Ginsberg on Blake continues from here
AG: So, “One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.”
How do you take that? We had that before, I think. Didn’t he have that in the “Proverbs of Hell”? Was that one of them?
Student: Yeah.
AG: “One Law for the Lion & Ox is oppression.” Did he already have that? Maybe not.
Students: Yeah.
AG: We’ve already gone through the …
Student: It might be in “Tiriel”
AG: … “Proverbs of Hell”. Pardon me?
Student: It may be in “Tiriel”.
AG: Well, be that as it may. It’s a complicated thing. “One Law for the Lion & the Ox is Oppression.” What do you get out of that? Yeah?
Student: Isn’t it (about) making one law for two different situations?
AG: Yes. Well, “Lion” is what? Fury and power and majesty, “Ox” is domestication and tamed. So, one law for energy and one law for the bounded. One law for producers and one law for the devourers is oppression.
Of course, I always took it, as a kid, as one law for poets and non-poets is oppression! Poets had a right to steal and lie and fuck – and the other people, maybe not. That’s what I thought when I was younger! Or, that’s the way I interpreted that one. Just simply, you know, the poets (or the artists) have got the right, Van Gogh’s got a right to cut off his ear and nobody can criticize, (or something (like that)).
However, basically, what it means again is that rational, analytic, mind – that “one law” – “one law”, a verbal formula trying to cover all cases – is a big mistake. It’ll just make the.. It’ll finally make the rising of energetic revolution into a reptilian monster appearance vision.
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately thirty-six-and-a-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately thirty-seven-and-three-quarter minutes in.