Angel_20th_Century

8/7/2019 Angel_20th_Century

1/12

TheAngelof20thCenturyArt

Where d id he unearth that? Someonewhispered i t to h im . . . s ing i t . .

. s ing i t , and he s ings , he l i s tens to what the ange l s te l l h im . . . that

g i f t i s not g i ven to everyone. . . .

Marc Chaga l l (on l i s ten ing to a Mozart qu intet )

In Mart in Buber ' s Talesof theHasid im we f ind the fo l lowing account of an a rchetypa l

exchange betweenyouth and age , innocence and matur i ty , imag inat ion and rea l i sm:

Rabbi Mendel once boasted to h i s teacher Rabbi E l imelekh that in the even ing

he sawthe ange l whoro l l s away the l i ght before the darkness , and morn ings

the ange l whoro l l s away the darkness before the l i ght . "Yes ," sa id Rabbi E l imelekh, " in my youth I sawthat too. La ter on you don ' t see these th ings

any more."

In the youth of the wor ld , in mytholog i ca l innocence and imag inat ion , manonce

rout ine ly consp i red wi th ange l s . Jacob wrest led one. Another announced the coming

b i r th of Chr i s t to Mary . Arab v i s ionar ies communicated wi th

them, ga in ing ins ight into the A lama l mi tha l , the wor ld of

the image, the mundus imaginal is . Even a br ie f perusa l o f

Gustav Dav idson 's cof feetab le vo lume, ADict ionary of

Angels , v i v id ly reminds the reader of the once everpresent

rea l i ty of ange l s as protectors , messengers , demonsas

search images for man's conce ivab le per fec t ion , or h i s

descent into ev i l pr ide . They not on ly ro l led away the

darkness before the l i ght and the l i ght before the darkness ;

they served as the v i ta l br idge betweent ranscendenta l and immanent , sac red and

profane. But as manmatured, as h i s tory matured h im, he no longer sawsuch th ings .

"Showmean ange l and I w i l l pa int one," wehear the French rea l i s t pa inter

Gustave Courbet dec la re w i th conv ic t ionanda character i s t i c touch of pos i t i v i sm

in the secondha l f o f the 19th century , an a rt i s t i c c reed which , accord ing to Rabbi

E l imelekh 's w i sdom(not to ment ion Auguste Comte 's and S igmundFreud 's ) would

ind icate the a t ta inment of a k ind of matur i ty , both a rt i s t i c and theolog i ca l , a putt ing

away of ch i ld i sh th ings , for the evo lut ion of consc iousness .


2/12

The Col lected Works of David Lavery 2

Ashort s tory by the Co lombian Nobel Pr i ze l aureate Gabr ie l Garc ia Marquez ,

"A Very O ld Manwi th Enormous Wings ," captures per fec t l y the sorry s ta te of the

ange l in the modern wor ld . Marquez ' ta le dep ic ts the squa l id l i fe of a sma l l , South

Amer i can seas ide v i l l age , in to which a "very o ld manwi th enormous wings"

myster ious ly drops out of the sky one day . Thoughthe c reature would appear to be

an ange lhis presence insp i res a great dea l o f theolog i ca l debate and specu la t ionit

possesses many unange l i c charac ter i s t i c s . I t s "huge buzzard wings ," weare to ld ,

"d i r ty and ha l f p lucked, were forever entang led in the mud." I t has "a s t rong sa i lor ' s

vo i ce ," speaks in an incomprehens ib le fore ign d ia lec t , and cannot understand a word

of La t in . F i l thy and d i sheve led , i t i s a l so "st rewnwi th paras i tes ." And i t can perform

on ly very ambiguous mi rac les : " the few . . . a t t r ibuted to the ange l showeda certa in

menta l d i sorder , l i ke the b l ind manwhod idn ' t recover h i s s i ght but grewthree new

teeth , or the para ly t i c whod idn ' t get to wa lk but a lmost wonthe lot tery , and the

leper whose sores sprouted sunf lowers ."

