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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
wonderful and interesting. so cool to see how long ago religion was being challenged and ideas of voice/narration were being bent
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
the text which inspired cs lewis to write the great divorce. got a small nugget of prophecy & empire at the end (yummy), otherwise largely what i expected.
I collected some of their proverbs, thinking that as the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the proverbs of Hell show the nature of infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.
3.5
I collected some of their proverbs, thinking that as the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the proverbs of Hell show the nature of infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.
3.5
Blake must have been tripping on peyote and thus wrote what Huxley confirmed, "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
I was expecting to despise this so it actually being enjoyable to someone who isn’t an eighteenth century poetry super fan was a pleasant surprise.
Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.
This book is basically my boy VOMITING FIRE for 27 plates. There are just so many lines, passages and ideas from this that are so influential and more importantly they just HIT. First of all Blake PREFIGURES Hegel's dialectics (not claiming Hegel was influenced by him or got the idea from him just that Blake formulated a similar dynamic BEFORE Hegel). This idea of "progression" or "life" coming out of the tension, the back and forth between contradictions... I MEAN!!! His conception of hell/ Satan as creative energy / action in opposition to Heaven and its restraint, passivity and the call back to Milton's Satan as a Messianic figure (fire emoji) are u kidding?? Like how was he even allowed to write this in the late 18th century? How was this man not imprisoned for aligning himself with and even depicting himself as a DEVIL in opposition to Swedenborg's uptight angel figure?? But also the fact that Blake doesn't fall into the trap of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, he isn't claiming that heaven or good or rules should be fully destroyed but just positions himself as an advocate for the diabolical chaotic creative energy that has been unfairly suppressed in a world where both rigid Christian theological and also rigid, hierarchical sociopolitical frameworks prevail. In fact, when he is laying out how knowledge shall be transmitted from generation to generation the Vipers of Reason (in concert with the eagles of Genius) still play a key role. Which goes right back to Blake's pre-dialectics and his notion that "opposition is true friendship" because it moves life forward. Also really love Blake's notion that sensuality (represented by the Dragon men if we are to continue in the section I alluded to above) is one of the first key pieces in sweeping away the wicked vestigial machinery of overbearing "reason", restraint, control etc. At the end of the day Blake's notion that all life is divine and that God is actually just the divinity found in man is just *muah* and one of many rly surprising ideas given the time and place this text was written in.
The proverbs of hell section is very quotable and memorable, many one-liners from there are fire even on their own (Olga Tokarczuk took full advantage of this in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead), then all of the memorable fancies are great, especially the one where Blake and the Angel show each other what eternal damnation is in store for each of them. I also really enjoyed Blake's recounting the rise of the priesthood as a class. Geoffrey Keynes's introduction and analysis/ commentary throughout was extremely helpful and I highly recommend if you are going to read this that you find a copy with his commentary beside it. He goes into extreme detail, analyzing the illustrations, iconography and the text itself.
That leads me to the next section,,, not only was Blake writing this fire but he was also literally handwriting it and illustrating each page himself, then printing this shit on copper plates???? Then him and his wife hand colored the illustrations. That alone is extremely impressive and the fact that this is basically a handcrafted art book with engraving, illustration, poetry, prose, philosophy, satire etc etc is just crazy to think about.
Speaking of satire, Blake joins the ranks with Marx and Lenin, the ranks of sassy, sarcastic, biting ass writers... and also in both Blake and Marx's case, the ranks of turning on their philosophical mentors and inverting them/ tearing them apart (Blake to Swedenborg and Marx to Hegel respectively). In both cases they owe a ton and use a lot of the philosophical concepts and foundations laid out by their mentors/ predecessors but then turn those foundations on their head in order to reorient them / hijack them to new ends and for new ideological projects. The only thing that's quite sad about Blake or at least this text is how much faith he put into the French and American revolutions to completely demolish and reorganize society. While I think it was principled of him as an Englishman to support the American revolution (a revolution against the imperial machine that he lived within) its still just sad knowing what we know about how France and especially America would go on to become some of the most nightmarish euro-christian colonial empires ever to grace the face of the Earth, how many of the cultural and religious conventions Blake was condemning would just be reinscribed and continue on in the fledgling liberal democracies that would be born out of the revolutions.
