Advertising Darwin’s Dreams of Blake (original) (raw)

The Black Company, by Glen Cook – This is a story of an elite mercenary unit in a fantasy land ruled by an evil wizard and his enigmatic wife. It’s told from the point of view of the group’s historian, who has an obsession with the Lady. It’s a pretty easy read, but I found it hard to keep track of all the characters.

Still the Sun, by Charlie M. Holmberg – In a world where the sun stays straight overhead all the time, an engineer named Pelnophe is hired by a mysterious man to fix some machines in a forbidden tower. She also strikes up a romance with another strange and powerful figure, which seems pretty typical for Holmberg’s books. She eventually comes to learn about the world’s past, and how she and other people she knows figured into it. I found it a bit confusing, but maybe that was on purpose. I do wish there’d been some more development of the story’s world.

Operation Chaos, by Poul Anderson – This one is pretty fun, although the worldbuilding was more interesting than the plot. It takes place in an alternate world where not only has magic been scientifically proven, but so have the existence of God, the Devil, and souls. It packs in a lot of different fantastic and often funny elements, with its main hero being a werewolf and his wife a witch. Demons, salamanders, brownies, dragons, and basilisks also show up. Magical household and military devices are quite common, leading to mentions of a university getting a billion-volt Philosopher’s Stone, Tibetan prayer wheels that deter nuclear weapons, and flying brooms with the same brand names as cars. At one point, the characters summon the spirit of the Russian mathematician Lobachevsky, and there are references to the Tom Lehrer song.

And it ends with the two main characters traveling to Hell to rescue their daughter. The book opens with a war against an Islamic caliphate, which Anderson is careful to make clear is a radical group that doesn’t represent mainstream Islam even in this world, but still comes across as a bit problematic these days. Another significant religious group in this world is a Gnostic Christian sect that’s become popular and is widely considered dangerous.

William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books – Published in 2000, this book is just what it says it is, a collection of Blake’s texts that were originally produced through his unusual printing method of hand-colored text and illustrations on copper plates, with a result similar to those of traditional illuminated books. While very striking and stylized, including odd spellings and layouts and occasional lines that don’t fit properly, the reproductions can be somewhat difficult to read. Fortunately, the complete texts are included in an appendix. Blake is a fascinating and confusing figure, a poet, artist, and engraver with an erratic collection of beliefs. I suppose you could call him a Christian mystic, incorporating Biblical ideas with his own complex mythology and prophecies. He rejected some of the more rigid ideas and forced conformity behind the mainstream Christianity of his time, but also distrusted rationalism and science, and had a particular hatred for the Industrial Revolution (dark Satanic mills and all that). There’s some debate on whether he was an advocate of free love, or this was a belief that changed over the course of his life. There are some recurring characters in these poems, each representations of concepts, although they change a bit from one story to another. Albion is a symbol of primordial humanity, but also a giant and a symbol of England. He splits into a few different parts, one of them being Urizen, a manifestation of reason.

He’s linked to the Gnostic Demiurge, in that he’s the architect who creates the world, but also forces uniformity on it. He stands in contrast to Los, who symbolizes imagination, art, and prophecy; and is depicted as a smith.

He’s the one who builds Golgonooza, a city that’s basically an idealized version of London, but is also modeled after a human body, including a vaginal gate and a forge called Bowlahoola. Orc, the spirit of rebellion, is sometimes said to be a son of Los, and opposes Urizen. It’s confusing, but compelling. Blake’s art is very distinctive, often colorful but faded, and full of dreamlike images and naked people.