Parables of Hell 2

This is part 2 of my series on William Blake’s “The Parables of Hell” see this post for background information.

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.

Here’s where we start getting into the warmer takes of Blake. People were named Prudence around that time, so I wouldn’t rule out this being a subtle dig, but it’s not really in Blake’s character to do that. This framing casts prudence as a judgement of inaction. A choice to restrain impulse is framed as working towards the promise of future reward. The ugly metaphor of the rich old maid as an unnamed and uncertain future reward, can be used to cloak less cool motivations for inaction such as fear, inattention, or apathy. In this advice, it may eventually disguise an inability to act at all, even in people who may seem otherwise competent because they are always choosing inaction, waiting to see if they can snag the old maid.

He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.

This is as straightforward as advice can get. Unfulfilled desire rots in the gut and turns putrid if it’s not addressed. Notice how the strong word choice “pestilence” cloaks the relatively minor verb “breed.” It isn’t a straight cause A to effect A line from thwarted want to putrid personality, but it’s definitely not going to help anything. Crap or get off the pot, you’re clogging up the shitter and giving yourself hemorrhoids. (EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog does not endorse an anti-camping view of toilet occupation, let people take a damn break in peace)

The cut worm forgives the plow.

Dudes who lived in London loved writing about farm life and using agrarian metaphors so much around this time. Nostalgia bait has always been with us. As harsh and straightforward as the preceding parable is, I get the same level of sadness from this one. An earthworm who is cut by a plow doesn’t die, it slowly becomes two separate worms (figure that one out Cartesian dualists.) Now I can’t get an earthworm’s opinion on this, but I can gather from the wriggles that this is not a pleasant or seamless process. Yet, once it settles in, once the trauma is done, once the physical damage is healed, there are now two worms, twice the capacity for life. I don’t think it hurts much to imagine that even being cut clean in half by something can be a growth opportunity, that eventually you can even be grateful to the thing that harmed you in the first place, and I think that train of logic can lead someone to a lot of personal agency.

Music: