SeymourVandal
11th June 2015, 04:20
To see the machine in a grain of sand
Hold the ghost within every seed
Remove all the ticks from the back of your hand
With a stone that came out of a weed....
An early Turtle in a truck
Leaves intersections out of luck...
A Grizzly Bear inside a plane
Makes auto-pilots think again..
Canaries carry my twelve-gauge
Black Crows tear webs from every page...
Angry Birds with third-eye phones
Crash all the airborne predator drones...
Piranha school taught me so much
Great White turns red at slightest touch...
A Tiger flies across the sky
Now
Who will catch her in their eye?
- Seymour Vandal
Below is the beginning of William Blake's perceptual bungee cord - "Augeries of Innocence"
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour....
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage...
Begone now Blake - this My page
We learned That phrase at Tender Age...
What's with the random capitals anyway? I mean, if you're going to translate something - at least translate it into English. The Catholic Church does that a lot in their ancient documents, and it serves only to confuse the reader.
Speaking of confusion, the reason I chose the words 'perceptual bungee cord' is because in the beginning of Blake's poem our attention is taken from the whole word down a tiny grain of sand, then back up to heaven, down to a flower, out to the Universe at large, then smack into the sweaty palm of reality. At the end we get stuffed into a clock. Only then do they let us play with the animals.
Blake begins by mentioning 'a world' - not 'the world', merely some non-specific world that we're left to imagine. He does the same thing with the word 'heaven'. He's being non-specific on purpose by saying 'a heaven' instead of simply 'heaven'.
There's only one 'world' that matters to his readers - the one with the animals on it - and anything else is fiction, which means it's not useful intellectually. Similarly, there's only one 'heaven' in the minds of his readers - the one the church described.
Heaven is the word they gave us to imagine a perfect environment, since they had already started to wreck the one we have - you know - the one with the animals. (Dante actually gave us the first pictures of 'hell' - not the church. The fire and brimstone were Dante's graphic version of an imaginary place the church made up to scare us, but never described visually.)
Anyway, the point is - words may be specific or non-specific. The way our perceptive organ really works is probably the most secret subject that matters to everybody, but is never discussed. Trust me - even though he was Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays was just an apprentice - that's why they printed his books.
Certainty, or specificity is one of the most important 'axes' or 'measures' that we use when perceiving real life situations, words on a page, or pictures inside glass computers. The thing about English is - you can often make the same statement in a dozen different ways, and the perspective you employ does more to influence the reader than the subject matter being presented.
The words 'world' and 'heaven' should invoke the same pictures inside everybody's mind, but they don't anymore. Science fiction has a lot to do with that, and it all began with the promotion of dazzling, but intellectually hurtful artwork like Blake's. If we go back far enough - I'll bet 'heaven' and 'the world' were the same place indeed.
By comparing 'the world' and 'heaven' like that, he's separated them in our mind. Even if you thought they were the same place before reading his poem - you'd probably feel like you 'learned something' from this 'great artist's' point of view. This will definitely alter your beliefs about the world - and you won't even know it. That's why Blake's work is so famous, and that's why he's getting Vandalized.
Blake invokes two other elements that can't possibly exist by their very definition. Definitions are tools of measure just like clocks and rulers are. Scientists use the speed of light (time) to measure both time and distance astronomically. Since 'eternity' and 'infinity' are said to exist beyond any tools of measure - they can't, by definition, exist to be measured in the first place. Why would such an incredibly skilled artist use words that have such vague meaning?
Maybe Blake was just dizzy all the time and he wanted to share that with the world at large. Either that, or he was influenced by whomever was signing his pay checks. (Gasp, you say?) Remember - Blake illustrated Dante's 'Divine Comedy' in the late 18th century - 400 years after it was written so, it wasn't a huge gamble for the publisher.
If you think about it this way, you'll see there's nothing special enough about any particular work of art to warrant the respect and trust we so innocently grant them. I should know because I've commissioned scores of them from dozens of artists all over the world.
Creative people paint or write about whatever they 'see', unless they're getting paid for it - then you have to tell them exactly what to do. A truly 'great work' is one that effectively delivers the message intended by its makers, and that means only it's creators can judge the quality of any particular piece.
Before I hire an artist, I look for their own reflection within their artwork. This shows me how they see the world, and that matters more to me than their skill with media or attention to detail. Within this context, the best pictures are always produced by children. (see below)
The reason Blake's work is so hard to understand is because it's supposed to be. Even if fame was granted post-humously, William Blake has been working for money this whole time - not for me and you.
---------
Ps - This is what your 'braintree' looks like. The only reason I know, is because I asked my ten-year old niece what they look like. 'Braintree' is just a word that I made up, but she drew this picture from the world wide well without any other instructions at all, then I stamped that quote by 'Trueman' upon it.
She applied three perspectives to this picture - as they relate to the Human Condition - global, cultural and personal points of view, which is perfect because I always try to do that with my own work. Speaking from the position of creator, co-creator, co-missioner, artist, director or producer, this is a real masterpiece - even without Trueman's contribution.
I could write a whole book about this picture, but I'm already doing that with mainstream artwork, so I wrote a short song instead - in the form of a riddle - just for Project Avalon. It's supposed to sound like the Hunger Games 'Hanging Tree' song: Hang it high in your braintree and then come talk to me....
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n534/jrockwater/9067fc986947f0f42f62a6c1e2a68cd5.jpg
Are you...am I...innocent like me?
