Allen Ginsberg’s 1979 Naropa class on William Blake’s Book of Los continues and concludes here
AG: How does this all sound? Is this worth doing?
Student: Yeah.
AG: Okay, because see, from now, the next thing is to plunge straight into the Four Zoas which is one hundred pages of this nonsense. And Vala, or the Four Zoas, on page 296, has the added difficulty that it got to be so huge and complex that even Blake couldn’t carry it through and finish it. So he was Los working at his forge – Blake’s mind working on the material – and not being able to get it all together. Having a nervous breakdown, going to trial and court for insulting the king, moving out of London and living in Felpham, trying to get into a pastoral scene, going through big changes in his … what year would that be? Fortieth year? Fifty-seven to ’97. The Four Zoas, 1797, so he’s forty years old, going through menopause, altering. Finally coming to a point of creating one great big huge epic, and not being able to do it. Then continuing with Milton, which is finished and illustrated and colored, and continuing then with Jerusalem, which is also finished. So here we’re going to go into the womb of his mind and see how he worked. There’s lots of notes to read.
I would suggest you really do get copies of the Blake Dictionary and look up the cast of characters. I’ve given you that one-page summary of the Four Zoas (sic), so you can use that to check, but it was a very rough outline and I wouldn’t depend on it. I’d make your own, if I were you. Make your own list of the characters as you look them up. I have a couple extra copies of the Blake Dictionary, so I’ll put those in the library for use there, in case anybody wants to use them.
Student: Is that this library here?
AG: I guess.
Student: Or Pearl Street?
AG: Well, where is it?
Student (2): Pearl Street.
AG: Pearl Street.
Student (3): (Naropa has a) collection.
AG: Well, we may move the Blake collection. Which is easier to get to? Here or Pearl Street for reading?
Student (3): I think this one opens earlier. I’m not sure.
Student (4): It does.
Student: That one….
AG: Okay. I have a whole collection of Blake stuff, so maybe I’ll move it all over here (to Naropa).
Student: (Well, but they’d most likely) lock up your Blake collection over there and (then) you can’t use it.
AG: Well, they can have it on reference. Do do they have reference books here where you can sit and read in here?
Student: Yeah.
AG: Is that alright? Okay, so just don’t nobody steal the books. That’s all. And then we’ll have them all out there and you can consult them when you want. There’s a list of them also, which we’ll have. (to Student) So can you tell George (Banks) [Editorial note – the Naropa librarian of the time] to do that?
Peter Orlovsky: Is there any (way of) finding out.. in the Four Zoas.. it says on page 296.. he quotes some Greek..
Student: It repeats the translation.
AG: Right there.
Peter Orlovsky: Does it?
AG: Right underneath.
Peter Orlovsky: (Oh, I see)
Student: It’s from the Bible.
Peter Orlovsky: Oh, I see.
AG: So, The Four Zoas is called “The torments of Love & Jealousy in The Death and Judgement of Albion the Ancient Man.” Pretty promising. I have a large facsimile copy of his manuscript with a lot of little drawings on it, so I’ll bring that in to be examined.
Student: (That’d be useful – to see the drawings)
AG: It would be nice to have one in the library where people could look at it. I’ll bring mine in. Except I want to read at home, too.
Okay. So be it. Do we have any business to attend to?
Student: Here?
AG: Yeah.
Student: Do you want ( any assistants)?
AG: Oh, yeah. Does anybody have a car that can drive us?
Student: I can.
AG: Oh, okay. And one other thing is could those of you who have automobiles sign up or write down your names and your phone numbers? We have lots of poets coming through town who sometimes need riding around like going to shop or going to the mountains, so if you want company of the poets who are visiting through and have some time and you have an automobile, that might be a good way of being companions. So if you’ve got a car and have time free occasionally, put your phone number down and your name. Do we have a piece of paper here that we can (use). Yeah, on this blank (sheet of paper), on the back. Okay.
Peter Orlovsky: There’s a reading tonight, right?
AG: Oh, yeah, tonight Joe Brainard, Susan Noel, Kenward Elmslie at 7:30, is it?
Student: Eight
Student: It’s at 8.
AG: Eight.
Student: Oh, shit.
AG: When is it?
Student: Eight.
Student: Eight.
Student: Eight or 8:30.
AG: On the posters it said 7:30, but I guess it won’t begin until 8.
Student: Allen, do you think we’ll read about ten pages in class of that?
AG: Well, I would say, we’ve got enough time probably to read it line-by-line, so at least start “Night the First” – the first night of Vala. Start getting into it. So that’ll be the assignment. Vala, Night One.
Student: Excuse me
AG: Page two-nine-six to three-oh-eight
Student: The other day you mentioned a guy named Stephen Schwartz...
AG: Yeah.
Student: … in connection with (poet) Philip Lamantia.
AG: Yeah.
Student: Is he a Surrealist…
Tape and class concludes here