc.org> Your summary is very helpful. Thanks a lot! Perhaps Mary Lynn Jonson can put her two cents in also. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 22:19:47 -0500 From: enghhh@showme.missouri.edu (Howard Hinkel) To: blake@albion.com Subject: golgonooza responses Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Gloudina Bouwer, Thank you for your thoughtful response to my questions about Golgonooza. I'm afraid my late-night post was more obscure than it should have been. I quite agree that the building of Golgonooza "is central to an understanding of Blake" and that the best way to come at the subject is through Blake's work. I have found that during the three hours of an evening's seminar,though, perhaps partly from weariness, I and the imaginative and insightful students will sometimes and unexpectedly corner ourselves. When that happens, ravenous Spectres dance in all corners of the room, crying: "By demonstration, man alone can live, and not by faith." Last week it was the Bard's Song; Golgonooza is important enough that I'd like to have thought broadly about it before we run into a wall this week. I, too, have found both Murry and Ault helpful, especially Ault. I had not read Eileen Sanzo's "Blake and the City as Paradise" but will before Wednesday evening. I'd like also to think about your comparison of Teilhard's Noosphere and Golgonooza and I wonder if others find the comparison fruitful. Jonathan Epstein--and thank you. In a couple of days I'll write directly to you. Have you found the Easson and Easson commentary helpful in the work you are doing? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 00:32:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Hodsden To: blake@albion.com Subject: Howdy, y'all! Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Being the good girl that I am, I've decided to introduce myself, as directed in the introductory note to this list. My name is Sara Bontempo (will be Sara Hodsden in a few months). I currently use my fiance's internet account until I complete my Master of Divinity degree and can afford my own account. I live in Louisville, Kentucky with my cat, Marvin. I am excited about this list, although I will probably lurk more than contribute. I am not a Blake expert, as most of you probably are. I am attracted Blake's spirituality. Of course "The Tyger" was my first taste of Blake; after that, I was hooked. I am looking forward to reading the posts of other Blakeheads (is there a slang term for Blake lovers?) and learning from y'all. Pax Christi, Sara ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 10:37:18 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: disora@Sage.EDU Cc: blake@albion.com, kerze@oxy.edu, browne@zeus.sage.edu Subject: Re: Question: God's Hiddeness and Songs of Experience -Reply -Reply Message-Id: Dear Anna, I agree that we are seen by Blake as creating God in our own images - but he saw the `maze of folly' as created by Urizen who mistook the free loves of Eternity for `unnatural consanguinities' and so cast Jerusalem out of Albion's bosom as a `harlot'. Urizen construes the `contraries' necessary to existence as opposites of good and evil and his moral laws constrain the energies natural to man in the name of some higher holiness. Thus, the `maze' is essentially one of false reasoning - which Blake saw the churches of his time as participating in. At least, this is how I construe Blake's themes in his Songs, Notebook and Prophetic Works. Sorry to take so long to reply - have been away from the office over Easter and on recess. Pam van Schaik, Unisa, RSA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 11:22:25 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, tomdill@womenscol.stephens.edu Subject: Re: Plato & Milton -Reply Message-Id: I, too, should like to say that I'm sorry to see Kathleen Raine dismissed with disrespect . Despite perceived weaknesses in her methodology, she sees clearly that Blake's work deals with an entire spectrum of existence from total expansion into God's light in Eternity - to darkness almost to extinction in the dark abyss where our divine human lineaments are contracted into the narrow bounds of the Selfhood. One can read her thick two-volume Blake and Tradition with pleasure because of the clarity of her prose which is not cluttered with jargon. As a student of Blake many years ago, her work gave me the courage to explore further along the road she delineates - and I found most of what she intimates to be borne out by the `minute particulars' of the text. I found her, together with Bernard Blackstone and John Beer to be the least distressing of Blake critics, with most of whom I disagreed vehemently as they seemed to have no coherent vision of Blake who emerged, often, from their analyses as a disjointed, contradictory person. I think it ironical that correct methodology is so often espoused to the detriment of coherent, understandable interpretation. Perhaps this is so because methodology can easily be shown to be flawed, whereas it is far more difficult to say that one disagrees with another's interpretation without appearing to be merely subjective or adducing far more data than the average book review or article can sustain, or seeming to impinge on the other person's democratic right to have their own opinion. Pam van Schaik , Unisa, RSA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 12:15:36 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, enghhh@showme.missouri.edu Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: Haven't time to elaborate much, unfortunately, so will be as concise as possible. I see Golgonooza as a spiritual haven, built by Los in the