this is why the forms of angels are always winged
“As we have seen in earlier chapters, the gods customarily had locations, even though their voices were ubiquitously heard by their servants. These were often dwellings such as ziggurats or household shrines. And while some gods could be associated with celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, or stars, and the greatest, such as Anu, lived in the sky, the majority of gods were earth-dwellers along with men.
All this changes as we enter the first millennium B.C., when, as we are proposing, the gods’ voices are no longer heard. As the earth has been left to angels and demons, so it seems to be accepted that the dwelling place of the now absent gods is with Anu in the sky. And this is why the forms of angels are always winged: they are messengers from the sky where the gods live. . . .
This celestialization of the once-earthly gods is confirmed by an important change in the building of ziggurats. . . . [T]he original ziggurats of Mesopotamian history were built around a central great hall . . . where the statue of the god “lived.”. . . But by the end of the second millennium B.C., the entire concept of the ziggurat seems to have become altered. It now has no central room whatever. . . . For the sacred tower of the ziggurat was now a landing stage to facilitate the gods’ descent to earth from the heaven to which they had vanished.”
—Julian Jaynes, from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976.
the great forgotten language
“O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
Nacreous pearl light
“Nacreous pearl light swam faintly about the hem of the lilac darkness; the edges of light and darkness were stitched upon the hills. Morning moved like a pearl-gray tide across the fields and up the hillflanks, flowing rapidly down into the soluble dark.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
a diamond in the rough
“I’m no scholar, Dick. I’ve never had your advantages. I’m a self-made butcher. I’m a carpenter, Dick. I’m an interior decorator. I’m a mechanic, a plumber, an electrician, a butcher, a tailor, a jeweller. I’m a jewel, a gem, a diamond in the rough, Dick. I’m a practical man.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
black and white
“‘Where is the road?’ some one shouted.
‘On the blueprint, of course. . . . You’ve got it all in black and white.’”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
gold and sapphires
“The day was like gold and sapphires: there was a swift flash and sparkle, intangible and multifarious, like sunlight on roughened water, all over the land.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
Darkness melted over the town
“Darkness melted over the town like dew: it washed out all the day’s distress, the harsh confusions.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
October
“The sun had gone, the western ranges faded in chill purple mist, but the western sky still burned with ragged bands of orange. It was October.”
—Thomas Wolfe, from Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.
revolving black disks
“If it weren’t for you Mr Jukebox with yr aluminum belly roaring & thirty teeth eating diry drx.
yr eyes starred round the world, purple diamonds & white brain revolving black disks
in every bar from Yokamama to Pyraeus winking & beaming Saturday Nite
what silence harbor Sabbath dark instead of boys screaming and dancing wherever I go’”
—Allen Ginsberg, Seabattle of Salamis Took Place Off Perama, from Planet News, 1961–1967.
observe Minerva nerveless in Nirvana
“Oh say can you see in the dark you
observe Minerva nerveless in Nirvana because
Zeus rides reindeer thru Bethlehem’s blue sky.
It’s Buddha sits in Mary’s belly waving Kuan
Yin’s white hand at the Yang-tze that Mao sees,
tonge of Kali licking Krishna’s soft blue lips.”
—Allen Ginsberg, Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss, from Planet News, 1961–1967.