William Blake as Hypertext:
The Laocoön.s Marriage of Word, Image, and Technology
© 2005 Devon Koren

Abstract:

The late 18th, early 19th centuries were a time of extraordinary 
revolution -- politically, philosophically, scientifically, and 
religiously. The work of William Blake echoes this revolutionary 
atmosphere in its innovative intricacies, underpinned with a unique and 
often controversial perception of politics, religion, and creativity. As a 
poet, Blake envisioned himself a Bard inspired by Divine Genius. As an 
artist, he scoffed at the commercialized mainstream, continuing his own 
highly-imaginative adaptation of line and form, and redefining spatial 
components in his work by experimenting with nonlinear arrangements. As an 
engraver, William Blake learned a trade which bequeathed ultimate control 
over the manufacture of his work to his own hands. It is the marriage of 
these three factors -- word, image, and technology -- that creates a 
kinship between William Blake and the modern authors of hypertext -- a 
kinship which makes it possible to read the unique, nonlinear productions 
of William Blake (for example, The Laocoön) as early precursors to the 
hypertext phenomenon.

My hypertextual evaluation of Blake.s creative work has three major focal 
points. First, I explore the idea of Blake the technological artist, 
focusing on his creative use of the tools of production, not only to gain 
complete creative control over a finished publication, but also as a means 
and methodology of accenting his own artistic style. I compare this 
.technological artist. concept to modern-day writers/artists who have 
mastered computer technology as a means for self-publication (such as on 
the Web) and who have also been influenced by the medium in a similar 
fashion. Secondly, by means of a close reading of The Laocoön, I 
investigate the hypertextuality of Blake.s work itself by analyzing the 
influence of the artist in relation to the influence of the technology 
with which the product is produced. I also briefly touch upon the idea of 
artist.s intent versus practical application -- that Blake created a 
specific work designed to be read/viewed/seen within a particular context, 
but the hypertextuality of his work has made it difficult to reproduce in 
a manner that remains true to his original intent; for example, there are 
major discrepancies between the order of Blake.s aphorisms in any 
text-only reproduction of The Laocoön, and most leave out the engraving of 
the sculpture completely. This detail transitions to my third point, which 
is an exploration of how Blake.s successors in modern technology have 
finally implemented a viable option of presenting Blake.s work to the 
public; for example, the online catalogue of the Blake Archive, which 
makes available a reproduction of The Laocoön closest to Blake.s original 
format.

In this paper, I use a mastery of technology as the through-line which not 
only influenced the original production of Blake.s work, but has also 
tremendously shaped the presentation of his work for the modern-day 
audience. The fact that the work of William Blake is often best presented 
to modern audiences through the implementation of modern technology is 
testament to the inherent hypertextual nature of such pieces as The 
Laocoön.

* * *
The late 18th, early 19th centuries were a time of extraordinary 
revolution -- politically, philosophically, scientifically, industrially, 
and religiously. The work of William Blake echoes this revolutionary 
atmosphere in its innovative intricacies, underpinned with a unique and 
often controversial perception of politics, religion, and creativity. As a 
poet, Blake envisioned himself a Bard inspired by Divine Genius. As an 
artist, he scoffed at the commercialized mainstream, continuing his own 
highly-imaginative adaptation of line and form, and redefining spatial 
components in his work by experimenting with nonlinear arrangements. As an 
engraver, William Blake learned a trade which bequeathed ultimate control 
over the manufacture of his work to his own hands. It is the marriage of 
these three factors -- word, image, and technology -- that creates a 
kinship between William Blake and the modern authors of hypertext -- a 
kinship which not only makes possible the ability to read unique, 
nonlinear productions like The Laocoön as early precursors to the 
hypertext phenomenon, but also establishes a creative paradigm that 
subverts the conventional textual renditions and is best translated by 
recent developments in modern technology.

Among the revolutions that actively influenced the perceptions, beliefs, 
and prophecies of William Blake, perhaps the most profound and the least 
discussed is the Industrial Revolution. Having as intense of an effect on 
the Western World as that of the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution 
.changed the bent of men.s minds as well as the conditions of life, in 
politics and in housing, in poetry and in dress, in the flamboyant 
monuments of the evangelical sculptors and in the inventions of the Quaker 
ironmasters. (Bronowksi 7). These influences not only created 
ramifications concerning William Blake.s perception of himself and the 
world around him, but they also directly shaped the artistic tools that 
were available for his use. 1798 heralded the invention of both the iron 
printing press as well as a paper-making machine, two devices that helped 
instigate the transformation of printing from hand production to machine 
production (Hecimovich 141). These inventions not only were capable of 
inspiring new methods applicable to Blake.s illuminated texts, but they 
also helped to refine Blake.s chosen bread-earning profession as an 
engraver. While engraving provided a method by which Blake could have 
complete control over the production of his own creative work, the 
profession itself often made its practitioners .lackeys. of a sort, 
demanding servitude to .the narrow artistic demands. (Eaves CAC 66) of the 
patron, client, or customer. In .Blake: The Historical Approach,. David 
Erdman stresses the difference between Blake.s professional and personal 
work as .the difference between the hack work Blake had to do for a living 
and the prophetic work he did .to lay up treasures in heaven. and as a 
soldier of the imagination. (25). All the same, the creative compromise 
involved with the profession was well worth the complete mastery of the 
technology. Inspired by the revolutionary spirit of his age, William Blake 
.came to feel that the essential revolutionary act was in the revolt of 
the creative artist who is also a manufacturer. (Frye 44). Working as an 
independent entity, Blake was free to experiment with unconventional forms 
throughout his creative productions, blending picture and text through the 
use of technology in innovative and technologically .prophetic. ways.

In order to create a revolutionary break from the commercial exploits of 
patrons, William Blake attempted to develop at least three new methods of 
production, including his specialized engraving process, the use of a 
millboard for mass-production, and the invention of .portable frescoes. -- 
the latter of which may have contributed to the disastrous reception of 
his 1809 exhibition (Frye 44-45). The engraving process -- by far the most 
popular method studied among most Blake scholars -- is described in .The 
William Blake Archive: The Medium When the Millennium Is the Message.:

By writing his texts backward with a quill in an acid-resistant liquid 
onto copper, and using the same substance to create designs with a 
combination of painters. and etchers. tools, Blake could use conventional 
etchers. acids to create plates with printable surfaces in relief. After 
printing them on his own press with the assistance of his wife Catherine, 
he and she could share some of the work watercoloring the impressions, 
separately or in batches as needed. This process was appealingly domestic 
and autographic, as well as reasonably fast, flexible, and inexpensive, at 
least by comparison with the standard methods of reproductive engraving. 
Both the form and its range of aesthetic effects seemed new enough to 
warrant a new name. Blake christened his works in the medium .Illuminated 
Books. in .Illuminated Printing.. (Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi 220)
By experimenting with all aspects of the process, Blake became fully 
invested in the production and circulation of his work. As a media artist, 
he used the illuminated book as a technological vehicle to .subvert binary 
thinking. through his interplay of word and image, .negating the 
boundaries between the body, the imagination, and the text. (Wardi 254). 
Refusing to allow either text or design to obscure the other, Blake.s 
unique methodology places emphasis on both, allowing the audience to 
become involved in the active conversation between the poem and its 
illustration, which sometimes compliment -- and at other times exist 
independently from -- each other.

In his article .Technologizing the Word: William Blake and the Composition 
of Hypertext,. Gregg Hecimovich refers to Blake as containing .the seeds 
for both revolutions, print and digital. (144). Hecimovich goes on to draw 
parallels between the print revolution of the 19th century and the 
technological revolution of the late 20th century, due to the vast 
dissemination of knowledge that became available in the aftermath of both 
events. The intersection between these two historical events is centered 
on how the new .print. mediums are shaped by the evolution of oral culture 
into a written format: .Digital interchange...resists the temptation to 
conform to the conventional oppositions of written and oral forms. 
(Hecimovich 137). In fact, digital communication is often defined as .a 
blend of oral, written, and visual information. (Gurak 20), which bears a 
relationship to the .fourfold vision. of Blake.s words and .their aural, 
graphic, contemporary, and historical-etymological associations. (Hilton 
2). While neoclassicism had influenced a separation of the visual, verbal, 
and aural arts during the eighteenth century, Blake.s experimental works 
(such as The Laocoön) respond to such codifications by challenging 
.conventional constructions of the properties and proprieties of the arts. 
(Wright 2). In this manner, William Blake becomes a sort of digital 
prototype, manufacturing a dynamic relationship between various components 
of artistic, verbal, and written expression, through the use of 
contemporary technological advances. By integrating these artistic and 
technological forms, Blake was capable of bringing together .passion, 
activity, intellect, and imagination,. which precipitated .the interactive 
nature of his process and the variety within the copies he produced. 
(Hecimovich 136).

