General Introduction
– Some eschatology
– Listener feedback
– A Dante omission
– A dedicated After Virtue episode?
– Jacques Barzun on baseball
– YOLO, tower libraries
– Cain and the Alien series
Poet and Prophet
– Rival powers
– The invisible chains across the Atlantic
– Human goodness and human freedom
– Struggle and benevolence
– Deciphering the mythology
– Blake’s fanfiction
Blake’s Designs
– BlakeArchive.org
– Poem and print
– The self-taught master
– The human body
– Iconography
“The Lamb” and “The Tyger”
– A child’s-eye view
– The catechism in “The Lamb”
– The nudity in the print
– The crap taxidermy of “The Tyger”
– A killing machine
– Who may I say is speaking?
– Are there multiple gods at play here?
The Innocent “Chimney Sweeper”
– Another eschatological vision
– The stain of the work
– Connections to Pilgrim’s Progress
– The opiate of the masses
– A critique of heaven, or a dream of it?
“The Clod and the Pebble”
– Ruling in hell and serving in heaven
– Differences in temperament and environment
– Whose team is Blake on?
– Blake’s modernity
– Romanticism
– Blake and Kierkegaard
Images of God
– The image of virtue
– Back into the tiger
– Image of whom?
– Throwing doubt on pity
Lightning Round
– “The Garden of Love” and organized religion
– The experienced “Chimney Sweeper”
– “Little Girl Lost”
– Blake’s hatred of industrialism reaches its apex
Our theme music this week is Terry Scott Taylor’s “Song of Innocence” from his 1986 album Knowledge and Innocence.
Hello Drs.,
Another great episode. As a fan of Blake, I really enjoyed your take on the poems.
I agree with David, “Ghost of a Flea” is terrifying, though rather than Grendel I always thought it rather demonic, which is close enough, I suppose.
On your point regarding Lewis & Blake, “The Great Divorce” immediately came to mind, which as I understand it is something of a response to “Marriage of Heaven & Hell,” while also channeling Dante. So taking inspiration from Blake, with the goal of subverting him, is certainly not without precedent.
Thanks again for a great show.