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Did William Blake Know Hebrew? – Forward.com

 

Two of William Blake’s greatest patrons were clergymen in the Church of England, under whose rites he was christened, married and buried. But the British poet and artist did not attend church for the last 40 years of his life, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, and he and his wife, Catherine, were registered as sympathizers at the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church. To further complicate Blake’s faith, “Thou shalt not” is “writ over the door” of the chapel in his 1794 poem “The Garden of Love,” which suggests that he identified faith with censorship.

William Blake, ‘Laocoön’

All Rhodes Lead to God: Blake concurs with Pliny the Elder in saying that “three Rhodians” made the original sculpture. His graffiti-like annotations explain how Laocoön (with backward alef over his head) and sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus fit into Blake’s own cosmic myth.

Further controversy surrounds Blake’s grasp of a particular type of faith: Jewish mysticism. It seems pretty clear that Blake’s art and writing invoke Kabbalah, but scholars debate how Blake accessed the Jewish mystical concepts he quoted. Some argue that the dozen or so Hebrew inscriptions in Blake’s etchings and watercolors show that Blake was fluent in Hebrew. But close analysis of the works, some of which are on exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, reveals that Blake had not even mastered the letter alef. Reading Kabbalah in Hebrew without knowing the first letter of the alef-bet would be as implausible as tackling “Finnegans Wake” with barely a grasp of the English alphabet.

Arguments that Blake knew Hebrew date back to Frederick Tatham, who cared for Catherine after Blake’s death in 1827. In a letter to bookseller Frances Harvey, Tatham said that Blake’s library included “well thumbed” books in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Italian, as well as works by Swedenborg and Christian mystic Jacob Boehme. “His knowledge was immense, his industry beyond parallel,” Tatham wrote.

Modern scholars echo Tatham’s claim. Writing in the journal Modern Philology in 1951, David V. Erdman ascribed “some Hebrew” to Blake, particularly the knowledge that beth-lehem means “house of bread.” “We know that Blake knew a little Hebrew,” Anthony Blunt agreed, writing in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes in 1943, “for he wrote to his brother in 1803 that he was learning the Hebrew alphabet, and his etching of the Laocoön [a copy of the sculpture “Laocoön and His Sons”] bears a few words in Hebrew script.” In his book “The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake (The Davies Group, Publishers, 2000), Thomas J. J. Altizer suggests not only that Blake knew Hebrew, but also that he was self-taught.

But the work that Blunt cites as proof of Blake’s proficiency in Hebrew, “Laocoön” — a circa 1820 print depicting snakes strangling the famous Trojan priest and his two sons — is one of the best pieces of evidence that Blake did not know Hebrew. Writing “malakh Jehovah,” which he translated as “The Angel of the Divine Presence,” Blake inadvertently rotated the alef 90 degrees on its y-axis. He spelled “Lilit” (Lilith) correctly, but he miswrote “Jeshua” (Jesus) with another rotated letter, this time an ayin (the 16th letter).

“Laocoön” does not appear in the Morgan show, but an etching from Blake’s Job series does. In the etching, Blake again wrote “The Angel of the Divine Presence,” but this time he wrote the Hebrew “melekh Jehovah,” which means King Jehovah, rather than malakh (with an alef), the Angel of Jehovah. In “William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job,” S. Foster Damon says that Blake intentionally removed the alef to show that Job was worshipping a false God — mistaking an angel for the king. But could Blake really have known enough Hebrew to distinguish between “melekh” and “malakh,” when he revealed in “Laocoön” that he didn’t even know how to form the letter properly?

Another work at the Morgan, “Job’s Evil Dreams,” features a bearded figure with hooves encircled by a snake. The figure hovers above a reclining man and points with its right index finger to the Ten Commandments. Though Blake wrote out only two of the commandments in full, the inscriptions contain more than a dozen mistakes. One line contains a properly and an improperly formed alef, a further inconsistency suggesting that Blake was copying a language he did not understand.

“Blake did study Hebrew with his one-time patron, William Hayley, but scholars are not agreed about his proficiency in the language,” explained Leslie Tannenbaum, associate professor of English at Ohio State University and author of “Biblical Tradition in William Blake’s Early Prophecies: The Great Code of Art” (Princeton University Press, 1982).

According to Tannenbaum, the late Gerald Bentley, a Blake scholar who taught at Princeton University, implied in a biography that Blake was “fairly fluent” in Hebrew. But Tannenbaum also notes that Sheila A. Spector, whom he describes as “an extremely meticulous scholar and expert on Blake and the Kabbalah,” writes that Blake did not know the biblical language.

