Hadyn Middletons Lie of the Land :: Middleton Lie of the Land Essays

Hadyn Middleton's Lie of the Land The mystical premise William Blake uses as the basis for his poetic work is not one based on a transcendent God, but the "Universal Man" who is himself God and who incorporates the cosmos as well. Blake elsewhere describes this founding image as "the human Form Divine" and names him "Albion." After becoming more familiar with the "myth" William Blake uses in his poetry, it is clear that Hadyn Middleton doesn't simply refer to Blake throughout the telling of Lie of the Land, his myths live quite comfortably inside within it. Nennius is not simply inspired by the work of Blake, he becomes Blake's work. Nennius becomes Albion. Blake's attempt to articulate a full myth of humanity's present, past, and future is clearly mirrored in Middleton's beginning, middle and end. What both Blake and Middleton explore is the fall of a man from humanity into a lower "state" of being. The fall, in Blake's myth, is not the fall of humanity away from God but a falling apart of primal people, a "fall into Division." In this event the original sin is what Blake calls "Selfhood," the attempt of an isolated part to be self-sufficient. The breakup of the all-inclusive Universal Man in Eden into exiled parts identifies the Fall with the creation-- the creation not only of man and of nature as we ordinarily know them but also of a sky god who is alien from humanity (20-21, here and throughout, page numbers refer to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6h ed. v.2). Middleton takes Nennius and plops him smack dab in the middle of Blake's poetic structure, in the middle of what ultimately becomes the lie of the land. When Nennius discovers the "woman's" presence, as a very young boy, he begins his "separation" into a state of selfhood; perhaps without really being conscious of this movement. He gives his life over to the power he thinks the woman possesses. He lives his life believing the "end" will eventually be brought to him from the spirit. Thus, he retreats into a world of his own making. Nennius imposes exile upon himself. The world excludes his wife, his child and all forms of human pleasure as well as human pain. Further into Blake's myth, Universal Man divides first into the "Four Mighty Ones" who are the Zoas, or chief powers and component aspects of humanity, and these in turn divide sexually into male Spectres and female Emanations (21). Hadyn Middleton's Lie of the Land :: Middleton Lie of the Land Essays Hadyn Middleton's Lie of the Land The mystical premise William Blake uses as the basis for his poetic work is not one based on a transcendent God, but the "Universal Man" who is himself God and who incorporates the cosmos as well. Blake elsewhere describes this founding image as "the human Form Divine" and names him "Albion." After becoming more familiar with the "myth" William Blake uses in his poetry, it is clear that Hadyn Middleton doesn't simply refer to Blake throughout the telling of Lie of the Land, his myths live quite comfortably inside within it. Nennius is not simply inspired by the work of Blake, he becomes Blake's work. Nennius becomes Albion. Blake's attempt to articulate a full myth of humanity's present, past, and future is clearly mirrored in Middleton's beginning, middle and end. What both Blake and Middleton explore is the fall of a man from humanity into a lower "state" of being. The fall, in Blake's myth, is not the fall of humanity away from God but a falling apart of primal people, a "fall into Division." In this event the original sin is what Blake calls "Selfhood," the attempt of an isolated part to be self-sufficient. The breakup of the all-inclusive Universal Man in Eden into exiled parts identifies the Fall with the creation-- the creation not only of man and of nature as we ordinarily know them but also of a sky god who is alien from humanity (20-21, here and throughout, page numbers refer to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6h ed. v.2). Middleton takes Nennius and plops him smack dab in the middle of Blake's poetic structure, in the middle of what ultimately becomes the lie of the land. When Nennius discovers the "woman's" presence, as a very young boy, he begins his "separation" into a state of selfhood; perhaps without really being conscious of this movement. He gives his life over to the power he thinks the woman possesses. He lives his life believing the "end" will eventually be brought to him from the spirit. Thus, he retreats into a world of his own making. Nennius imposes exile upon himself. The world excludes his wife, his child and all forms of human pleasure as well as human pain. Further into Blake's myth, Universal Man divides first into the "Four Mighty Ones" who are the Zoas, or chief powers and component aspects of humanity, and these in turn divide sexually into male Spectres and female Emanations (21).