Earthy and mundane, the o ld manbecomesa mi rror of the v i l l age ' s sou l . In

somehe insp i res on ly terror , in others on ly abstrac t theolog i ca l cur ios i ty . And for

the owners of the ch i cken coop in which he i s housed, he i s on ly a moneymak ing ,

f reakshowatt rac t ion . For none of them i s he that c reature of wonder so commonto

the O ld Testament . For none of themdoes he t ransformn ight into day . By the story ' s

c lose , th i s fa l l en ange l does , however ra l l y h i s s t rength , grownewfeathers , and f l y

awkward ly away .

Marquez ' "mag ica l rea l i s t" ta le can be read as a parabol i c dep ic t ion of the

dest i tute l i fe of imag inat ion in our t ime. In h i s degraded, demytholog i zed ange l , we

wi tness our own lack of "openness to the mystery" ( the phrase i s Mart in

He idegger ' s ) . Weg l impse what wehave lost .

But ange l s , i t would seem, d ie hard . At c lose to the samemoment in h i s tory

that a Courbet promulgated h i s doubts about both the ex i s tence and va lue of ange l s ,

an Arthur R imbaudwas announc ing unashamedly h i s in tent ion to "ha l luc inate" the i r

ex i s tence as necessary whenever h i s symbol i s t poet i c s requ i red the i r agency .

And20th century poets , a r t i s ts , even f i lmmakers have cont inued to "pa int"

them, even to c la imthat they have seen them. Ra iner Mar ia R i l ke , Pau l K lee , Wal lace

Stevens , Marc Chaga l l , Feder i co Fe l l in ial l a re ma jor a r t i s ts of our century for whom

ange l s have p layed p ivota l ro les in the process of c reat ion . A l l have wrest led wi th

the ange l o f 20th century a r t .


3/12


The poetry of Ra iner Mar ia R i lke i s f i lled with ange ls, espec ia l l y that f i gure to whom

the DuinoE legies (1923) a re spec i f i ca l l y addressed. ( "The ange l o f the Elegies , " he

wrote , " i s that c reature in whomthe t ransformat ion of the v i s ib le into the inv i s ib le

which we [mank ind] a re accompl i sh ing , can a l ready be seen completed" [Letters I I

375] . ) As ear l y as 1909 , R i l ke had announcedh i s intent ion

as a poet to adopt the perspect i ve of the ange l in the

c reat ion of h i s work :

To regard a rt not as a se lec t ion f romthe wor ld but

as a rad ica l t ransformat ion of the wor ld into the

g lor ious . The wonderment w i th which a rt f l ings

i t se l f on th ings (a l l th ings , w i thout except ion) , must

be so impetuous, so s t rong , so rad iant , that the

th ing has not t imeto remember i t s ownug l iness or deprav i ty . In the sphere of

the terr ib le there can be noth ing so cance l ing or negat i ve that the ef fec t on i t

o f a r t i s t i c accompl i shment would not leave i t w i th a great pos i t i ve excess , l i ke

someth ing that nowasserts l i fe , w i l l s i t to be: l i ke an ange l . (Letters I 347)

Four years l a ter , a w i ser R i l ke had a l ready cometo regret h i s adopt ion of the ange l i c

po int of v iew.

Ange l s a re too pass ionate to be goodobservers . They exce l us in ac t ion , no

less than Godexce l s them; I regard themas assa i l ants , par exce l lence ,and

here you must g i ve in to me: I can vouch for i t . For hav ing come

pa instak ing ly f romth ings and f roman ima ls , I then longed to be instruc ted in

humani ty , but behold the Ange l i c was imparted to me, and therefore I have

sk ippedover people .

Throughout h i s work , R i l ke would cont inue th i s d ia lec t i ca l debate about the ro le of

the ange l in h i s a r t .