In Blake’s preface to the chapter “To the Jews,” from the poem “Jerusalem,” Tannenbaum sees references to the kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon (the primordial man). Blake learned Kabbalah from Swedenborg’s writings on Boehme, who seems to have been influenced by Balthasar Walther, Tannenbaum adds, and Blake also identified with the Avignon Society, which sought science and reason “in such unlikely places as alchemical lore, cabbalistic numerology, mesmerist séances, Swedenborgian spiritualism, and (perhaps most surprising of all) the Scriptures.”

In “Wonders Divine: The Development of Blake’s Kabbalistic Myth” (Bucknell University Press, 2001) Spector, an adjunct associate professor at New York University, agrees that Blake’s kabbalistic sources were Christian rather than Jewish, and English rather than Hebrew. Further, Blake was “unfortunately” influenced by his contemporary Anglo-Israelites, who thought that English derived from Hebrew “and that the language of the Jews was a spurious version in which the rabbis obscured the ‘true Christian’ message to be found in the Bible,” Spector said.

“Under the circumstances, the question of whether or not Blake was fluent in Hebrew misses the point,” she added. “He rejected normative Hebrew in favor of the linguistic gymnastics that re-interpreted words to conform with some eccentric – to be charitable – interpretations that coordinated Hebrew and English, as well as Greek, etymologies to proffer a new interpretation of Scripture.”

Did William Blake Know Hebrew? – Forward.com

Guild Wars 2 – The Races of Tyria

Free Library: December Additions! – Suvudu – Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, and Games

 

We have left November and its tryptophanic turkey behind!

Now it is time to wake up, prepare for the holidays and the New Year, and get our reading priorities in order. After all, if any of you are like me, I fight for every free moment I can to read during the next month. Shopping, friends, family, work, parties—an unending barrage of priorities that prevent me from escaping into fantasy lands or alien societies.

What better way to save a bit of money than begin at the Suvudu Free Library!

The coming of December brings in two new free ebooks to the Free Library! Here they are:

Witches and Vampires. Beware readers! Jim and Charlie know how to write great stories, but Wit’ch Fire and Already Dead kick some serious tale!

Read on for more information!

Wit’ch Fire (The Banned and the Banished, Book One)
Written by James Clemens

On a fateful night five centuries ago, three mages made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.

Fleeing the minions of darkness, Elena is swept toward certain doom—and into the company of unexpected allies. There she forms a band of the hunted and the cursed, the outcasts and the outlaws, to battle the unstoppable forces of evil and rescue a once-glorious empire…

Already Dead (Joe Pitt Series, #1)
Written by Charlie Huston

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan—it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition—the city’s most powerful Clan—and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down… and before the sun comes up.

There you have it! The new additions to the Free Library for the month of December! Will they be enough to hold off the forthcoming lunacy? Time will tell!

Have a safe holiday season! I hope to see many of you on the other side in the new year, and hopefully all reading something great!

Free Library: December Additions! – Suvudu – Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, and Games

Ghost Hunters: Ghosts of the Mark Twain House

The Ghost Hunters investigated the historic Mark Twain House last night.  They managed to “capture” some light anomalies, shadows, and various noises. Sadly, much of the data was lost when their hard drive failed.

The most interesting quotes of the night came from Dustin Pari. “This place even smells like a haunted house.”  I guess that I will have to visit the Mark Twain house just to learn what a haunted house smells like. I wasn’t aware that ghosts had a smell? Amazing the little things that one can learn about the paranormal by watching Ghost Hunters.

Another interesting quote by Dustin was, “They wouldn’t over these, these are antiques.” That was in response to a loud thump. Was Dustin saying that ghosts would not turn over antiques or that the crew would not turn over antiques? I can only imagine that Dustin was talking about crew members and that he couldn’t believe that crew members were over turning antiques to create ghostly sounds. Was this an acknowledgement of hoaxing in the past?

The evening was filled with a lot of , “Did you hear that?” and “What was that?” The show had its usual special effects and dramatic music.

Jason and Grant were able to debunk a moving curtain by noticing a loose board. However; they were unable to debunk a hit on their Flir which looked like a reflection of their own heat signature to me.

All in all, I enjoyed the location. The Mark Twain house looks like a place that I would love to visit.

