The Traveller in the Evening

We have long argued that Blake was a proto-Surrealist, but critics are confused about how Blake fits into the story of Surrealism and how they received him. The ‘dissenting Surrealist’, critic, philosopher, pornographer, anthropologist and ‘metaphysician of evil’, Georges Bataille adopted Blake as the presiding spirit of his later work, which puts the sacred and religion at the heart of politics....

[Imagination is] that in virtue of which an image occurs in us . Aristotle , De Anima History is essentially poiesis, not imitative poetry, but creation and ontological genesis in and through individuals doing and representing / saying. Cornelius Castoriadis , The Imaginary Institution of Society Back in August 2024, I interviewed Joe Ruffell about the revolutionary career of the Greek / French ac...

Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University . They have collaborated with Björk , Laurie Anderson , Jennifer Walshe , Hrafnhildur Arnadottir , Sabrina Scott , Adam McKay , Jeff Bridges , Justin Guariglia , Olafur Eliasson , and Pharrell Williams . Morton co-wrote and appeared in Living in the Future’s Past , a 2018 film about global warming with Jeff Bridges, and is the...

Mark Vernon , (2025), Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination , London: C Hurst & Co., 368pp. The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible... We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are but just and true to our own Imaginations.. . William Blake The podcast d...

Andy and Conor discussed how the focus of their attention has shifted in recent years from environmental crisis to the rise of fascism and illiberalism, particularly in the context of the Trump phenomenon. They also revisited the importance of William Blake for the blog, with Andy confirming that his appreciation for Blake has not changed. A Blake-Inspired Spiritual Journey Andy discussed his jour...

The Bloom Had Gone #1 Our generation’s illusions are lived ones. John Game How the right appropriated what were once left wing causes – ‘no forever wars’ for ‘anti war’, ‘anti-globalism’ for opposition to neo-liberal globalisation and hostility to ‘elites’ for hostility to capitalism – is what led some on the left to believe that even in a period of unprecedented right wing reaction this was still...

Revolutionary Left's Rise 1945-1985 Overview John and Andy discuss the rise of the revolutionary left from 1945 to 1985. They start by examining the situation at the end of World War II, including the positions of Social Democrats and the Communist Party. They cover the emergence of the New Left from its post-war origins through significant developments in the 1960s. The discussion will provide co...

Trotsky once spoke of a raincoat that had holes in it. It was a perfect raincoat, he said - as long as it doesn’t rain. With the far left’s confused non-response to Trump’s fascism (when they aren’t simply congratulating him on pwning the liberals, and after spending a lot of energy denying he was a fascist to start with), hasn’t the revolutionary left as a whole turned out to be such a raincoat?...

A new book from Phil Smith offers a chance to consider Mark Fisher's hauntological legacy and the politics of life lived without a future, among the remains of the past. Phil Smith , Albion’s Eco-Eerie: TV and Movies of the Haunted Generation , Shrewsbury: Temporal Boundary Press, 2024. Mark Fisher (1968-2017) founded Zero Books , Repeater Books and the k-punk blog . He was the author of Capitalis...

It is acceptable these days to describe Blake as a Taoist, a Pagan, a Buddhist or an atheist... anything but a Christian. The Traveller and his guest, Mark Vernon argue that this is a big mistake: "Blake... did not claim to be a mystic, and did not use the word. He claimed to be a visionary, an enthusiast, and a Christian, and defined the terms carefully. I have read, and now am reading in newspap...

Planned as a long Q&A session between Andy and long-time Traveller podcast co-host, Conor Kostick, that discussion raised so many questions and went on for so long that it seemed best to postpone airing the issues on the podcast. For this episode we excerpted Andy’s intro to the discussion, touching on his own experience listening to and making electronic music. Starting with Wendy Carlos and Popc...

Blake saw imagination as the ‘body of Christ’, as divine: imagination is what will build Golgonooza, his New Jerusalem. Some readers of Blake interpret this imagination as merely the power that drives the artist to make inspired art. It is far more than this in Blake. The imagination is tasked with building God’s Kingdom itself. But what can this mean? Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997) was a child...

The Traveller in the Evening talks to Timothy Morton about Tim's new book Hell , their personal journeys towards Christianity; the role of aesthetics in theory; the war against The Holy Spirit and Žižek 's blindness to the latter; charisma; Speculative Realism as an attack on theory; ‘French feminism’; the impact of music on their lives; the trouble with Marxists pirouetting like Jerry Falwell … a...

Watch now | An introduction to Blake given by Andy Wilson at St Luke’s Community Centre, Islington, London, on 24th Nov 2021, for the residents around Bunhill Fields, where Blake is buried. Get full access to The Traveller in the Evening at www.travellerintheevening.com/subscribe

The fourth wall between the human subject and everything else evaporates. How to see global warming as part of the human drama, not as the end of it? How to rebuild the play when there is a fourth wall collapse, and when this collapse coincides with the actual theatre on fire? When being on fire is what causes this collapse, what happens? The play was s**t. We need another play. Timothy Morton , H...

These are the Sons of Los, & these the Labourers of the Vintage Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance & sport in summer Upon the sunny brooks & meadows: every one the dance Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave: Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance, To touch each other & recede; to cross & change & return These are the Children of Los; thou seest the...

In 1786 the United States signed the Treaty of Marrakesh with Morocco, creating trade and diplomatic agreements but, crucially, also guaranteeing that no Moroccan would ever be taken as a slave in the US. In the following decades, several Black Muslim groups grew up in the US. Among these were the Moorish Science Temple and, later, the Moorish Orthodox Church (MOC), who seized on the treaty as a s...

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The recent discussion of Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job led me to think about the role of chaos, first in the Book of Job itself, then in the Bible generally, and then across the Near and Middle East and beyond. On this podcast, I’m joined by Sam Hamad to talk about Baal and Leviathan, and how their struggles entered the Old Testament via the traditions of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles...

An interview with Jason Wright, author of a new book, Blake's Job: Adventures in Becoming – taking in Blake's Leviathan, gender, Jung, addiction, the singer Jackie Leven, and more on the way. Get full access to The Traveller in the Evening at www.travellerintheevening.com/subscribe

Podcast | Andy Wilson interviewed by Conor Kostick on William Blake, Surrealism, ecology, radical politics and theology, and how Blake's meaning has been distorted by contemporary Blakeans such as John Higgs. Get full access to The Traveller in the Evening at www.travellerintheevening.com/subscribe

Conor Kostick interviews Andy Wilson about his recent essay, From Hyperobjects to Re-Animism: Titans at the End of the World. Get full access to The Traveller in the Evening at www.travellerintheevening.com/subscribe