In an ear l y work , TheBookof P ictures (1906) , R i l ke had a l ready prov ided, in a

poement i t led "The ManWatch ing ," a memorable re imag in ing of that foundat iona l

myth of JudeoChr i s t i an ange lo logy , the s tory of Jacob 's wrest le w i th the ange l , in

which he had suggested that the power of the ange l (which in h i s in terpretat ion i s

unvanqui shab le) i s essent ia l to proper a t ta inment of humi l i ty by man. "Whoever was


4/12


beaten by th i s Ange l , " R i l ke exp la ins , rev i s ing the b ib l i ca l vers ion , in which Jacob

wrest les h i s adversary to a draw, "went away proudand st rengthened/andgreat f rom

that harsh hand/that kneadedh imas to change h i s shape." Fromthe encounter w i th

the ange l , a newwi l l l ess w i l l i s born , a newconcept ion of humanbecoming (a

"wi l l ingnot towi l l , " Mart in He idegger would ca l l i t ) :

Winn ing does not tempt that man.

Th i s i s howhe grows: by be ing defeated, dec i s i ve ly

by constant ly greater be ings . (Se lected Poems107)

In other poems, l i ke "The Ange l s" (1906) and "Annunc ia t ion to Mary" (1913) ,

R i l ke prov ides a constant ly deve lop ing phenomenology of ange l i c appar i t ion , as i f

seek ing to make sense , for a century ded icated to the reduct ion of a l l fantast i c

th ings to the i r source in humanpercept ion , of the rea l i ty of a be ing once be l ieved to

be supernatura l . The ef fort cu lminates in the summary descr ipt ion of the Second

E legythepoet ' s def in i t i ve response to h i s own invest igat ion of the d i sappearance

of ange l s for the modern wor ld . ( I quote f romthe StephenMi tche l l t rans la t ion . )

Every ange l i s terr i fy ing . Andyet , a las ,

I i nvoke you, you a lmost dead ly b i rds of the sou l ,

knowing about you. Where are the days of Tob ias .

whenone of you, ve i l ing h i s rad iance , s tooda t the f ront door .

s l i ght l y d i sgu i sed for the journey , no longer appa l l ing ;

(a young man l i ke the one whocur ious ly peeked through the window) .

But i f the a rchange l now, per i lous , f rombehind the stars

took even one step toward us : our ownheart , beat ing

h igher and h igher , would beat us to death . Whoare you?

Ear l y successes , C reat ion 's pampered favor i tes ,

mounta in ranges , peaks growing red in the dawn

of a l l Beg inn ingpol len of the f lower ing godhead,

po ints of pure l i ght , corr idors , s ta i rways , thrones ,

spaces formed f romessence, sh ie lds madeof ecstasy , s torms

of emot ion whi r led into rapture , and suddenly a lone:

mi rrors , which scoopup the beauty that has s t reamed f romthe i r face


5/12


andgather i t back , in to themselves ent i re . (Se lected Poetry 157)1

The E leg ies, you wi l l reca l l , had the i r incept ion in 1912 whenR i l ke , s tand ing

on the parapet of a cast le on the Adr ia t i c , heard the words , "Who, i f I c r ied out ,

would hear meamongthe ange l s ' /h ierarch ies"aquest ion which would becomethe

f i r s t l i nes of the sequence of poems. At the i r c loseand i t took near ly ten years to

complete the sequenceafter an intense st rugg le betweendespa i r and a f f i rmat ion ,

the poet f ina l l y foundh imse l f ab le in the "N inth E legy" to "Pra i se th i s wor ld to the

ange l , " as he accepts accommodat ion to earth ly th ings in an a f f i rmat ion unequa led in

the poetry of th i s century .

An adapted be ing , "defeated, dec i s i ve ly" by that greater be ing , the Earth ,

R i l ke accepts the wisdomof the mother , accepts , as he long ago p ledged to , even

death i t se l f as the Earth ' s insp i ra t ion . L i ke that s t range f i gure of 19th century

sc ience , the psychophys i c i s t Gustav Fechner , whohad argued in "The Comparat i ve

Anatomyof Ange l s" that the Earth i s , in essence, the u l t imate ange l i c be ing , R i l ke

succeeded, as an essent ia l part of h i s poet i c ach ievement , in t ransforming the ange l

f roma feared, t ranscendenta l power into an earth ly companion of man's sp i r i tua l

g rowth.