Hide The Decline – Climategate

Fallout Over "ClimateGate" Data Leak Grows – Taking Liberties – CBS News

 

(AP Photo )

Ripples created by the disclosure of global warming files now being called "ClimateGate" continue to spread, with congressional attention growing and the head of a prominent climate change group stepping aside.
Phil Jones, the head of the Climactic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, said on Tuesday that he will relinquish his post while the U.K. school conducts an investigation into allegations of scientific and professional misconduct.
Jones’ announcement comes as he and his allies, who published some of the foundational data used to support the claim that global warming exists, have been pummeled by waves of criticism. As CBSNews.com reported last week, the leaked files show that prominent scientists were so wedded to theories of man-made global warming that they ridiculed dissenters who asked for copies of their data, plotted how to keep researchers who reached different conclusions from publishing, and concealed apparently buggy computer code from being disclosed under the Freedom of Information law.
The reverberations have extended beyond the campus of the University of East Anglia and the CRU. E-mail messages from Michael Mann, a professor in the meteorology department at Penn State University who has argued that mankind is threatening "entire ecosystems with extinction in the decades ahead if we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates," appeared in the leaked files. Now Penn State has opened an investigation into Mann’s work, and the U.K.’s weather agency has been forced on the defensive as well.
Some mainstream academics working in the area have distanced themselves from Mann, Jones, and other researchers whose correspondence has drawn allegations of impropriety. Aynsley Kellow, a professor at the University of Tasmania who was an expert reviewer for a U.N. global warming report, told ABC Radio there was evidence of a "willingness to manipulate raw data to suit predetermined results, you’ve got a resistance to any notion of transparency, an active resistance to freedom of information requests or quite reasonable requests from scientists to have a look at data so that it can be verified."
Hans von Storch, director of the Director of Institute for Coastal Research who was assailed by Mann in one e-mail message, calls the CRU axis a "cartel" and suggests that Jones and others avoid reviewing papers. A colleague, Eduardo Zorita, went further and said Mann and his allies "should be barred" from future United Nations proceedings and warned that "the scientific debate has been in many instances hijacked to advance other agendas."
With the Copenhagen summit just days away, the leaked files have extruded themselves into the political fray in Washington, D.C. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday that he believes "climate change is happening" and is not "in dispute anymore," while Republican Senator James Inhofe called for "Climategate" hearings.
To be sure, many — perhaps even most — climate scientists still seem to agree that the evidence for global warming is substantial. Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, calls it "overwhelming." Thomas Crowley, professor of geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, told the Washington Post that the CRU-leaked-files episode "reflects badly on the people who are so desperate to discredit global warming." (That would come as a surprise to MIT’s Richard Lindzen, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week stressing the unsettled state of climate science.)
Look for the topic to come up at a previously-scheduled hearing Wednesday morning convened by the U.S. Congress’s select committee on global warming. Two supporters of the theory of man-made global warming — including NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, who has called for immediate government action — are set to testify. Republicans surely have their questions already written down.
The reason the East Anglia data matter is that computer models have been erected upon them, which have been incorporated into governmental and U.N. reports, which in turn have become the basis for actual and proposed government policies. So all this amounts to a prelude: the important questions domestically are whether the Senate approves the cap and trade bill next year and what happens with the EPA’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide. Internationally, the question centers on the fate of the Copenhagen summit.
Even before the massive East Anglia document leak, the odds of an agreement being reached at Copenhagen appear to have been narrowing. Throw in a Fox News report about the U.N. and global governance and some black YouTube humor, and it looks like climate change skeptics have finally found their voice. And scientists and politicians endorsing dramatic limits on economic growth to limit carbon dioxide have been reminded where the burden of proof properly lies.
Update 4:42 p.m. ET: Check out a followup story, titled "Democrats: ‘ClimateGate’ Leak A Non-Scandal," which I wrote this afternoon. It’s about Wednesday’s House committee hearing. Also, I fixed the misspelling of Richard Lindzen’s name, above. (My apologizes to the good professor.)

Fallout Over "ClimateGate" Data Leak Grows – Taking Liberties – CBS News

Chris Matthews calls West Point the “Enemy Camp”

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies Will Be A Miniseries – Books – io9

 

File this under TV movies that will be better than the actual book: Pride and Prejudice And Zombies is being made into a miniseries. Check out the possible concept art.

The book’s Twitter stream announced that they would be adapting Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel for a miniseries.

If you’ve read the book you know that it is literally Pride And Prejudice, almost word for word, with zombies and ninjas shoved in between. Which really sounds perfect for a miniseries or a Syfy original movie. Either way, it’s bound to be fun — or at least, better than the book.

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies Will Be A Miniseries – Books – io9