Allen Ginsberg on William Blake continues from here
Student: There is one thing, though, about this book.
AG: Yeah.
Student: It may sound pedantic, but I think it’s important to realize that Blake wrote the first book of the Four Zoas after he had written a whole chunk of the rest of it.
AG: Uh-huh.
Student: It’s like he saw how unwieldy the system was, especially because he hadn’t given it any reference. There hadn’t been an “eternity” when he first wrote it. And he was trying to write from the point of view of inside the form of a human being who doesn’t have that reference..
AG: Um-hmm.
Student: ..(and (for) form’s sake) And then he decides that can’t be, (because, I mean, this is just one historical anomaly..)
AG: Yeah.
Student: So then he wrote the first book to try to set the rest of it…
AG: To set it as a prefatory outline for the entire….
Student: So he did have a stance …
AG: Uh-huh.
Student: like an inkling of a stance, where he….
AG: Yeah.
Student (2): So….. it’s Urizen talking.
AG: Yes.
Student (2): And Urizen feels threatened by emotion. So he’s going to call it a murderer.
AG: Um-hmm.
Student (2): (Especially when he notices it). Later on, Luvah gets associated with the Druid religion and Blake’s interpretation of it was…
AG: ..Of sacrifice.
Student (2): Sacrificing… Well, the sacramental murder.
AG: Um-hmm.
Student (2): He also…. So I think.. Do you see, when you say.. My answer to the question, how could we say that? – well, there’s two things- one’s that (is that it’s humans saying that)
AG: Yeah.
Student(2): The reason I’m saying that.
AG: Yes.
Student(2): … is that it appears to be the truth.
The other thing is that it’s true enough because Luvah is the (height of this)
AG: I think later on in this chapter, Luvah will represented as at war – literally, going into a state of war.
Student(2): He’s also “pour(ing) the Lances of Urizen from chariots” …
AG: Um-hmm. Is that in this (The Four Zoas)? I think in here we’ll find it. Get to it.
Student (2): Its…
AG: Well, feeling. Lances of feeling.
Student (3): “Arrows of desire”, too.
AG: Yeah.
to be continued
Audio for the above can be heard here beginning at approximately twenty-three-and-three-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately twenty-six minutes in