Valuable insights into
the English poet, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker William Blake
(1757-1827) by scholar Susanne Sklar, who will be giving a series of
Blake seminars from 1st June to 6th July at the Temenos Academy. Venue:
the Rudolf Steiner House, London NW1.
Here is a short interview and
video to give some idea of this towering figure of the Imaginative
Vision, more relevant to our times than ever. Blake is a healthy figure
to have around, to take issue powerfully with some of the more
questionable premises of our times:
http://www.theculturalaficionado.com/cultural-insights-with-susanne-sklar-2/
She says: "The
humanities are being eradicated. Blake scholars are becoming an
endangered species – though we continue to write, to teach, and reach
outside academia where Blake’s vision is warmly welcomed. He’s inspired
Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Gregory Bateson (the cybernetics
pioneer), R.Crumb, Philip Pullman, and environmental activists (among
others). Scholarship, of course, is necessary, for entering into Blake’s
greatest works requires the kind of rigorous critical and imaginative
thinking an archaeologist must have when uncovering hidden
cities. William Blake cannot be compartmentalised. His vision goes
beyond political correctness; he’s uninterested in subverting dominant
paradigms. Where there is no hierarchy subversion isn’t necessary. His
work can change the way we think about the deep structures of
relationship and reality."
