Hello and good tidings to all. Thanks to all who wrote encouraging comments. I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many passionate about American literature and its inherent strangeness. As you may be able to deduce from this video, I felt a particular ache at not being able to express myself adequately in this section. I thought I could leave some quotations below, from Emerson and Dickinson specifically, where I think the Gnostic resonances can be demonstrated more clearly. They are, after all, the High Priest and High Priestess of The American Religion - which, for good or for ill, has spread the world over.

Emerson. On the pre-existent, uncreated divinity of the elect.

The simplest person, who in his integrity worships God, becomes God; yet for ever and ever the influx of this better and universal self is new and unsearchable. From the Oversoul

Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost,—cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity. From the Harvard Divinity School Address, for which the university banned him for 30 years. There is now an an academic hall and a life--sized statue of him dedicated there.

The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust. Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which a universal reliance may be grounded? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without parallax, without calculable elements, which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least mark of independence appear? The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. From Self-Reliance.

And another one about the Eye: *The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the
world.* From Circles, the very beginning.

Three Dickinson poems. I think they speak for themselves. Those interested may also refer to He fumbles at your Soul (my personal favorite) and Apparently with no surprise.  

338

I know that He exists.
Somewhere—in Silence—
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

'Tis an instant's play.
'Tis a fond Ambush—
Just to make Bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But—should the play
Prove piercing earnest—
Should the glee—glaze—
In Death's—stiff—stare—

Would not the fun
Look too expensive!
Would not the jest—
Have crawled too far!

564

My period had come for Prayer—
No other Art—would do—
My Tactics missed a rudiment—
Creator—Was it you?

God grows above—so those who pray
Horizons—must ascend—
And so I stepped upon the North
To see this Curious Friend—

His House was not—no sign had He—
By Chimney—nor by Door
Could I infer his Residence—
Vast Prairies of Air

Unbroken by a Settler—
Were all that I could see—
Infinitude—Had'st Thou no Face
That I might look on Thee?

The Silence condescended—
Creation stopped—for Me—
But awed beyond my errand—
I worshipped—did not "pray"—

1601

Of God we ask one favor,
That we may be forgiven -
For what, he is presumed to know -
The Crime, from us, is hidden -
Immured the whole of Life
Within a magic Prison
We reprimand the Happiness
That too competes with Heaven.

Robert Creeley, in his poem 'Paul,' written after the death of fellow poet Paul Blackburn, refers gnostically to 'this drab burned-out trashed dump we call the phenomenal world,' and then, a line later, to how Blackburn 'walked this wondrous earth and knew its pleasures.' But that's maybe a bit of Emersonian, Whitmanesque inconsistency. It makes perfect sense to me.

I loved the talk on Hawthorne! I remember reading The Scarlet Letter in high school and all my classmates hated it, but I was enraptured by it. I still can’t understand the hate. It’s so dark and strange compared to a lot of what you’d typically read in school, I would think it would at least attract some horror fans. And he has so many great short stories, too.

I learned of Whitman one April night in 1990, watching Dead Poets Society. My husband had Leaves of Grass on our bookshelf, and the name sounded familiar so I went to seek it out. It opened at "On the Beach at Night Alone," and I felt like I'd met a person who understood my world. I carried that book around with me everywhere for six months. Whitman to Emerson for me. Self Reliance....I had dropped out of high school but those mentors brought me to college.

Don't know how this was recommended to me, but this is 100% my type of content. Thank you from a new fan in Philadelphia, PA

Before 1836 and the publication of Nature there was nature itself.

The Deathbird by Harlan Ellison, and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy are both Gnostic texts.

Jack, whispering: "willy wonka.... woodrow wilson...."

As someone who was always puzzled by Bloom's application of Gnosticism in his criticism this was incredibly useful. Really enjoyed each episode of this conversation!

Gnostic clean look, Milo.

Secret very important Transcendentalist: Jonathan Edwards. Really unlocks the dark potential of believing that things on earth happen for more important, unearthly reasons. And I love the idea of Twain as a counterpoint in favor of immanence.

"Not the old Gnostics, the new Gnostics, the Neo-Gnostics, the American ones."
- Its always Americans, isn't it?🤣

Larry Levis’ Elegy; Thomas James’ The Stranger; Berryman’s Dreamsongs; Plath; Cormac McCarthy; Harry Crews; William Gaddis, and more.

My Anglican wife has a portrait of Emerson tattooed on her arm and I will make sure she doesn't watch this.

Also Hawthorne's short story Man of Adamant is hilariously perfect.

Comparing Song of Myself to a hallmark card is Demiurge level evil.

"Not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay."

The bhagavad gita was translated into English around 1800, around the same time the West got Plato in English.  This had a definite effect on Emerson and others.  Even Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Return seemed influenced by the BG and its effects on early q9th century authors.

Just stumbled across this channel through this video and after checking out your back catalogue, this is certainly seems like a site of incredible discourse. Happy to be a new subscriber here!

17:11 the guy indeed doesnt sound crazy at all, but seeing of things as correspondences, and tying to point to there being a real beauty to life that can be found in exploring different modes of understanding of the world

a radical empathy towards all things big and small , fast or slow, colorful or dull

as Emerson said, correspondance

This is the good stuff. As a Christian Bloom fan, this is literally the conversation I wish I could have with friends! Subscribed! God bless