PaulKlee

Angel s appear prominent ly as wel l in the pa int ings of Pau l

K lee . In such works as "Ange l in the Mak ing (1934) ,

"Guard ian Ange l " (1939) , "Forget fu l Ange l " (1939) , "Ange l

St i l l Ug ly" (1940) , and "St i l l L i fe" (1940) , we f ind K leean

art i s t whocou ld announce, w i th authent i c humi l i ty , " I am

God. So muchof the d iv ine i s heaped in methat I cannot

d ie" ; whost rove throughout h i s pro l i f i c career to move

h i s a r t "c loser to the heart of c reat ion than usua l , but fa r

1"For the angel of the Elegies," R i lke wrote in a letter, "towers and

palaces long s ince gone, st i l l ex ist , because long s ince invis ib le; and thetowers and br idges of our l i fe that are st i l l standing are a lready invis ib le for

the angel , though they remain quite physica l for us. The angel of the Elegiesis that being who vouches for the recognit ion of a h igher order of rea l i ty in

the invis ib letherefore is ' terr ib le ' to us because we st i l l hang on to thevis ib le though we are i ts lovers and transformers" (Letters II 375-76).


6/12


f romc lose enough: words which appear as h i s se l f dev i sed ep i taph (quoted by Verd i

23 , 210)unable f ina l l y to make any peace wi th the ange l as an image of

completeness , o f wholeness of be ing .

" I cannot be grasped in th i s wor ld ," K lee ' s ep i taph proc la ims, " for I amas

mucha t homewi th the dead as w i th those yet unborn." Andyet Gua l t ier i d i San

Lazzaro ' s conc lus ionthat K lee ' s ange l s "betray the a rt i s t ' s fear of death" (232)

seemsessent ia l l y correc t . Not surpr i s ing ly , we f ind in h i s l a st work , the unt i t led

"St i l l L i fe" of 193940 , which R i chard Verd i has ca l led the "dy ing a rt i s t ' s f ina l

thoughts on the order and ba lance of nature" (188) , a key image of a manwrest l ing

w i th an ange l . Verd i has noted the "deeply d i s t ress ing and profoundly pess imist i c "

symbol i c l anguage of the work : i t s thwarted natura l g rowth, i t s broken forms, the

t r iumph, the se l f assert ion of the inan imate . But the st rugg le in the lower le f t corner

f i xes our a t tent ion .

"What i s extraord inary and eterna l does not want to be bent by us ," R i l ke had

conc luded in "The ManWatch ing ," " I meanthe Ange l whoappears to the wrest lers of

the O ld Testament ." But K lee does seek to defeat the extraord inary and eterna l . In

most of h i s pa int ings of ange l s , in terest ing ly , the a rt i s t does not even a l lowthe

f i gure to appear ; h i s ange l s seemto s t rugg le to escape f romout of the depths beh ind

the canvas . I t i s , a f ter a l l , the a rt i s t h imse l f , i s i t not , whograpples w i th the ange l

anange l he had or ig ina l l y intended, as h i s sketches show, to make grotesque and

ug lyin th i s , the l ast words of h i s a r t? Hence he cannot , in R i l ke ' s sense a t l east ,

g row in the endthroughdefeat .

WallaceStevens

In the poetry and poet i c s of Wal lace Stevens , we f ind

the idea of the ange l debunked, demytholog i zed, and then

rea f f i rmedwi th new, f resh imag inat ion . In the 1934 poem

"Evening wi th Ange l s , " for example , Stevens der ides the

t ranscendenta l i smof the t rad i t iona l concept ion of the

ange l : "Why seraphim l i ke lutan i sts a rranged/Above the

t rees? he asks rhetor i ca l l y , scof f ing , as he so of ten d id

throughout h i s work , a t a l l imag in ings which ent i ce man into

the vert i ca l d imens ion, away f romu l t imate concern for the

earth ly , S tevens ' h ighest va lue . He then goes on to of fer a theory of the c reat ion of

ange l s , suggest ing the "ange l i c sy l l ab les" the re l i g ious have presumedto hear a re , in


7/12


rea l i ty , "our unfash ionedsp i r i t s rea l i zed/More sharp ly in more fur ious se lves ."

