William Blake (1757 - 1827), British poet and engraver, lived in obscurity and poverty most of his life. But today he is widely hailed as one of Britian's greatest talents. Blake's "prophetic" books, of which "The Book of Urizen" is probably the best known, are rich in language and theme, and the visual impact of the graphics will blow you away. Blake created what are generally referred to as "illuminated works"—engraved pages filled with pictures and words that Blake himself printed, using many of his own printing techniques. A revolutionary at heart, Blake has influenced many contemporary artists, including Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and Jim Morrison.

Blake believed that we live in a "fallen world" where the various and infinite capabilities of man have somehow become partitioned and isolated from one another. These individual components (or "Zoas") are unable to co-exist with one another in our fallen world. Reason, embodied in the character of Urizen, is one of these components. Blake disdained the new and much heralded "Age of Reason" that was forming all around him in his time.

This Web site uses multimedia technology to look at fractured man and ruminate upon how Blake himself would view today's world—and our possibilities for the future (our "horizon").

In the history of English literature, Blake is categorized with the Romantic poets (along with Coleridge, Shelley, Keats and others). Philosophically, Blake was something of an empiricist and clearly a moral relativist. He was a free-thinker and mystic. Because he regarded the process of creation as holy, he dedicated his life to his art—only through the creative act can man know God. He was ridiculed—even despised—in his time, and, at best, regarded as an eccentric. After his death much of his poetry was burned by misguided moralists, so we will never know how much he really produced; fortunately nearly all of his engravings have survived. The older Blake got, the more mystical he became. His later years saw the development of a super-complex mythology that literary critics continue to ponder, trying to put it all together.

This Web site is designed and maintained by Brad Harrison. Brad has written commentary on modern society based on many of the ideas found in Blake's writings. See below.

The Last Orgy
Read about a big sex orgy at the end of the world! Against Hierarchy (and Hierarchists) A History of the Doomed Society

Sonny's Utopia (Plutocracy or Communism?) For a general discussion of the themes in this book, see The Long Road to "Communism"