Good game - can anyone play? To outradical the opponent with illuminating references to Finnegans Wake and adjust readings of Blake to the shifting exigencies of domestic politics between 2010-2012. Perhaps the SWP and the Cambridge English Dept could go halves on the trophy.
----- Original Message -----
From: David Bircumshaw
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2012 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Blake in Cambridge
Third look:
I see the unfortunate servants still have not been corrected to serpents. The relevant passage from Paradise Lost is below, in case it's too much trouble to check. I would have thought an article that derives its righteousness from defending the oppressed might be more considerate to the reputation of one of the most oppressed classes of all, the gone and forsaken generations of skivvies. Some people even went into the workhouse rather than be servants.
I like the Vorticist-free invocations of the Vortex though. Meanwhile, back at Satan's demise:
So having said, a while he stood, expecting
Thir universal shout and high applause [ 505 ]
To fill his eare, when contrary he hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues
A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn; he wonderd, but not long
Had leasure, wondring at himself now more; [ 510 ]
His Visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,
His Armes clung to his Ribs, his Leggs entwining
Each other, till supplanted down he fell
A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vaine: a greater power [ 515 ]
Now rul'd him, punisht in the shape he sin'd,
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss returnd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to Serpents all as accessories [ 520 ]
To his bold Riot: dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the Hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters head and taile,
On 30 June 2012 14:53, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Other than that I must re-read Prometheus Unbound and the Blake prophetic books - the latter I only skimmed through in my twenties as I'm afraid I found them rather turgid but I've become inured to a lot worse since then. While as someone who is neither upper-nor-middle-class, one of those people who are the formerly working class, while yet someone with a tenuous association with poetry, I tend to feel rather uncomfortable when assertions are made about what 'we' do or do not read, as Ben Watson does.
I certainly incline to the left, although like most of my benighted class I have a certain traditionalist streak, but where literature is concerned I can feel as uneasy with professional lefties as with those from the opposing trenches.
On 30 June 2012 14:22, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Somebody needs to proof-read the transcript again:
"When in the tenth book of Paradise Lost Satan and the rest of Pandemonium’s citizenry are transformed into servants that transformation is registered primarily by the loss of language, communication and thought,"
I know the poor old skivvies weren't always the brightest but that's going a bit far.
On 30 June 2012 12:50, Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Wow - some of you might find the following interesting. Also make sure you follow up the reply.
http://www.unkant.com/2012/06/sean-bonney-critique-of-ben-watsons.html
Cheers
Tim A.
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
