Blake's States of Mind in the Songs of Innocence and Experience "When you put two minds together, there is always a third mind, a third and superior mind, as an unseen collaborator." William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, "The Third Mind" We are symbol-using primates in search for an ultimate Truth. No poet has understood and exploited this idea more successfully than William Blake, and this was solely due to his mysticism, the fact that his doors of perception were cleansed. What is his
In Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Guest takes an extraordinary family and makes them seem ordinary. By using the title, Ordinary People, Guest tricks the reader into questioning outrageous situations with a sense of normalcy. She makes the situations appear to be a typical part of life. But the irony of the title is that because of the obstacles the Jarrett family, has had to face, they are no longer ordinary people. They are extraordinary. Guest goes to great lengths to make everything in her
What is graduation? Some people would say that it's proof of the freedom we will soon experience. Some say that it's the end of the best years of our lives. Some would say that it's when we're forced to grow up and become adults. Some would say that it's just another day, no different than any other day, other than the scrolls, the funny outfits and the clapping. Some go into it silent, awaiting their chance to be recognized for their victory dance. Some use stupid comparisons to describe it by saying
The Apocalypse of William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man. (William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, p. 7) In 1980, William S. Burroughs delivered a speech at the Planet Earth Conference at the Institute of Ecotechnics in Aix-en-Provence titled ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’.1 In this speech, Burroughs, following religious tradition
Lunatics Taking Over the Asylum: Cultural Chaos in 1960s America All You Need Is Hate If life in the 1960s was a collective journey to the Underworld, then it is terrifying to notice how many of us have failed to come back. (Marshall Berman, The Sixties) The 1960s formed one of the most culturally complex periods in America’s history, and the analysis of this era is just as problematic. During this time, American society experienced an outpouring of filmic, literary and musical texts that challenged