The physicality of Blake.s engraving process itself bears some distinct 
parallels to the creation of hypertext documentation through the use of 
modern technology. In both processes, complex operations are broken down 
into a series of simple on-and-off operations, such as the 1-0 interaction 
of binary computer language, or the raised and relief areas engraved on 
the plate itself in Blake.s method. In addition, Blake simultaneously 
processed word, image, and design elements, much like the hypertext author 
who is concerned with the layout of all of these elements on a virtual 
page. While Blake worked within the paradigm of 19th-century bookmaking, 
and while the modern hypertext author uses the tools of the computer and 
the Internet (such as Hypertext Markup Language, Hypertext Transfer 
Protocol, and the Web Browser), both have created modes of communication 
that .incorporate the conventions of both writing and speech, literacy and 
orality, and thereby fully engage with the complex and polyvalent 
dimensions of language as a whole. (Hecimovich 137). Even though digital 
communication is a phenomenon generally associated with electronic 
devices, it is possible for digitization to become incorporated in various 
materials and processes -- even in the printing and engraving 
methodologies that Blake employed in the creation of his illuminated 
texts.

In addition to the physical technology, there are other interesting 
parallels between the hypertext author and William Blake, especially in 
the relationship both have with their creative work. By mastering the 
technology by which their work is produced, both Blake and the hypertext 
author have complete control over how their text is constructed, 
displayed, and marketed -- thus becoming their own publishers. This allows 
for a greater amount of creative freedom while working within their chosen 
mediums; however, as Edward Picot explains in his article 
.Self-Publication Without Tears? -- Writers With Their Own Websites,. .the 
downside to any form of self-publication, of course, is that it takes a 
lot of time and effort, which makes it a distraction from the actual 
business of writing. (56). This time management issue directly affected 
Blake; not only was he forced to navigate the time-consuming process of 
producing his own creative works through his engraving methodology, but he 
also had to juggle projects that were commissioned by both his patrons and 
his customers. Since many modern hypertext authors use their knowledge of 
HTML and design technology in their professional work (often designing 
websites for commercial use), this is yet another parallel between the two 
designers. The most pronounced parallel between the two, however, is 
possibly contained within the finished products themselves -- Blake.s 
engravings and the hypertext projects -- which both construct .an 
immediate and altering engagement between author, medium, and intended 
audience. (Hecimovich 140). While the book is traditionally a linear 
format, due to such conventions as pagination and catchwords, William 
Blake continually subverted these conventions in favor of a non-linear and 
self-referential paradigm. In Blake, Nationalism, and the Politics of 
Alienation, Julia Wright explains:

By contesting the familiar, formal imperatives of mass-produced texts, 
Blake defamiliarizes both bibliographical conventions and the strategies 
by which theories of media and genre shape our perception of, and 
engagement with, words and pictures. He thereby generates a space for 
reading in which alternative strategies can be produced, rendering the 
modes of reading heterogeneous rather than uniform. (Wright 3)
While these nonlinear and imagistic elements are present in many of 
Blake.s engravings and illuminations, the most overt example of such 
traits can be found in The Laocoön.

Printed in 1826, The Laocoön is part of a series of illuminated broadsides 
that William Blake produced during the last twenty years of his life. The 
broadside depicts the classical sculpture of a scene from Virgil.s Aeneid, 
where the priest Laocoön and his two sons are overcome by serpents. This 
engraving is surrounded by graffiti-like text, referred to in most 
editorial editions of Blake.s work as .aphorisms.. The text itself runs 
right-to-left, top-to-bottom, and bottom-to-top in a cross-hatched manner, 
and it also is curved in an outline of sorts around the image of the 
statue itself. The text is written in different styles and sizes of font, 
including Blake.s use of Hebrew and Greek characters in prominent 
positions around the sculpture. These characters are also highlighted by 
lines of decoration that sometimes suggest emphasis, and at others 
resemble the stray marks on a sketchpad, such as the curves, curly-cues, 
and shading. Wright refers to The Laocoön as a .multimedia 
performance...combining sculpture, engraving, writing, and drawing,. which 
.reminds us that the signifying process, for Blake, was technological and 
visual as well as textual. (5). Blake.s choice of the use of this 
particular sculpture in the design of this illuminated broadside, in 
addition to the themes expressed in the text contained therein, seems to 
be in direct response to some of the artistic debates of Blake.s 
contemporaries. As a work that .is neither writing nor visual art but 
something in between. (Wark wark.html), The Laocoön presents multimedia 
elements present in most hypertext, but it also references -- or .links. 
-- to texts outside of itself by alluding to these debates.

