The myth of Ymir
implies that the cosmos resembles a body in its symmetry and proportions. The
physical Earth – the rivers and grasses and hills – matches the undulating
flesh and blood of the body. What, then, of Blake’s print of Newton?
C4
In the white-hot
visionary fire of Blake’s imagination, Newton’s body grows out of the
silhouette of a human brain so that, in effect, the brain is transmuted into
the body. This could easily be taken as a symbol for a world of the head; where
there is really no escape since the head and body have become one thing, rather
than being two different things in balance and proportion.
Blake, being the
doyen of physique, seems also to make it apparent that the mind becomes trapped
by its own physique – since it can’t be denied. The consequence of this seems
to be a state of inaction or physical boredom.
This seems to
relate to the fallacy of a logical order, which applies only to the head, not
the body. The active body is disordered and exists in the cycles of nature. The
recurring cycle of flesh and blood, decay and revival, that spells strength and
purity of spirit.
Newton’s world
cannot apply to the active body that exists in the cycles of nature, only to
the inactive body that exists in a state of physical boredom. This seems to be
the fallacy of a world that is built by and for the head, while the savage
grace of Man is as a hunter.
I came across
this great Biggles-style illustration for a financial ad that shows just how
delusional is the mindset. Here you have the hunter-adventurer chasing big
game, when clearly the ad is representing work that is akin to typing on a
keyboard. Here’s a quote on the NPD in Germany.
..a member of
the council who voted for (neo-Nazi) Mr Jagsch said, “We voted for him due to
the fact we have nobody else.. who is familiar with computers and who can send
emails.” Mr Jagsch promised legal action should his appointment be rescinded. (DT)
All these types
of jobs represent physical boredom, whereby the body is just and extension of
the head (brain), rather than having an active, independent existence (as the
ad illo suggests). This has all sorts of repercussions. For example, the body
is fed through the head. Where the body is treated as an extension of the head,
much the same applies to factory-farmed animals, where bodies are just an
extension of what is really a hygiene-machine (Pictorial 44)
“It is
inexpensive and can be sprayed onto a wound by farmers.. Dechra is applying for
approval to launch Tri-Solfen for.. during castration for piglets.. to prevent
their meat from developing a flavour known as “boar taint”.. in sheep when the
skin is removed below the anus to stop blowflies from infecting them. (DT)
These practices
are clearly flawed and relate to animals in static environments. The standard tradition
for blowfly in the field is shearing, especially round the breech area, and
regular inspection (I was an apprentice on an organic farm). It just goes to
show how drastic are the “health” remedies prescribed for animals kept in wretched
conditions. Dechra reap the rewards for the inert conditions.
A state of
inertia is when the body no longer has an independent existence in field or
forest. A state which approaches the state of death. In Berlioz’s opera Orpheo
et Eurydice, Sir John Eliot Gardner’s production has a very effective
sequence of statuesque ballets, whereby the barely moving figures of the
Underworld drift by with stately postures.
ORPHEO
ET EURYDICE (with mezzo Magdalena Kozena)
This chimes with
the myth, whereby Eurydice will follow Orpheus out of the caverns of the
Underworld, provided he does not glance at her shade. He becomes so nervous as
they approach the light of life that he does glance back, and so loses Eurydice
forever,
One way to
interpret this is that a shade is inanimate matter, it does not live, and the
living should not get unduly attached to the non-living. Or, put another way,
Orpheus’s head (that turns) should not get unduly attached to Eurydice’s dead
body.
You see the
connection with Blake’s print of Newton? Newton’s head is attached to his inert
body which has been transmuted into a brain. If the body were mobile, it would
no longer resemble a brain; it would be free and easy and active.
You could almost
liken the print to The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Weird 11) in
that something that was mobile has become immobile.
If a body is
inert, or an extension of the brain, then it is no longer active in the rhythms
and cycles of nature. This is actually the world we inhabit, since the rhythms
we see are those of traffic and the internet, both of which are attached to the
head, as extensions of the head,
In other words,
the advance of society, reason and order, is purely of the head, not the body.
The body is merely an extension, and has become one with the brain as in Blake’s
print. This has repercussions, because our destiny as flesh and blood exists in
the cycles of nature; of decay and rebirth. These cycles impact on our Psyche.
(detail)
Without the
independent body that expresses grace and ease, the psyche is inward-turning
and stultified. This is the fallacy of a universe that is built by and for the
head; everything comes to resemble the brain, and not the body.
That is to say, reason
and order, not the disorder that accompanies a hunt and that the flesh and blood
is exposed to in the cycles of nature.
The fallacy is that a brain exists apart from the body but, as Blake’s
print shows, the physique cannot be denied and the result is physical boredom.
Not just for Man but for the factory-farmed animals in their hygiene-machines.
A body of
symmetry and proportion, of Man, animal or Ymir, cannot make the mistakes that
a head of reason and order can.
SUNRISE
(acoustic demo)