My brain stem is bruised in the shade of mystery
Take the time to notice that which is but shouldn't be
'Cause you, and I'm...still innocent like me
Hold the ghost within every seed
Remove all the ticks from the back of your hand
With a stone that came out of a weed....
An early Turtle in a truck
Leaves intersections out of luck...
A Grizzly Bear inside a plane
Makes auto-pilots think again..
Canaries carry my twelve-gauge
Black Crows tear webs from every page...
Angry Birds with third-eye phones
Crash all the airborne predator drones...
Piranha school taught me so much
Great White turns red at slightest touch...
A Tiger flies across the sky
Now
Who will catch her in their eye?
- Seymour Vandal
Below is the beginning of William Blake's perceptual bungee cord - "Augeries of Innocence"
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour....
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage...
Begone now Blake - this My page
We learned That phrase at Tender Age...
What's with the random capitals anyway? I mean, if you're going to translate something - at least translate it into English. The Catholic Church does that a lot in their ancient documents, and it serves only to confuse the reader.
Speaking of confusion, the reason I chose the words 'perceptual bungee cord' is because in the beginning of Blake's poem our attention is taken from the whole word down a tiny grain of sand, then back up to heaven, down to a flower, out to the Universe at large, then smack into the sweaty palm of reality. At the end we get stuffed into a clock. Only then do they let us play with the animals.
Blake begins by mentioning 'a world' - not 'the world', merely some non-specific world that we're left to imagine. He does the same thing with the word 'heaven'. He's being non-specific on purpose by saying 'a heaven' instead of simply 'heaven'.
There's only one 'world' that matters to his readers - the one with the animals on it - and anything else is fiction, which means it's not useful intellectually. Similarly, there's only one 'heaven' in the minds of his readers - the one the church described.
Heaven is the word they gave us to imagine a perfect environment, since they had already started to wreck the one we have - you know - the one with the animals. (Dante actually gave us the first pictures of 'hell' - not the church. The fire and brimstone were Dante's graphic version of an imaginary place the church made up to scare us, but never described visually.)
Anyway, the point is - words may be specific or non-specific. The way our perceptive organ really works is probably the most secret subject that matters to everybody, but is never discussed. Trust me - even though he was Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays was just an apprentice - that's why they printed his books.
Certainty, or specificity is one of the most important 'axes' or 'measures' that we use when perceiving real life situations, words on a page, or pictures inside glass computers. The thing about English is - you can often make the same statement in a dozen different ways, and the perspective you employ does more to influence the reader than the subject matter being presented.
The words 'world' and 'heaven' should invoke the same pictures inside everybody's mind, but they don't anymore. Science fiction has a lot to do with that, and it all began with the promotion of dazzling, but intellectually hurtful artwork like Blake's. If we go back far enough - I'll bet 'heaven' and 'the world' were the same place indeed.
By comparing 'the world' and 'heaven' like that, he's separated them in our mind. Even if you thought they were the same place before reading his poem - you'd probably feel like you 'learned something' from this 'great artist's' point of view. This will definitely alter your beliefs about the world - and you won't even know it. That's why Blake's work is so famous, and that's why he's getting Vandalized.
Blake invokes two other elements that can't possibly exist by their very definition. Definitions are tools of measure just like clocks and rulers are. Scientists use the speed of light (time) to measure both time and distance astronomically. Since 'eternity' and 'infinity' are said to exist beyond any tools of measure - they can't, by definition, exist to be measured in the first place. Why would such an incredibly skilled artist use words that have such vague meaning?
Maybe Blake was just dizzy all the time and he wanted to share that with the world at large. Either that, or he was influenced by whomever was signing his pay checks. (Gasp, you say?) Remember - Blake illustrated Dante's 'Divine Comedy' in the late 18th century - 400 years after it was written so, it wasn't a huge gamble for the publisher.
If you think about it this way, you'll see there's nothing special enough about any particular work of art to warrant the respect and trust we so innocently grant them. I should know because I've commissioned scores of them from dozens of artists all over the world.
Creative people paint or write about whatever they 'see', unless they're getting paid for it - then you have to tell them exactly what to do. A truly 'great work' is one that effectively delivers the message intended by its makers, and that means only it's creators can judge the quality of any particular piece.
Before I hire an artist, I look for their own reflection within their artwork. This shows me how they see the world, and that matters more to me than their skill with media or attention to detail. Within this context, the best pictures are always produced by children. (see below)
The reason Blake's work is so hard to understand is because it's supposed to be. Even if fame was granted post-humously, William Blake has been working for money this whole time - not for me and you.
---------
Ps - This is what your 'braintree' looks like. The only reason I know, is because I asked my ten-year old niece what they look like. 'Braintree' is just a word that I made up, but she drew this picture from the world wide well without any other instructions at all, then I stamped that quote by 'Trueman' upon it.
She applied three perspectives to this picture - as they relate to the Human Condition - global, cultural and personal points of view, which is perfect because I always try to do that with my own work. Speaking from the position of creator, co-creator, co-missioner, artist, director or producer, this is a real masterpiece - even without Trueman's contribution.
I could write a whole book about this picture, but I'm already doing that with mainstream artwork, so I wrote a short song instead - in the form of a riddle - just for Project Avalon. It's supposed to sound like the Hunger Games 'Hanging Tree' song: Hang it high in your braintree and then come talk to me....
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n534/jrockwater/9067fc986947f0f42f62a6c1e2a68cd5.jpg
Are you...am I...innocent like me?
My brain stem is bruised in the shade of mystery
Take the time to notice that which is but shouldn't be
'Cause you, and I'm...still innocent like me