Allen Ginsberg on William Blake’s The Four Zoas continues from here
AG (continues reading): “Then Man ascended mourning into the splendors of his palace/ Above him rose a Shadow from his wearied intellect..” – (And it looked good) – “Of living gold, pure, perfect, holy; in white linen pure he hover’d/ A sweet entrancing self delusion..” – (Well, that’s a very shocking thing, because if that’s what Blake is saying about Elohim and about the idea of a.. the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses – the old Jehova-ic, or the old Elohim, God (I think he has some idea of Jehovah’s being a merciful form).
Student: Nobodaddy
AG: Pardon me?
Student: Nobodaddy. I think in the Book of Job…
AG: Nobodaddy. Yes, Nobodaddy. Old Nobodaddy.
Student: In the Book of Job it’s Elihu who first (perceives) God this way…
AG: Is whom?
Student: Elihu?
AG: Elohim.. Elohim.
Student: Elihu?…
AG: Ah. Yes.
Student: (He (Job) can’t imagine he’s done something wrong)
AG: Yeah.
Student: (So) Elihu comes and says, “Well, now you have to.. you can’t measure God, God’s just infinite”. And.. Job says, “Yeah, so show (that to) me..”
AG: Show me….?
Student: Show me my sins.
AG: Yeah.
Student: And then God himself speaks from the whirlwind.
AG: Um-hmm.
Student: To Job. And I suppose (this would be) still a projection, but….
to be continued
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately sixty-and-a-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately sixty-one-and-a-half minutes in