Stevens then t races the or ig in of the symbol i smcustomar i l y assoc ia ted wi th ange l s .

Of the l i ght wea lways assoc ia te w i th ange l s , " the l i ght/That fosters seraphimand i s

to them/Coi f feur of ha loes , fecund jeweler", he asks , aga in rhetor i ca l l y , i f i t was

"concoct for ange l s or for men?" "Sad menmadeange l s of the sun," he conc ludes in

a typ i ca l , we might ca l l i t "psychohi stor i ca l , " Stevens ve in ,

and of

The moonthey madethe i r ownattendant ghosts ,

Which lead themback to ange l s a f ter death . (Palm 100)

Ange l s , S tevens i s te l l ing us , in charac ter i s t i c 20th century fash ion, a re pro jec t ions of

man's ownposs ib i l i t i es , and of h i s fears . Courbet might have agreed.

In the " I t Must G ive P leasure" sec t ion of NotesTowarda SupremeF ict ion

(1942) , S tevens cont inues to demytholog i ze the ange l . Espous ing h i s ownvers ion of

sp i r i tua l rea l i ty , the poet f i r s t demands the ange l ' s non inter ference:

Ange l

Be s i l ent in your luminous c loud and hear

The luminous melody of proper sound. (Palm23)

"Proper sound," of course , proc la ims the earth ly and the human; i t i s the mus ic of

the poet as he ins i s ts " I can/Doa l l that ange l s can . I en joy l i ke them,/ L i ke men

bes ides , l i ke men in l i ght sec luded./En joy ing ange l s" (Palm 23031) . Whenwe

imag ine the wor ld f romthe standpoint of the ange l , as R i l ke for one st rove to do, we

must a lways remind ourse lves , S tevens contends , that the ange l ' s po int of v iew, h i s

sense of per fec t ion , h i s knowledgeal l a re , in rea l i ty , our own: wemust ask , as does

the poet , " I s i t he or i s i t I that exper ience th i s?"

In the l a te poem"Ange l Surroundedby Paysans" (1949) , however , S tevens

makes h i s peace wi th the ange l by br ing ing i t downto Earth . The poemte l l s o f an

a lmost b ib l i ca l annunc ia t ion: of the mi racu lous appearance a t the door of a peasant

household , o f the "ange l o f rea l i ty ." No t ranscendent f i gure , th i s myster ious be ing ,

benef i c ia ry of the wisdomStevens ga ined f romh i s d ia logue wi th the ange l in

"Even ing Wi thout Ange l s" and NotesTowarda SupremeF ict ion , dec la res to the

assembled l i s teners h i s a l ternat i ve v i s ion:


8/12


I amone of you and be ing one of you

I s be ing and knowing what I amandknow.

Yet I amthe necessary ange l o f the earth ,

S ince in my s ight , you see the earth aga in ,

C leared of i t s s t i f f and stubborn, man locked set . . . . (Palm 354)

In a l e t ter in which Stevens specu la tes about howthe "necessary ange l " might best

be represented v i sua l l y , the poet notes that the po int of the poem i s " that there

must be in the wor ld about us th ings that so lace us qu i te as fu l l y as any heavenly

v i s i ta t ion cou ld ." The "necessary ange l " embodies these " th ings that so lace" ; i t i s

the i r messenger .

"We l i ve in a wor ld of the imag inat ion ," Stevens would wr i te three years

l a ter , further exp la in ing the poem, " in which rea l i ty and contact w i th i t a re the great

b less ings . For n ine out of ten the necessary ange l w i l l appear to be the ange l o f the

imag inat ion and for n ine out of ten that i s t rue , a l though i t i s the tenth day that

counts" ( Letters 753) . On that tenth day , even Rabbi E l imelekh might see ange l s

aga in , but ange l s inseparab le f romthe necessary , the ord inary , the pedestr ian .