The choice of the Laocoön sculpture as the main image for this broadside 
is, in itself, a .link. to an ongoing debate as to what exactly painting 
and poetry can represent in their respective forms. In 1766, Gotthold 
Ephraim Lessing published the critique Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of 
Painting and Poetry, in which he argued that .the content of a work is 
determined by its medium: painting can deal with only a single moment, but 
can present various objects simultaneously; poetry can narrate a sequence 
of events, but cannot escape its linearity to present two objects at once. 
(Wright 6). Since the essay itself deals with the issue of transforming 
verbal material into a visual medium -- a concept that would have 
particularly interested Blake -- and since his acquaintance Henry Fuseli 
(minister, painter, and author) was involved in the transcription of some 
of Lessing.s ideas, it seems likely that Blake.s decision to use the 
Laocoön as a subject is in direct response to Lessing.s theories of 
limitation, as well as to Fuseli.s ideas about art. The Laocoön image 
itself, then, become a sort of .hyperlink. that references a work outside 
of itself (Lessing.s essay) and provides commentary on the debate (in the 
form of Blake.s .aphorisms..) The format of Blake.s Laocoön is, in itself, 
a direct contradiction of Lessing.s theories. Blake.s engraving of the 
statue presents an extrapolation concerning the precise position of 
Laocoön.s arm, which references both the Renaissance and the Grecian 
.editions. of this sculpture (Wright 13-14). In this manner, Blake truly 
is presenting two moments at once within a single object, which defies the 
limitations of the visual image set forth by Lessing. In addition, Blake 
also presents many objects simultaneously within the text itself, 
referencing Art, Science, and Spirituality, not only simultaneously, but 
in complete opposition to the traditional linear narrative (i.e. there is 
no predetermined beginning or end to any reading of this text.) In fact, 
.The Laocoön is almost a work of daredevilry: it is Blake.s cocky 
demonstration that he can exceed the limitations of painting and poetry 
delineated by Lessing. (Wright 15). Also, Blake.s .aphorisms. further 
elucidate more of his deeply-held beliefs about art and imagination (.A 
Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect : the Man / Or Woman who is not one 
of these is not a Christian.). As Julia Wright explains, .not only do many 
of the aphorisms contradict the classicist position that Fuseli advocated, 
but the form of the work itself, by emphasizing the spatial component of 
writing and using a nonlinear arrangement, refutes the thesis of Lessing.s 
that Fuseli took to heart. (Wright 9). In such a manner, The Laocoön is a 
sort of multimedia essay -- an artifact which resembles the modern 
hypertextual .blog. entry, in which a .link. to an outside source is 
accented with personal commentary and argumentation against (or for) the 
ideas contained therein (Blood 7).

Since at the heart of much hypertext .is a call for a revised approach to 
language itself. (Wark wark.html), it goes without saying that the 
manifestation of Blake.s argument in The Laocoön has other hypertextual 
implications, as well. As Wright explains, .emphasizing the spatiality of 
writing is part of an attack not only on classicism and its separation of 
the arts, but also on causality and linearity. (Wright 2). By removing the 
reader from the normal convention of cause and effect, William Blake 
produces .a text that approaches hypertext in its malleability for the 
reader and subverts, on the level of form, the dogmatic and rigidly linear 
narratives from Whig history to national narrations to scientific 
causality. (Wright 2). In his resistance to the linear narrative, Blake.s 
Laocoön most closely resembles hyperliterature; with no predetermined 
beginning or ending point, the reader engages the text on a much more 
active level, choosing his or her own individual pathway through the words 
on the page. Indeed, since the text in The Laocoön is arranged so 
haphazardly, with horizontal, vertical, and curved arrangements 
surrounding the engraved image of the statue, it is impossible to 
determine which set of .aphorisms. Blake would have wanted his reader to 
tackle first, or what line he would have preferred his reader end with. 
This is a strong visual representation of Blake.s .conceptional 
multiplicity. (Curran 217), which allows for a wide range of 
interpretation to be applied to this piece. As Wright explains:

The linear, orderly structure of verbal media -- whether writing, 
printing, or typography -- is undone in the engraving, as Blake instead 
gives shape to his pieces of text, by bending them in arcs, horseshoes, 
trapeziums, and even a question mark, as well as more conventional 
rectangles with indentations on alternate lines, and by fitting them into 
the interstices left between his drawing of the statue and the borders of 
the plate. (15)
Consequentially, Blake is not only challenging largely-believed theories 
of art, poetry, and design, but he is also testing the waters of 
traditional .Newtonian. ideologies as well, inspiring a .bankruptcy 
of...assumptions about the interconnections in knowledge, perception, and 
reality. (Ault 277) that were commonly held by Blake.s early 19th century 
intellectual peers.

