Proverbs of Hell 16

This is the sixteenth entry into my series on William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” see this post for context.

Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!

Pay attention to what the idiot tells you, he’s worth taking seriously.

Okay Blake.

Well in all seriousness, he’s probably doing a rhetorical gesture to the literary idea of a “fool” such as the winking tricksters of Shakespeare or the first card of the Major Arcana: The Fool which functions as the unknowing beginner. The perfect naive and the evasive advisor seem to be mutually exclusive candidates along with the general idea of a common fool. What could Blake have meant?

There is a neat symmetry to Blake’s comparison here, for again, Blake was an Imperial British Citizen, kingly meant something to him. A king would have still represented the pinnacle of human agency, respect, and authority to the common citizen, even if they had Opinions about whoever was literally sitting on the throne. If something like a title could be described as kingly, it would be almost unique and worthy of respect. To describe the moniker of Fool as kingly is to ascribe to it all the superlatives that you would a king. Tell that to the guy who works twenty feet from you, yeah you know who I’m talking about.

Blake is deliberately evoking the Big Dichotomies here, King Lear talking with the Fool has powered literary professional careers to this day. But in a list of recommendations I think it serves only to remind us that even that one person you secretly think would fill their car with hose water if they saw the right Internet article about it, might have a point or two for you to learn from in the same way the most admirable person you know would. Just backwards, and from the other perspective.

The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.

This is nice, the four elements, four directions, four winds, and I’m sure the exact features have literary references behind them. I prefer to appreciate this as a nice meditative chant. Slowing down and breathing while keeping track of your timing with a small phrase like this is the first thing most mental health professionals will tell you, and often part of artistic training, especially musicians. It’s evocative and takes you through a short mental list of neutral features, slowing down and grounding your focus. Maybe this one is for you and maybe it isn’t. Take a deep breathe, look at something far away, and relax your shoulders either way.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

Blake is saying that the devs properly balanced human pvp.

The actual thought is that courage and cunning are not necessarily mutually exclusive, nor do they usually correspond so directly to weak vs. strong. I suppose you could see this as advice much like the first one we saw today where even those who are weak in courage are strong in other places. Not everyone is a front line person, some people need to be coordinators and arrangers. Which feels refreshingly grounded for a Blake line, but also had me peaking at tomorrow’s advice to see if it linked up. Tune in tomorrow for that because I’ve got things to do today.

Music: