William Blake vs. the world
John Higgs (Author)
"A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake. Poet, artist, and visionary, William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. His life passed without recognition and he worked without reward, often mocked, dismissed and misinterpreted. Yet from his ignoble end in a pauper's grave, Blake now occupies a unique position as an artist who unites and attracts people from all corners of society--a rare inclusive symbol of human identity. Blake famously experienced visions, and it is these that shaped his attitude toward politics, sex, religion, society, and art. Thanks to the work of neuroscientists and psychologists, we are now in a better position to understand what was happening inside that remarkable mind and gain a deeper appreciation of his brilliance. His timeless work, we will find, has never been more relevant. In William Blake vs the World we return to a world of riots, revolutions, and radicals; discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s; and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics, and comparative religion. Taking the reader on a wild adventure into unfamiliar territory, John Higgs places the bewildering eccentricities of a most singular artist into fascinating context. And although the journey begins with us trying to understand him, we will ultimately discover that it is Blake who helps us to understand ourselves." --Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2022
First Pegasus Books cloth edition View all formats and editions
Pegasus Books, Ltd., New York, NY, 2022
Biography
x, 390 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9781639361533, 1639361537
1281586462
The end of a golden string
Twofold always
I come to self annihilation
Without contraries is no progression
The tygers of wrath
Conversed not with devils
Once, only imagin'd
Seek love there
Their forms eternal exist
Appeard as one man
Green & pleasant land
When I speak I offend
My wrath did grow
Altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding
In love with the productions of time
The work of the devil
Very weak & an old man feeble & tottering
As a man is, so he sees