[Blake's] spiritual rebellion against the powerful of this world was not made of that type of water-soluble gunpowder to which we have more or less accustomed ourselves. James Joyce
Reflections on William Blake, Radical Theology, Politics and Surrealism
Welcome to The Traveller in the Evening, a publication focused on William Blake. But it is a loose focus, because the discussion of Blake soon turns to talk of Surrealism, ecology, revolution, politics, radical theology and much else. Blake combined all these things, well in advance of his age, and ours.
The Traveller Hasteth in the Evening is an engraving by Blake from For Children: The Gates of Paradise (1793). He shows his traveller pacing toward an unknown destination. Morton Paley shortened the title to The Traveller in the Evening for the title of his book about Blake’s later works. I used Paley’s title because it reflects both my situation and the situation at large, and I’m in no hurry.
I've been reading Blake for years. My dream was to find the time one day to write a book about what I learned. Right now, that day is getting any closer. The world has taken a threatening turn. We continue marching toward an environmental catastrophe set in train ages ago. Some days feel like it is evening everywhere.
The old world is dying, and the old radical politics with it, because they were based on an idealisation of the enemies’ 'Satanic mills': the environmental movement struggles to paint a meaningful picture of an alternative, because it has one foot in the past – "angels fighting demons in the key of demon,” as Timothy Morton puts it.
Movements against oppression tackle capitalism’s abuses without striking them at the root. To do so would mean coming to a different understanding of who we are, in relation to our world.
Blake points us toward the necessary ‘reversal of perspectives’, to fan the flames of solidarity and help to wake us from collective sleep. The ramifications of this unsettle our deepest assumptions – including thee assumptions of most Blake scholars –hence the need to present this unheard Blake… a profound esoteric thinker and Surrealist militant.
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Andy Wilson (Editor)
He / him. Andy lived in Sunderland, Seaham Harbour, Peterlee, Hartlepool, Kings Lynn, Coventry, Torpoint, Eastleigh, Lee-on-Solent, Portland, Weymouth, Loughborough, York and Liverpool before dropping anchor in Hackney, London. On leaving King Henry VIII school in Coventry with only a couple of ‘O’ Levels to show for it, he served as an Engineering Artificer in the Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm (ie. on aircraft and radar systems), then studied at the Co-operative College, and York and Middlesex Universities. He has worked as a frontline avionics engineer, a political full-timer, a lecturer in the Workers Educational Association and Further Education, a computer programmer, and finally as an engineering manager, CEO and Director of a number of technical companies. He has even been a Management Consultant and lived to tell the tale. Andy is now retired. He co-founded the Association of Musical Marxists (AMM) and has written books on the German group, Faust, the Romanian Spectral composers Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram ('Cosmic Orgasm'), and edited books on the Syrian Revolution ('Khiyana'), and, with Michael Tencer, a compilation of works by and about the AMM (‘The Assassin’). He also writes poetry (‘Scarlet Rain’), takes photographs, and has created a book of lo-fi psychedelic illustrations to Blake ('The Brilliant New Hercules'). Andy has been a trustee of The Blake Society. His main interests lie with Blake, radical theology and politics, and Surrealism.