fallen world, which he hopes will be a haven for all those oppressed by Urizenic vision and by his stern moral restraints on their human energies. Remembering the joys of Jerusalem in Eternity, Los tries to approximate them in the fallen world. He, having reclaimed his female emanation, is best suited to forging forms of beauty in which some of the former divine beauty and `symmetry' of all beings can be restored. These ideas have emerged from my own doctoral research - I didn't find critics exceptionally clear on these issues. The late G. Bateson of Oxford, as I recall, scornfully dismissed Golgonooza as an aspect of Blake's nonsense, if I recall one of his footnotes correctly. Pam van Schaik, Unisa, RSA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 13:21:06 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com, los@wmblake.com Subject: Re Los's reunion with Enitharmon Message-Id: I think that when Los reunites with Enitharmon, he sets in motion the events which will ultimately lead to the `Return' of all of Albion's fallen children to their original divine, human forms in Eternity. In Kabbalah, this has an equivalent in the moment when the fall is reversed and the `Return' made possible. Without his complenatary half, Enitharmon, Los lacks the spiritual completeness to commence the process of `Return'. With Enitharmon's help, he can create forms of beauty, such as he was capable of doing in Eternity where he also worked at his Forge, creating the `Golden Armour' of Scinece and implements to husband the golden `harvest' of eternal Wisdom. Pam van Scahik, Unisa, RSA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 11:47:15 -0400 (AST) From: Chantell L MacPhee To: blake@albion.com Subject: Poem Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT To everyone on the list: I have a favor to ask of everyone. Two professors here, at the University of Prince Edward Island, are retiring. We are hosting a poetry reading, coffeehouse, students (current and past) to attend. I would like to choose a poem for each one. Each professor has been here for about 30 years. Can anyone suggest an appropriate poem for them? The poem does not necessarily have to be written by Blake. I can not write poetry, so I would prefer to read one that captures the influence and dedication these two men have made to literature. Thanks in advance for your help. Chantelle MacPhee chmacphee@upei.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 10:23:08 -0400 (EDT) From: John William Axcelson To: blake@albion.com Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Ralph, The larger question regarding the MLA book is the absence of anything but SONGS from consideration. The MLA has published parallel books on the other five major romantic poets, all of which undertake to help us teach the POETRY (in the case of STC, prose as well). Only Blake's book is restricted to one (albeit complex) work. Perhaps the MLA felt that no one really teaches Blake's prophecies but the people who in fact contributed to the book; still, leaving aside the longer, later prophecies, which are perhaps taught only by Blake specialists, the shorter prophecies cry out for some pedagogical treatment, no? This may tie in with the question raised recently (I believe by Jennifer) about the difficulty of Blake. John Axcelson Assistant Dean Adj. Asst. Prof, English Columbia University jwa2@columbia.edu On Mon, 8 Apr 1996, Ralph Dumain wrote: > I am not an English professor, but I couldn't help being intrigued > by the following publication I noticed when leafing through the > MLA publications catalog: > > Gleckner, Robert F.; Greenberg, Mark L. APPROACHES TO TEACHING > BLAKE'S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE. 1989. 162 pp. > (Approaches to Teaching World Literature) paper, $18. > > Does anyone have any familiarity with this book? Is it relevant > to a researcher as it is to a teacher? What exactly is in the > book anyway? Do you think I would gain from having this book? > > > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 10:35:19 CST From: "Edward Friedlander, M.D." To: blake@albion.com Subject: Golgonooza Message-Id: <227A5706169@ALUM.UHS.EDU> > Haven't time to elaborate much, unfortunately, so will be as concise as > possible. I see Golgonooza as a spiritual haven, built by Los in the fallen > world, which he hopes will be a haven for all those oppressed by > Urizenic vision and by his stern moral restraints on their human energies. > Remembering the joys of Jerusalem in Eternity, Los tries to approximate > them in the fallen world. He, having reclaimed his female emanation, is > best suited to forging forms of beauty in which some of the former divine > beauty and `symmetry' of all beings can be restored. These ideas > have emerged from my own doctoral research - I didn't find critics > exceptionally clear on these issues. The late G. Bateson of Oxford, as I > recall, scornfully dismissed Golgonooza as an aspect of Blake's > nonsense, if I recall one of his footnotes correctly. > Pam van Schaik, Unisa, RSA > Exactly. When Blake, bearing the spirit of Milton in his foot, accompanies Los to the gates of Golgonooza, the Sons of Los have a fit. They've been working on art (Palamabron), revolution (Rintrah), science (Bromion), and social conscience (Theotormon), which they have built into the City of Art, the best we can have in our secular world. Now along comes Blake, who wants to change the very nature of perception, and Milton, who seeks (unknown to the Sons of Los) to correct his errors. Los has "embraced the falling death", but the Sons remain unconvinced. Do we need to become visionaries like Blake, and shatter the familiar world, or do we build Golgonooza, the City of Art, in Time and Space? As a pathologist, I especially enjoy the scene in which Los's family weave human skin for the souls seeking incarnation. Even the developing child is a work of art. It's nice to be part of the list. