With several other podcasts in preparation, it seemed a good idea to set the scene by asking Conor Kostick to interview Andy Wilson about the origins of The Traveller in the Evening and how the site and its podcasts aim to serve up a more radical Blake, reflecting him through the lens of politics and theology, art, ecology and Surrealism.
The Traveller in the Evening on Substack
I started the blog, The Traveller in the Evening, in 2020, after being hastily and unexpectedly ejected from the world of work, deciding I’d had enough of that life and it was time to turn to more pressing things. The Traveller Hasteth in the Evening
Blake in Beulah: A Review of John Higgs's 'William Blake vs the World'
My problem with this book is that it seeks to reduce a giant, Blake, to the dimensions of a Lilliputian—a proponent of mental health through moderation; a political radical whose aim is not justice but peace at all costs; an advocate of a transcendence equivalent to that which can be achieved through any sporting activity that gets you ‘in the zone’. Ultimately, perhaps this does not matter.
No Place Called Home: Jason Whittaker on William Blake’s Jerusalem and Progressive Patriotism
The patriotic frenzy around Brexit and the death of Elizabeth Windsor offers an opportunity to reappraise Blake’s song Jerusalem and the nationalistic impulse so many find in it. Jason Whittaker’s new book on Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ is reviewed. ‘Jerusalem’ is a much more co…
William Blake as a Revolutionary Poet
Underpinning his popularity today is the fact that the received William Blake is a man of many personalities, meaning different things to different people. Very few, however, read William Blake as a revolutionary poet, in the sense of being a poet of revolution. The dimensions of his thought are peeled apart to be given a different emphasis by different…
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