MarcChagall

No20th century a r t i s t has devoted more lov ing

a t tent ion to ange l s that Marc Chaga l l . In h i s fantast i c

reperto i re of symbols , ange l s undergo many

metamorphoses , tak ing on the formsof ( for example) :

an ord inary woman in whi te , the pa inter ' s daughter , a

g i r l de l i ver ing f lowers , a pa interpalette in hand, a

cup id l i ke youth wi th p i l lowwings , a b lueheaded

donkey , and a v io l in i s t . Whatever the part i cu la r mani festa t ion , however , Chaga l l ' s

ange l inhab i ts the same"mytholog i ca l and sacred wor ld of ch i ldhood," a wor ld which

Mi rcea E l i ade has descr ibed prec i se ly in the fo l lowing words:

The nature c reated by Chaga l l i s pr imeva l and materna lap lace where man,

the an ima l , and the ange l l i ve together peacefu l l y under the eye of God, or


9/12


10/12

The Collected Works of David Lavery 10

pa inter , and "The Ange l w i th the Pa inter" [1949] , where the ange l appears as a

lov ing , conso l ing insp i ra t ion for the a rt i s t a t work . )

" I amnot inte l l i gent enoughto be f i gurat i ve ," Chaga l l once protested to h i s

in terpreters . "F igurat ion i s destroyed by e lements that a re not of a rea l i s t i c nature"

(Sor l ier 119) . In h i s eyes , the eyes of a mag ica l rea l i s t , even ange l s a re a part of

nature .

FedericoFellini

Af ina l example : The great I ta l i an f i lmd i rec tor Feder i co Fe l l in i , now in the

th i r ty n inth year of h i s career in the c inema, once ins i s ted that an ange l has been the

gu ide of h i s l i fe ' s work .

One day I met an ange l whost retchedout h i s hand to me. I fo l lowedh im, but a f ter a short t ime I l e f t h imandwent back . He stoppedand wa i ted a t the

samep lace for me. I see h imaga in in d i f f i cu l t moments and he says to me,

"Wai t , wa i t , " just as I do to everyone. I ama fra id that when I ca l l h imone

day , I sha l l not f ind h im. I t i s the ange l whohas a lways awakenedme f rommy

sp i r i tua l torpor . When I was a boy , he was the incarnat ion of an imag inary

wor ld , and then he becamethe symbol of a v i ta l mora l need. (quoted in

Murray 75)

Th i s ange l , or i t s many homologues , makes i t s

presence fe l t in Fe l l in i ' s f i lms: in the sto len ange l

s ta tue in I Vi te l loni (1953) ; in " I l Matto" ( the foo l ) in

LaStrada (1954) , who i s f i r s t seen wear ing ange l

w ings whi le c ross ing a h ighwi re ; in Pao lo in La Do lce

V i ta (1959) , ident i f i ed by Marce l lo in the f i lmas an

"ange l , " but an ange l whoml ike Fe l l in i h imse l fhe

leaves beh ind a t the mov ie ' s c lose , incapable of

heeding her message; in the p lethora of sp i r i t s in

Ju l iet of theSpir i ts (1965) ; and in the Frate l l in i

Brothers ' per formance as ange l s in TheClowns (1970) .

Th i s ange l i s Fe l l in i ' s muse and, l i ke Chaga l l ' s , i t f inds i t s way into h i s work ,

which becomes in part the unfo ld ing s tory of h i s ab i l i ty to heed i t s message. And

s ince , l i ke Chaga l l , Fe l l in i sees no boundary between imag inat ion and rea l i ty ( " I see


11/12


nod iv ing l ine . . . . I see a great dea l o f rea l i ty in imag inat ion . . . . I have an in f in i te

capac i ty for amazement , and I don ' t see why I should put up somepseudorat iona l

sc reen to protect me f rombe ing amazed," Fe l l in i has observed [quoted in Samuels

125] ) , that s tory becomes, in Fe l l in i ' s narra t i ve a rt , the dep ic t ion of the i r

in terdependence, the i r rec iproc i ty .