Like the hypertext author, Blake depends .on the reader.s construction of 
an interconnected network of relationships. (Ault 283), as well as the 
reader .sharing a desire to find interconnections. (Ault 283) between 
aspects of Blake.s work. Characteristically, Blake will .emphasize 
interconnections of characters and events (both in the .plot. and in the 
reader.s experience). (Ault 278), which is highly indicative of modern 
hypertexual documents. As McKenzie Wark explains, .in hypertext writing, 
the link is supposed to open up multiple trajectories for the reader 
through the space of the text. (wark.html). This is typically done through 
a series of .hyperlinks. from which a reader can chose his or her path 
through interconnected and related material. The interconnectedness of the 
.aphorisms. in The Laocoön operate under similar conditions: .Blake.s 
nonlinear assemblage offers a collection of loci that can be .hooked up. 
to other texts in ways that are not predetermined and so do not lock it 
into a casual frame that contains its signification. (Wright 19). Such an 
arrangement encourages the reader to explore alternative orders of the 
text, to imagine new routes that function in both textual and visual 
manners. Despite the apparent chaotic nature of Blake.s nonlinear Laocoön, 
there is method to his madness -- a method that the audience is invited to 
impose upon this broadside with each separate reading of the work.

In Blake.s Laocoön, interconnections can be made between the various 
themes, not only in their response to outside academic discourses (as 
previously mentioned), but in reference to internal elements, as well. For 
example, while Laocoön is a figure from classical mythology, Blake.s 
textual references to Christianity, as in many of his creative works, run 
rampant throughout this illuminated broadside and allude to each other. He 
provides a connection between the classical and the Christian elements of 
this piece when he writes, .If Morality was Christianity Socrates was the 
Saviour.. Also, Blake.s choice of variant characters in his lettering -- 
Greek and Hebrew -- suggest a connection between the two cultures. In 
Greek letters, directly above Laocoön.s head and within his line of sight, 
Blake has written the word .Ophiucus. which means .serpent holder,. while 
the Hebrew lettering, written just above the Greek, means .messenger. or 
.angel. of God (www.blackarchive.org). This suggests a connection between 
the .messenger of God. and the .serpent holder,. which allows the reader 
to interpret the image as referring to both mythologies simultaneously. 
This is further underscored by Blake.s direct assertion that this 
sculpture was indeed first .copied from the Cherubim. and then applied to 
the .History of Ilium.. Here, Blake is developing a chronology based on 
aesthetic values -- a history that transcends history with .artifacts that 
embody artistic values and precede the corruption of those values by 
militaristic cultures. (Wright 13). Representing a time outside of time, 
Blake.s Laocoön presents a nonlinear history based on inherent artistic 
ability rather than canonical merit.

An example of a hypertextual reading of Blake.s work might examine the 
concepts of .Good. and .Evil. as self-referential nodes within the 
framework of Blake.s Laocoön. If the eye is naturally drawn first to the 
image of the sculpture in the center of the broadside, then it can be 
assumed that the eye.s first introduction to .Good. and .Evil. would be at 
their position over the heads of the snakes. .Good. is paradoxically 
written over the head of the snake that is biting into Laocoön.s hip, 
while .Evil. is more conventionally written over the head of the snake 
that is biting into the ribs of one of his sons. Scanning the text for a 
less ambiguous proclamation about .Good and Evil,. the eye may first 
notice the aphorism hovering over the forearm of Laocoön.s son, in which 
Blake refers to both .Good and Evil. as being .Riches.. This might give 
both .Good and Evil. a positive connotation; however, as the eye travels 
down along the son.s right side, Blake refers again to .Good and Evil. in 
reference to .Money, which is the Great Satan or Reason.. This overshadows 
the previous .Riches. with a negative connotation of the same concept. As 
the next referential link that manifests in the reader.s mind might very 
well be that of .Money,. the reader may notice how, near the base of the 
statue on the opposite side, .Money. is referred to as a .Curse,. or how, 
close to the head of Laocoön.s other son, Blake has engraved, .For every / 
Pleasure / Money / Is Useless.. Thus, with this distinct hypertextual 
reading, Blake questions the very nature of good and evil, suggesting 
their inherent similarities as opposed to their differences, and 
hypothesizing that materialistic desires are the cause of their negative 
effect on humanity. Of course, since every reader can forge their own path 
through The Laocoön and make their own connections between the nodes, this 
is just one small example of many potential readings embedded in this 
broadside work.

