Good Books » William Blake

Why I cannot (and will not) persist in my attempt to read FINNEGAN’S WAKE

admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Here is a typical “sentence” from James Joyce”s Finnegan’s Wake:

“It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the herreraism of a cabotinesque exploser?”

(Note: I borrow the foregoing excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal article by the superb critic Terry Teachout; the article focuses on modernism in the arts, especially music; the article–as included at Frank Wilson’s blog [Books, Inq.]–coincides with my recent attempt to give Finnegan’s Wake another chance.)

The so-called sentence from Joyce’s novel stands as succinct, unimpeachable evidence in support of my claim that Finnegan’s Wake remains unworthy of any sensible reader’s extended expenditure of time. There are too many books, and life is too short. So, sorry Joyce, I have no more time for your bizarre linguistic contortions.

Now, with Finnegan’s Wake tossed upon the out-the-door rummage pile, it is on to more worthy authors’ works: Flannery O’Connor, William Shakespeare, William Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, Kazuo Ishiguro, A. S. Byatt, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Salman Rushdie, and Eudora Welty (to name only a select few of my favorites from my eclectic shelves) offer plenty to keep me busy for a lifetime. Therefore, goodbye, Finnegan’s Wake.

Muses, Madmen, and Prophets – A Review

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:02:00 +0000

Muses, Madmen, and Prophets by Daniel B. Smith



Let’s begin with Socrates, Muhammad, William Blake, and Teresa of Ávila, just to name a few significant people from a potential list of perhaps millions. They seem like an unlikely grouping of personalities. What do they have in common with each other? They heard voices. These were not corporeal voices from friends, acquaintances, enemies, or others, but they were disembodied voices from – for lack of a better word -elsewhere. The sources and characteristics of the voices as heard by the aforementioned eclectic quartet – and as heard by millions of others throughout history and in our times – is the fascinating subject of Daniel B. Smith’s erudite and entertaining study. Based on considerable research and written with a conversational narrative flair, *Muses, Madmen, and Prophets* is Smith’s persuasive and provocative explanation as to why so many people from so many different backgrounds have experienced – either sporadically or chronically – something that we call auditory hallucinations. Are people who experience auditory hallucinations insane? Are they singular intellects? Are they in touch with a higher power (God)? Or are they besieged by vividly spectral or demonic imaginations? Read Smith’s book and learn that: 1. ‘It is possible to hear voices and lead a normal life. Thousands of people exist who hear voices but never enter psychiatric care – and do not need to.‘ This is reassuring. 2. ‘A high percentage of the population will hear a voice at one time or another in their lives.‘ I can personally vouch for this assertion! 3. ‘Some sane people who heard voices experience great distress merely from the fear of being called ‘crazy.’‘ I would refer you to the previous annotation. 4. ‘Hearing voices can be caused by vigorous prayer, by drugs, or even by profound silence.‘ Ditto! 5. ‘There has always been a conflict between an individual’s desire to interpret voices on a personal level and the dominant orthodoxy of the time. Throughout most of Western history, voices have been interpreted in religious terms. Today, it is considered the primary symptom of schizophrenia.‘ In a 21st century Western world dominated by secularism and science, this is an increasingly disturbing trend. Whatever you may think you already know about auditory hallucinations, prepare yourself to be surprised and edified by Smith’s wonderful book. Engaging and exemplary, *Muses, Madmen, and Prophets* is a powerfully important book. Enjoy!

Review – Muses, Madmen and Prophets

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucinations by Daniel B. Smith

The Penguin Press

ISBN 978-1-59420-110-3

Hardcover

Let’s begin with Socrates, Muhammad, William Blake, and Teresa of Ávila, just to name a few significant people from a potential list of millions. They seem like an unlikely grouping of personalities. What do they have in common with each other?

They heard voices. These were not corporeal voices from friends, acquaintances, enemies, or others, but they were disembodied voices from—for lack of a better word—“elsewhere.”

The sources and characteristics of the voices as heard by the aforementioned eclectic quartet—and as heard by millions of others throughout history and in our times—is the fascinating subject of Daniel B. Smith’s erudite and entertaining new study.

Based on considerable research and written with a conversational narrative flair, Muses, Madmen, and Prophets is Smith’s persuasive and provocative explanation as to why so many people from so many different backgrounds have experienced—either sporadically or chronically—something that we call auditory hallucinations. Are people who experience auditory hallucinations insane? Are they singular intellects? Are they in touch with a higher power (God)? Or are they besieged by vividly spectral or demonic imaginations?

Read Smith’s book and learn that—

1. “It is possible to hear voices and lead a normal life. Thousands of people exist who hear voices but never enter psychiatric care—and do not need to.” [This is reassuring.]

2. “A high percentage of the population will hear a voice at one time or another in their lives.” [I can personally vouch for this assertion!]

3. “Some sane people who heard voices experience great distress merely from the fear of being called ‘crazy.’” [I would refer you to the previous annotation.]

4. “Hearing voices can be caused by vigorous prayer, by drugs, or even by profound silence.” [Ditto!]

5. “There has always been a conflict between an individual’s desire to interpret voices on a personal level and the dominant orthodoxy of the time. Throughout most of Western history, voices have been interpreted in religious terms. Today, it is considered the primary symptom of schizophrenia.” [In a 21^st century Western world dominated by secularism and science, this is an increasingly disturbing trend.]

Whatever you may think you already know about auditory hallucinations, prepare yourself to be surprised and edified by Smith’s wonderful book. Engaging and exemplary, Muses, Madmen, and Prophets is a powerfully important new book. Enjoy!

On the Reading of a Dictionary

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:58:00 +0000

I’m about to embark on one of my strangest reading challenges: a dictionary. This, however, is not your ordinary dictionary. This is instead S. Foster Damon’s extraordinary 1965 publication (as revised in 1988), A BLAKE DICTIONARY: THE IDEAS AND SYMBOLS OF WILLIAM BLAKE.

Functioning as a splendid browser’s guide through the complicated labyrinth of Blake’s poetry, Damon’s dictionary becomes an intriguing labyrinth of its own within which there are thousands of opportunities for redirected, interconnected inquiries and musings. Who knew, for example, that the Lord’s Supper, for Blake, according to Damon, symbolized [nothing more than?] the Brotherhood of Man!

I look forward to seeing the ways in which Damon’s definitions and explanations match up with Blake’s work and the commentaries of my favorite Blake critics: Northrup Frye, David Erdman, and Harold Bloom. [Those critical preferences probably confirm my status as a neo-New Critic, and that would very much annoy my colleagues at the university.]

I am, by the way, combining my dictionary reading with re-readings of Gilchrist’s and Ackroyd’s biographies of Blake. So, I guess this confirms January for me as a “William Blake Month.”

But, that is enough about my curious excursions about which I will comment again from time to time. For now, however, I would very like to hear about your “strangest” reading. Surely someone is taking on something even more peculiar than a dictionary and William Blake.