The last days of William Blake | Hacker News Reader

The last days of William Blake

laphamsquarterly.org

64 pointsdrdee11 comments

William Blake's God was the human imagination, which he called "Jerusalem".

He saw the creation of the "Vegetable" physical world as the fall from this state, which is why he criticised those who thought they could be enlightened through only examining the physical world, which he represented through a characterised Newton.

There is a statue outside of the British Library of Blake's painting of Newton awkwardly--blinkardly-- examining the world at the bottom of the ocean.

His "prophetic" works become more comprehensible if seen in this light. The characters in the poems are parts of the human psyche in conflict; Blake's version of Paradise Lost.

> William Blake's God was the human imagination...

Did he actually say this?

I know little about Blake, but from the few bits I've read, this both strikes me as a plausible interpretation and as something he'd not have been likely to put (or perhaps even to believe) so plainly.

In Blake's "Laocoön":

The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination, that is,/ God himself/ The Divine Body/ } Jesus: we are his Members./ It manifests itself in his Works of Art (In Eternity All is Vision).

Blake took the idea of man made in God's image a lot more seriously--literally--than those of his time, which influenced a lot of his ideas about church politics and sexuality.

For example, by questioning why church could not be held inside an alehouse, where people were warm and in comfort, and by questioning why the church cast sexuality primarily as a sin.

Blake repeats in his poetry that Jesus was the person sent to forgive sin, which would allow humans to once again see the vision of an integrated human made in God's image, which was lost in the Fall.

Blake says Jesus wasn't sent to enforce a moral law that the church promulgated at the time, which only served to keep the human psyche in the divided, fallen, state.

This is an idea that is explored again in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books, where sexuality and maturity is "Dust", which the church in the book sees as the original sin.

Other figures, such as the Spectres, which I read as Blake's experience of depression, which he often lapsed into, especially in his one and only stint outside London, to Felpham, are also transplanted into Pullman's work.

Pullman's work is a really rich development of Blake's ideas, and I think Blake would have been proud.

Interesting. Thanks for elaborating!

Funny to think Blake should have chosen Newton as a symbol of excessive rationalism, given Newton's interest in alchemy. He was also religious, although an antitrinitarian - possibly not relevant to Blake's ideas of the divine.

Anyway, it is also strange to me given that when I worked in a scientific field, I had a poster of 'The Ancient of Days' on my wall. Oh well.

Sounds like the kind of stuff that the Gnostics were getting at, too.

nothing more to add, not much less to dedact, thanks for your concise words.

Bunhill Fields Cemetery is very close to Old Street in London. As well as Blake other notable graves are Thomas Bayes, Daniel Defoe, and John Bunyan.

Similarly, the ghost of Blake can be summoned to answer the mage during Mercury conjunctions, evocations to Tiriel having been called.

Should he bring Bayes with him, banish the spirit immediately.

Blake is a maverick I found partly thanks to Philip Jose Farmer's filching of characters for his entertaining fiction.

For some reason I appreciate him as I do, though diferently, Hieronymus Bosch - another maverick, whose details can be studied for hours.

The Tate Gallery in London has extended into a new South Bank building for Tate Modern, filled with plenty of XX Century cleverness.

Blake is still housed in a out of the way little attic of the original museum, now named Tate Britain. I advise a visit.

One of the coolest, most eccentric, & arguably completely insane professors I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing was a bit of a William Blake cultist. As a matter of fact, I believe he profoundly claimed he was the reincarnation of William. Made a church praising him & everything. Ridiculously talented artist, & I recently found out Steve Buscemi apparently has a private collection of his artwork.

Local to me for some time, he leaves behind a mural at Ohio University & various artworks in random places around the county. He apparently sold an earlier house of his that was completely covered in his magnificent paintings to a friend… who he knew had plans of painting over everything & was surprisingly okay with. Only a few pictures of it exist & it’s extremely sad IMO.

For the curious:

https://woub.org/2018/11/29/but-how-could-he-be-forgotten-lo...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aethelred_Eldridge

https://theoldhouselife.com/2021/09/11/23-acres-golganooza-c... (this is not the earlier house mentioned)

https://aethelredeldridge.com (He has a personal website that I recall being much different than this, but I currently cannot seem to find it)

https://www.ohio.edu/fine-arts/alumni-magazine/aethelred-eld...

https://essexflowers.us/AETHELRED-ELDRIDGE

Edit: I believe this is his personal site…. not sure why it’s down as it hadn’t been too long ago I’d checked it out.

https://web.archive.org/web/2019*/Albionawake.com

(Also, you can pull the site from archive.ph - was going to include here but it’s taking a while)

Anyways, super cool dude. Wish I would’ve gotten to be around him a bit more. If you’re ever feeling lost in life, consider being the reincarnation of William Blake.

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