Status Updates From Fearful Symmetry: A Study o...

“Such wisdom is based on the fact that imagination creates reality, and as desire is a part of imagination, the world we desire is more real than the world we passively accept.” p27

“Berkeley’s argument was that there is a reality about things apart from our perception of them, and, as all reality is mental, this reality must be an idea in the mind of God.” p30

“…infinite superiority of the distinct perception of things to the attempt of the memory to classify them” p16

“If to be is something else than to be perceived, our perceptions do not acquaint us with reality and we cannot trust them…everything depends on the mental attitude of the experimenter.” p17

“Perception then not of senses, a mental act.” p19

-imaginative mind has realized its own freedom

-literary perspective takes years to develop and cannot be hurried
-formidable bulk of complex symbolic poems known as “prophecies”
-despised obscurity
-writing for poetry enthusiasts
-ignorance of allegorical poetry still almost universal
-must understand how Blake read Bible, Milton
-engraved poems of Blake form a canon; unified scheme with structure
-Locke, Bacon, Newton represent evil
-form=image to him

I have already read chapters 10 and 11, which focus on Blake’s epic poems Milton and Jerusalem. I might as well read the whole book.