understood simultaneously.
“Part Three: The Final Synthesis,” Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947, 2004), CW, 14.
Only the Blake — I know Blake as no man has ever known him — of that I’m quite sure. But I lack so woefully in the way of subtlety.
“NF to HK,” 3 May 1935, The Correspondence of Northrop Frye and Helen Kemp, 1932–1939 (1996), CW, 1.
Blake was the first poet in English literature, and so far as I know the first person in the modern world, to realize that the traditional authoritarian cosmos had had it, that it no longer appealed to the intelligence or the imagination, and would have to be replaced by another model.
“Blake’s Biblical Illustrations” (1983), Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake (2005), CW, 16.
I was originally attracted to him because he was, so far as I knew and still know, the first person in the modern world to see the events of his day in their mythical and imaginative context.
“Third Variation: The Cave,” Words with Power: Being a Second Study of “The Bible and Literature” (1990), CW, 26.
The conclusion for Blake, and the key to much of his symbolism, is that the fall of man and the creation of the physical world were the same event.
“Part One: The Argument,” Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947, 2004), CW, 14.
Blake’s Prophetic Books represent one of the few successful efforts to tackle conversational rhythm in verse — so successful that many critics are still wondering if they are “real poetry.”
“Fourth Essay: Rhetorical Criticism: Theory of Genres” (1957), Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (2006), CW, 22.
The question in Blake’s Tyger means: can we actually think of the world of the tiger as a created order?
Entry, Notes 54-5 (1976), 87, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
Whatever other qualities Blake may have had or lacked, he certainly had courage and simplicity. Whatever other qualities our own age may have or lack, it is certainly an age of fearfulness and complexity. And every age learns most from those who most directly confront it.
“Blake after Two Centuries” (1957), Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake (2005), CW, 16.
The only way to crack his code was to take him away from all the mystical and occult traditions that people had associated him with and put him squarely in English literature, which is where he belonged. That was really what took me so long to do — to see what he was driving at and to begin to realize that what he meant was fundamentally what he kept saying he meant.
“Getting the Order Right” (1978), Interviews with Northrop Frye (2008), CW, 24.
Read Blake or go to hell: that’s my message to the modern world.
“NF to HK,” 23 Apr. 1935, The Correspondence of Northrop Frye and Helen Kemp, 1932–1939 (1996), CW, 1.
Blavatsky, H.P.
Yet The Secret Doctrine, whatever else it is, is a very remarkable essay on the morphology of symbols, and the charlatanism of its author is less a reflection on her than on the age that compelled her to express herself in such devious ways.
“Yeats and the Language of Symbolism” (1947), “The Critical Path” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1963–1975 (2009), CW, 27.
Works based on an interconnection of oracular poetry and prose commentary are usually found in or near the area of religion (even Madame Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine takes this form).
“The Well-Tempered Critic (II)” (1961), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
… no reputable scientist has had the influence on the poetry of the last century that Swedenborg or Blavatsky has had.
“New Directions from Old” (1960), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
If Blake had told us that he had gone to visit the wise men of the East and had learned from them the doctrines which he has set down in his poems, we should know what he meant, or ought to by now. When Madame Blavatsky tells us the same thing we are not sure what she means.
“Part Three: The Final Synthesis,” Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947, 2004), CW, 14.
Body
It also leaves the human mind as a function of the body, for man has received his body from nature, and his mind is his unique instrument for achieving a harmonious and comfortable adjustment to nature.
“Trends in Modern Culture” (1952), Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003), CW, 11.
I think as long as the human body has a top and a bottom it’s likely to be read into the symbolism of the mythological universe that man lives in.
“Symbolism in the Bible” (1981–82), Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
Boehme, Jakob
It has been said of Boehme that his books are like a picnic to which the author brings the words and the reader the meaning. The remark may have been intended as a sneer at Boehme, but it is an exact description of all works of literary art without exception.
“Part Three: The Final Synthesis,” Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947, 2004), CW, 14.
Books
The book qua book is not linear: we follow a line while we are reading it, but the book itself is a stationary visual focus of a community.
“The Search for Acceptable Words” (1973), “The Critical Path” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1963–1975 (2009), CW, 27.
It seems to me that the printed book, with its established text and its mechanically accurate reproduction, is the inevitable form of the verbal classic or model, in whatever age it is produced.
“Comment” (1961), Northrop Frye on Twentieth-Century Literature (2010), CW, 29.
It is a common academic failing to dream of writing the perfect book, and then, because no achievement can reach perfection, not writing it.
“Humanities in a New World” (1958), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
… the book individualizes its audience.…
“Communications” (1970), Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003), CW, 11.
The book happens to be the most efficient technological instrument that the human mind has ever devised, and consequently it will always be here, at the centre of our technology, no matter what else we do.
“Back to the Garden” (1982), Interviews with Northrop Frye (2008), CW, 24.
The tremendous efficiency and economy
