so-soThis was another slow moving book, but overall it was good. It took a bit to learn the characters, especially with Maggie and Maisie – I think I had to sometimes stop and think for a minute every time one or the other was newly introduced into a scene. The story is mostly from Jem and Maggie‘s points of view. Apparently Philip Astley was also a real person and created the first circus.
pickThis book is well worth the effort. I recommend it for fans of Romantic poetry, 18th century mysticism, philosophy, and psychology. After the first two chapters one can easily skip around and read chapters as isolated essays inspired by Blake‘s art and poetry. Higgs really helped me grasp Blake‘s unique personal mythological characters (hello Urizen). 🧭
pickReread this for my Twitch stream, including having the illustrated plates on the video for viewers. It's always such a wild ride, but this is my first time introducing it to others and seeing what they had to say. We also had fun trying to find all the little figures inside the textual portions of each plate. Lots of mermaids and birds, in addition to the dynamic little people. The Swedenborg burn worked even for non-Blakeans. 💀 🔥
I'm a day late and always a dollar short, but I didn't want to miss a chance to talk about the Romantic poets, especially eternal outsider William Blake. It was this or Keats. I really enjoyed KJ Charles' quoting of him in A Seditious Affair, though most of those are from A Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which is a much wilder ride.
#Naturalitsy #Midwintersolace #Fridaynightshare
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