Help! The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is....

[prophitus_86]

Hey. I'm a freshman in a 300 level lit. class and we are discussing the aforementioned piece of writing. We can't really go into very deeply because of time limitations, but I would really like a deeper understanding of the work. I would really appreciate it if wiser minds than mine would help. Thank you. :crash:

[Jean-Baptiste]

300 level Freshman, eh? How and why did you manage that? I'd like to discuss this work with you, prophitus. I'm quite a fan of it. What sort of things are you concerned about with it? I won't pretend to be an expert, and I haven't learned about it in a formal way, but I've read it several times, and thought about it quite a bit. Perhaps you could start by telling us what you think about it. Welcome to the forums!

[prophitus_86]

Well, I like it a lot. I think that I understand a little bit of it, like how he has in essence created his own mythos by taking what the bible says and instead of reading it literally, he interprets it creatively. He believes that instead of being chained to one school of thought and that it is a virtue to be able to think creatively and perhaps even be able to change your mind. My prof. described it as an Eastern Zen writer (his name escapes me) put it. He said that we should be thinking in a three cornered box. To be able to think so creatively that you can see the "poetic genius" in almost everything. I'm not sure if I am even close in what I am saying, sorry. Oh, and by the way, my first lit. teacher suggested that I take this course, a Dr. Terri Burrous, if you've heard of her. Thanks Jean-Baptiste.

[rintrah]

Your understanding is good. Blake is rejecting religion as a contruct and promoting a new revolutionary spirituality. His determination to upturn old ways of seeing things in order to forge new paths is key here. He wants to cast off the old institutions and initiate a rebirth, and this means that old ways must be reversed. The blithe passive Heaven in which angels are idly passing time clashes with the active Hell, where industry and work give a sense of purpose and energy. This is a reversal - the sympathy is with Satan rather than passive angels. In doing this Blake took up themes initiated by the other great English republican poet Milton, and in Paradise Lost you can almost sympathise with Satan. Blake took this up, and casts Satan as a hero.

[prophitus_86]

Yes, but Blake also disagrees with Milton. He thought that Milton screwed up the other Paradise books, so he kindly rewrote them for him by going into Milton's body through his big toe. He thought that everything after Paradise Lost was kind of boring. Case-in-point, not many people read much Dante after they get done with the Inferno.

[Coelispex]

prophitus 86 said: "I think that I understand a little bit of it, like how he has in essence created his own mythos by taking what the bible says and instead of reading it literally, he interprets it creatively. He believes that instead of being chained to one school of thought and that it is a virtue to be able to think creatively and perhaps even be able to change your mind."

This is a good start on the surface "message" in MHH, but to read MHH as a work with a religious message is, in my opinion, to do Blake injustice. If I may ask you to read it again (the illuminated text, not an all text version) and look at how Blake plays with the "senses" employed in the reading and writing of poetry. Though he throws "Poetic Genius" out there as a sort of sixth sense that allows people to see the hand of God in all things, there is no absolute qualification for it, and if you read the "Memorable Fancy" about Isaiah and Ezekiel, he mocks Ezekiel for lying around in "dung" because he has a "perception of the infinite" or God in all things.

Also reread the top of plate 7, which introduces the Proverbs of Hell. "How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way/ Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five" and compare it to the first "contrary" or "truth" from plate four. "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age."

Look closer at how Blake plays with senses, and also how he uses representation- he could have used a printing press to publish all of his work, but he decided to use an "infernal method" that was extremely difficult, and innovative. Also look at the integration of text and image. Look at some secondary literature if MHH is of great interest to you. "Fearful Symmetry" by Northrop Frye is great, "Blake's Composite Art" by WJT Mitchell is even better. In the area of representation, consider the forms: iconic, symbolic, indexical.

This should give you a "lot" to think about, so I'll leave you with another quote:

"An Angel came to me and said O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career.

I said, perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable."