Ok, every blog so far that I have commented on has been a positive experience with positive words coming from me; BUT.....this one was so long and confusing and I couldn't make sense of it. So I did not enjoy the reading because I found it confusing. Maybe because I see a glass half full instead of half empty. As I was reading the Proverbs of Hell, I found myself referring each sentence to a proverbs from the Bible that would counter it. For example: "The cut worm forgives the plow" I apply that principle to: forgive others as Jesus forgives us. Another example: "The busy bee has no time for sorrow" I apply the principle to: bless others and you too will be blessed. Love this proverb from Hell: "Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead" I translate that to: pick your battles. Lastly, "the most sublime act is to set another before you" I translate as: put others before yourself.
At the first reading I found this author's ideas crazy but then after reading it again and yet again I kind of liked it. This statement at the very, very beginning: Devil, take away his horns and cackle, and there is the pure animal energy of a child, of such is the kingdom of heaven reminded me immediately of everything starts out as good; and through life one is influenced, taught, and pressured to do things of the bad. Ending with: "at the marriage of heaven and hell, God is best man" tells me even this writer chooses Heaven over Hell.
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I hadn't thought of some of the things that you pointed out. Namely the last two points that you made... But I'm glad that I was able to read them. The part where Blake says that if you take the horns off the devil, you will find just the pure energy of a child, of such is the kingdom of heaven- you bring it back to reality by stating that everything starts out as good, and is influenced by the world. Where as I had read it as Blake trying to tell the reader that God and Satan are similar in that Satan is just pure energy (similar to a child) and God embraces the pure child. And then when you end with your conviction of Blake choosing Heaven over Hell, I had originally thought that he was saying that God was just a player in the union of Heaven and Hell. And that God and Satan were identical. But the fact that he only refers to God is a good point...
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you interpreted William Blake. I wish I knew more from the Bible so that I could use it to correspond with some of the things he wrote. In the last paragraph where you refer to the part of the intoduction "Devil, take away his horns and cackle, and there is the pure animal energy of a child. Of such is the kingdom of heaven", by saying, "everything starts out as good; and through life one is influenced, taught, and pressured to do things of the bad." That is basically what I thought about that but then I went back and reread the paragraph and realized that I think he was saying the devil is a reflection of God and without that wild side, God and the devil are like one, "pure animal energy of a child". I think this introduction is the words of Stephen Mitchell who put the book together but I'm not sure.
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