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 13:29:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Jonathan Epstein To: blake@albion.com Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: the return theories... Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Any thoughts incorporating Nietzsche's idea of the Eternal Return, from Zarathustra? I would be most interested in seeing what ideas there are about this. Jonathan Epstein epstein@dickinson.edu On Tue, 9 Apr 1996, P Van Schaik wrote: > I think that when Los reunites with Enitharmon, he sets in motion the > events which will ultimately lead to the `Return' of all of Albion's fallen > children to their original divine, human forms in Eternity. In Kabbalah, > this has an equivalent in the moment when the fall is reversed and the > `Return' made possible. Without his complenatary half, Enitharmon, Los > lacks the spiritual completeness to commence the process of `Return'. > With Enitharmon's help, he can create forms of beauty, such as he was > capable of doing in Eternity where he also worked at his Forge, creating > the `Golden Armour' of Scinece and implements to husband the golden > `harvest' of eternal Wisdom. > Pam van Scahik, Unisa, RSA > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 13:24:33 -0500 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE -- MLA GUIDE Message-Id: <9604091829.AA17699@uu6.psi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" John Axcelson wrote, > The larger question regarding the MLA book is the absence of >anything but SONGS from consideration. The MLA has published parallel >books on the other five major romantic poets, all of which undertake to >help us teach the POETRY (in the case of STC, prose as well). Only Blake's >book is restricted to one (albeit complex) work. > > Perhaps the MLA felt that no one really teaches Blake's prophecies >but the people who in fact contributed to the book; still, leaving aside the >longer, later prophecies, which are perhaps taught only by Blake >specialists, the shorter prophecies cry out for some pedagogical >treatment, no? I agree--especially since one could argue that a teacher needs more help with, say, The Book of Thel or MHH than with the Songs. As a new instructor, I have found the Approaches series useful, but I have difficulty ascertaining its intended audience: the approaches described by the individual contributors range from techniques appropriate for a lower-level survey to those suited to a graduate seminar. I find them most helpful not as a "how-to" guide but as a sampling of how different people teach the author in question. But to get back to John's point: surely if Wordsworth's poetry can be "covered" in one volume of this series, the same could be done for Blake's. As for Ralph's question (is this book useful for research as well as teaching?): I would give a qualified yes. The section on Resources at the beginning of each volume has an exhaustive bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, supplemented by other media such as slides, recordings, etc., which I don't think are listed in the MLA _English Romantic Poets_ biblio. While most of the essays are directed at specific teaching situations, they are also valuable for their insights into particular poems (even if those insights are often available in the contributors' other publications). For example, Donald Ault's essay "Unreading London" discusses the textual and typographical features of the poem in a way that (to me) is much more accessible than his magnum opus, _Narrative Unbound_. Thomas Vogler's "Hearing the Songs" similarly works with sound and hearing in the introductions to each volume. All the essays are brief, though; they seem intended as starting-points for discussion and investigation rather than definitive statements. I like that approach, even if I don't agree with every mode of reading represented. Jennifer Michael (P.S. If you don't want to buy the book, you can probably find it at a large university library.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 15:07:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Nelson Hilton To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Golgonooza Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Given that the names are all overdetermined, let me ante my $0.02 for (Golgotha/good news) "Golgonooza"'s anagrammatic suggestion of the Greek "logon zooas"--the "living word", as in Philippians 2:16: "Holding forth the word of life [logon zooas]; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." The very title _The Four Zoas_ shows WB thinking about the Greek he's been learning to play with, not to mention the direct quotations in that ms. "Entuthon Benython" is a direct transliteration from Greek, and its "deep Vales [are] beneath Golgonooza" (_J_ 14.34). As such a concept, Golgonooza participates in "the stubborn structure of the Language" (_J_ 36[40].59)--a prefiguration of Heidegger's image that "Language is the house of Being. Man dwells in this house. Those who think [_die Denkenden_] and those who create poetry [_die Dichtenden_] are the custodians of the dwelling" ("Letter on `Humanism'"). Nelson Hilton -=- English -=- University of Georgia -=- Athens Was ist Los? "Net of Urizen" or "Jerusalem the Web"? http://virtual.park.uga.edu/~wblake -------------------------------- End of blake-d Digest V1996 Issue #31 *************************************