Anyway, if you are interested in theology, philosophy, art books, poetry etc you gotta read some Blake.
This book is basically my boy VOMITING FIRE for 27 plates. There are just so many lines, passages and ideas from this that are so influential and more importantly they just HIT. First of all Blake PREFIGURES Hegel's dialectics (not claiming Hegel was influenced by him or got the idea from him just that Blake formulated a similar dynamic BEFORE Hegel). This idea of "progression" or "life" coming out of the tension, the back and forth between contradictions... I MEAN!!! His conception of hell/ Satan as creative energy / action in opposition to Heaven and its restraint, passivity and the call back to Milton's Satan as a Messianic figure (fire emoji) are u kidding?? Like how was he even allowed to write this in the late 18th century? How was this man not imprisoned for aligning himself with and even depicting himself as a DEVIL in opposition to Swedenborg's uptight angel figure?? But also the fact that Blake doesn't fall into the trap of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, he isn't claiming that heaven or good or rules should be fully destroyed but just positions himself as an advocate for the diabolical chaotic creative energy that has been unfairly suppressed in a world where both rigid Christian theological and also rigid, hierarchical sociopolitical frameworks prevail. In fact, when he is laying out how knowledge shall be transmitted from generation to generation the Vipers of Reason (in concert with the eagles of Genius) still play a key role. Which goes right back to Blake's pre-dialectics and his notion that "opposition is true friendship" because it moves life forward. Also really love Blake's notion that sensuality (represented by the Dragon men if we are to continue in the section I alluded to above) is one of the first key pieces in sweeping away the wicked vestigial machinery of overbearing "reason", restraint, control etc. At the end of the day Blake's notion that all life is divine and that God is actually just the divinity found in man is just *muah* and one of many rly surprising ideas given the time and place this text was written in.
The proverbs of hell section is very quotable and memorable, many one-liners from there are fire even on their own (Olga Tokarczuk took full advantage of this in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead), then all of the memorable fancies are great, especially the one where Blake and the Angel show each other what eternal damnation is in store for each of them. I also really enjoyed Blake's recounting the rise of the priesthood as a class. Geoffrey Keynes's introduction and analysis/ commentary throughout was extremely helpful and I highly recommend if you are going to read this that you find a copy with his commentary beside it. He goes into extreme detail, analyzing the illustrations, iconography and the text itself.
That leads me to the next section,,, not only was Blake writing this fire but he was also literally handwriting it and illustrating each page himself, then printing this shit on copper plates???? Then him and his wife hand colored the illustrations. That alone is extremely impressive and the fact that this is basically a handcrafted art book with engraving, illustration, poetry, prose, philosophy, satire etc etc is just crazy to think about.
Speaking of satire, Blake joins the ranks with Marx and Lenin, the ranks of sassy, sarcastic, biting ass writers... and also in both Blake and Marx's case, the ranks of turning on their philosophical mentors and inverting them/ tearing them apart (Blake to Swedenborg and Marx to Hegel respectively). In both cases they owe a ton and use a lot of the philosophical concepts and foundations laid out by their mentors/ predecessors but then turn those foundations on their head in order to reorient them / hijack them to new ends and for new ideological projects. The only thing that's quite sad about Blake or at least this text is how much faith he put into the French and American revolutions to completely demolish and reorganize society. While I think it was principled of him as an Englishman to support the American revolution (a revolution against the imperial machine that he lived within) its still just sad knowing what we know about how France and especially America would go on to become some of the most nightmarish euro-christian colonial empires ever to grace the face of the Earth, how many of the cultural and religious conventions Blake was condemning would just be reinscribed and continue on in the fledgling liberal democracies that would be born out of the revolutions.
Anyway, if you are interested in theology, philosophy, art books, poetry etc you gotta read some Blake.
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fascinating, beautiful, contrary and transcendent. I enjoyed all of it except the racist lines in “A Song of Liberty.”