This entry originally appeared on June 12, 2010 at 11:14 a.m.
Why wilt thou Examine every little fibre of my soul
Spreading them out before the Sun like Stalks of flax to dry
The infant joy is beautiful but its anatomy
Horrible Ghast & Deadly. Nought shalt thou find in it
But Death Despair & Everlasting brooding Melancholy
Thou wilt go mad with horror if thou dost Examine thus
Every moment of my secret hours. Yea I know
That I have sinned & that my Emanations are become harlots
I am already distracted at their deeds & if I look
Upon them more Despair will bring self murder on my soul
O Enion thou art thyself a root growing in hell
Tho thus heavenly beautiful
to draw me to destruction
(William Blake, excerpt from “Part I: Enmion and Tharmas,” in Vala, or, The Four Zoas: the torments of Love and Jealousy in the death and judgment of Albion the Ancient Man.)
All photos are screencaps from a collaborative short film put out by Lula magazine and the ubiquitous UK-and-now-THE-WORLD clothing store Topshop. Here is a linky to the video, which is unusual and beautiful and freaky, but as you are watching this artistic short film remember it is designed to sell faux-Bohemian low-quality overpriced clothes that will be out of style in six months to impressionable and likely self-loathing young women with eating disorders and disposable income. The fashion industry is so cruel with its kindness that I go back and forth on appreciation and hate.
I’m sorry, I went to the mall earlier to pick up some comfortable summer shoes with my grandmother and now I’m in a low mood. Nothing puts me out of sorts like that snake nest. Like, everyone is slithering over the top of each other and accidentally biting their own tails and dropping money on shit they don’t need, finances they have gained from the jobs they keep specifically to make a weekend trip to a goddamned mall and drape shiny fabrics over the viper shitpit of the system so it looks all pretty and coordinated while they sip complacently from some kind of frapped coffee bullshit drink packed with sugar and empty calories that they store in the cupholder of their child’s stroller. Their kids are with them, of course, because children must be taught to want made-up food like chicken nuggets and aspire to own over three pair of shoes. Seriously, I want to watch it burn, burn, burn.
I know that my Emanations are become harlots.
I think I’m going to go take ten and paint with the kidlet or something.
Tags: a confession, advice, Albion, anarchy, anxiety, art, Blake, capitalism, class war, confession, death, doubt, eat the rich, elitism, Enmion and Tharmas, fashion, fear, film, God, grandma, I Put A Spell On You, images, infant, It happens, jealousy, kidlet, love, love stinks, lula mag, lula magazine, mall, models, movies, pain, photography, Pictures, pseudo-intellectual claptrap, pyromania, quotes, revolution, screencaps, Self-audit, short, stills, suicide, Take-Two Tuesday, the Ancient Man, The Four Zoas, the Old Man, topshop, Vala, video, vintage, William Blake, William Blake Month, writing, you will choke on your average mediocre fucking life
The Thought Experiment 
April 8, 2011 at 5:32 am |
Blake’s admonition against “looking too hard,” however, is a warning against considering too deeply the very nature of existence, sort of like Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” There are elements to this Universe, to life, to “reality” which will drive you bat-shit crazy if you dwell on them. But what is a mall? How sublunary. How pedestrian and risible. Yes, malls and what they stand for are “bad,” but — even in the not-so-great scheme of things — they are a fleeting joke. And — should people become lured into the cellar-hole — yours is no disgrace. Are you going to warn every chicken against chasing grasshoppers? I blame this all on your grandmother.