Tag Archives: Blake

Do Democracy, Mass Education, and Economic Prosperity Weaken God Belief?

Michael Shermer thinks so, and he has some data that supports him. Writing at Scientific American, here he is on democracy and mass education: One factor [in the decline of God belief internationally] is the dramatic spread of democracy around … Continue reading

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What Would It Mean To Live For Eternity?

When you think about it, all you ever really have is the present, which the poet William Blake called “the moving image of eternity.” You recall the past in present memory and you model and anticipate the future in present … Continue reading

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The Heart of Dante Alighieri

If you’ve never read Dante Alighieri, the following is written as an enticement for you to consider doing so. A Key Dante Biographical Data Point Dante was born in Florence in 1265, but he did not die there. In fact, … Continue reading

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Is this code for something?

And I’m getting a “Where’s Waldo” vibe from this music video as well. 

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Tea-Partiers in America Take Note: Marcel Theroux’s Creepy Tea Party in Japan

Marcel Theroux is a novelist and documentary film makers for BBC 4. He does some really interesting work. Here’s a clip from his documentary on Japan (In Search of Wabi Sabi ). I suppose that the clip below depicts some Blakean … Continue reading

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Are You a Romantic or an Enlightenment Rationalist?

What, exactly, is being accessed by Todd here?:

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Santi Tafarella’s Poem, “The Appearance of the Real”

. . . . . . .                                                                                                                                                                 . Beneath a dormant tree in brown eggshell crisp leaves a child found a white branch with a red blossom.                                                                                                                                                        . The branch bent at its middle and the child, to hold … Continue reading

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Something to Think About

An image of the Andromeda Galaxy from a book published in 1899: The Andromeda Galaxy is still there. The person who made its image is long gone. What traces of your actions will still be in this world a hundred years from … Continue reading

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“It is right it should be so”? William Blake and the Problem of Suffering

In the below lines from “Auguries of Innocence” (written in the first decade of the 1800s) William Blake suggests that suffering and joy are necessarily woven together—and are, metaphorically, the clothing of the soul. But why suffering must accompany joy … Continue reading

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Jacob and the angel–or Enkidu and Gilgamesh

The Gilgamesh Epic embodies the tensions between order and wildness, not in the gods Apollo and Dionysus, as Nietzsche claims that the ancient Greeks do, but in the god-like characters of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Gilgamesh is a city-dwelling ruler of a … Continue reading

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Lord Byron’s pro-war poem?

This untitled poem was written by Lord Byron in 1820:   When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home, Let him combat for that of his neighbors; Let him think of the glories of Greece and Rome, … Continue reading

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