In Ju l i e t o f the Sp i r i ts, Fe l l in i ' s hero ine (p layed by h i s w i fe , G iu l ie t ta Mas ina )

d i scovers a f ter undergoing the "dark n ight of the sou l " which conc ludes the f i lm, that

a l l the ev i l sp i r i t s o f her l i fe were , in fac t , ange l s , wa i t ing uponher sou l ' s g rowth to

be seen in the i r rea l i ty . Fe l l in i ' s ind iv iduat ion as an a rt i s t has beengrounded in a

s imi la r ins ight : that l i fe i t se l f i s the ange l o f a r t . "Everyth ing i s part of my

preparat ion to make a p i c ture ," Fe l l in i once to ld an interv iewer . "Andeverybody who

comes to you br ings to you a message" (quoted in Ross 78) .

Howare we to understand the dramat ic rev i ta l i zat ion o f the ange l in 20th century

a r t which I have sought to document here? I can of fer on ly a pro logue to a workab le

theory which remains to be wr i t ten .2

"Mendo not invent those myster ious re la t ions betweenseparate externa l

ob jec ts , and betweenob jec ts and fee l ings or ideas , which i t i s the funct ion of poetry

to revea l , " OwenBarf ie ld reminds us in Poet i c D ict ion, seek ing to answer the

quest ion of howthe great mythsandmyth ic images , l i ke ange l scould have been

c reated by menwhohad not yet even d i scovered they were authors ; were not yet

se l f consc ious , se l f susta ined egos as weare .

These re la t ions [Bar f ie ld goes on to exp la in] ex i s t independent ly ,

not indeedof Thought , but of any ind iv idua l th inker . And

accord ing to whether the footsteps a re echoed in pr imi t i ve

l anguage or , l a ter on , in the mademetaphors of poets , we hear

thema f ter a d i f ferent fash ion and for d i f ferent reasons . The

l anguage of pr imi t i ve menreports themas d i rec t perceptua l exper ience. The

speaker has observed a un i ty , and i s not therefore h imse l f consc ious of

re la t ion .

2Stephen Cr i tes "Angels We Have Heard" and Roberts Avens' The New

Gnos is: Heidegger, Hi l lman, and Angels have a lready begun the task.


12/12


Tosuch a poet , we might say , ange l s a re unquest ionedagents of be ing ; they

b ind together otherwise d i s junct i ve rea lms; they ro l l away the darkness before the

l i ght , the l i ght before the darkness ; they a re ( i f I may stea l a t i t l e f romone of my

young daughter ' s favor i te books) foremost among the wor ld ' s "caretakers of

wonder ."

But 20th century poets , Bar f ie ld goes on to exp la in , no longer perce ive wi th

such un i ty of v i s ion: "we, in the deve lopment of consc iousness , have lost the power

to see . . . . Our sophi st i ca t ion , l i ke Odin ' s , has cost us an eye . . . . " And so wemust

make our un i t ies , must , as necessary , c reate , forge , imag ine our ange l s .

now i t i s the l anguage of poets , in so fa r as they c reate t rue metaphors , which

must restore th i s un i ty conceptua l l y , a f ter i t has been lost f rompercept ion.

Thus , the 'beforeunapprehended' re la t ionsh ips of which She l ley spoke, a re in

a sense ' forgotten ' re la t ionsh ips . For though they were never yet

apprehended, they were a t one t imeseen. And imag inat ion can see them

aga in . (Poetic 86 87)

Whatever ange l s u l t imate ly may be , l e t us hypothes i ze that they revea lannounce,

br ing Hermet i c messages ofthe"beforeunapprehended" re la t ionsh ips of th ings to

those who, in the i r apprehens iveness , s t i l l s tand ready in our t imeto be poets ( in

words , pa int , f i lm) and to imag ine , that i s to see anew, forgotten un i t ies .

Angel_20th_Century

Documents

Transcript of Angel_20th_Century