Considering the multimedia nature of The Laocoön, in addition to its 
variety of possible textual pathways, it is often difficult to reproduce. 
Despite this fact, the graffiti-like aphorisms are often removed from 
their multimedia context, and either quoted as general statements of 
Blake.s philosophy on art, or printed in plain text format. This is not an 
uncommon phenomenon for editors of Blake.s work; after all, .the dominant 
tradition of Blake editing has been overwhelmingly literary, ruthlessly 
discarding visual information. (Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi 222). Image is 
sanctioned by the art scholars, word is sanctioned by the literary 
scholars; Blake .straddles two strongly defined conventional canons whose 
borders are institutionally guarded. (Eaves .Graphicality. 105), and it is 
difficult to find critics prepared to address the multimedia nature of 
Blake in his entirety. Indeed, in book form, it is difficult to reproduce 
the visual image of The Laocoön in such a way that its embedded text will 
be entirely readable. In Bindman.s William Blake: The Complete Illuminated 
Books, some of the words are still difficult to read in its reproduction 
of The Laocoön, and while it includes a linear transcription of the text 
in the back of the book, the reading process is still complicated by the 
need to flip back and forth between the pages, and also in the failure of 
the Bindman edition to provide footnotes that translate the Hebrew and 
Greek lettering. By contrast, however, the Norton Critical Edition of 
Blake.s Poetry and Designs, which offers a text-only rendition of The 
Laocoön, fails to include all the Hebrew and Greek text, in addition to 
offering a completely different textual order than Bindman.s 
transcription.

The Laocoön, with its pronounced hypertextual nature, is very difficult to 
reproduce in the medium of plain text: .Among the many editions of Blake.s 
works, Laocoön is never transcribed in the same sequence twice. Despite 
the application of similar editorial paradigms, each transformation of the 
work to conform to bibliographical codes produces a different linear text. 
(Wright 20). This organization is usually guided by the tendency of 
literary critics to read the text as a series of aphorisms; as such, most 
editions of Laocoön.s textual reproduction sort Blake.s text into thematic 
groups. In this sense, each edition only provides one possible reading of 
the work, and each takes Blake.s words out of the original context he 
intended for them. While this does suggest that Blake anticipated the 
possibility of future linear readings of his work, and that the 
associative pathways readers create between the nodes were thematically 
constructed, it deprives the audience of its freedom to fully explore 
these possibilities within the text itself, and thus robs The Laocoön of 
one of its most outstanding features -- the interactivity between artist 
and reader, the hypertextuality created in part by Blake.s purposeful 
nonlinear organization.

While the intercanonical nature of Blake.s work may have been one of the 
major factors working against his popularity, success, and reputation in 
the early 19th century, it is also one of the main factors that makes 
Blake so appealing to the modern critical audience. The accessibility of 
Blake.s personal hypertextual medium has been largely restricted by .the 
obscurity of his magnificent messages and the grotesque inadequacies of 
conventional means to preserve and transmit the body of work that has come 
to seem, over two centuries, the most significant. (Eaves, Essick, and 
Viscomi 220). Due to the unconventionality of his print publication 
techniques, complications are sure to arise in any attempt at the 
reproduction of his art and words. This brings up the issue of an artist.s 
intent versus the practical application involved with the faithful 
reproduction of work as unique and intricate as Blake.s. Obviously, 
Blake.s original intent when creating the illuminated books and the 
illuminated broadsides was that the audience would be in direct physical 
contact with the produced text or printed copy. However, given the fact 
that Blake.s surviving physical body of work is so small, it would be 
impossible for the large audience Blake hoped .posterity. would afford him 
to experience these texts as the artist originally intended for them to be 
experienced. Because Blake in his later years relied so heavily on his 
hope for a .future audience that [would be] immensely powerful, even 
millennial. (Eaves .Graphicality. 103), the responsibility of the editor 
is rooted in the duty to create a reproduction that embodies the artist.s 
original intent as closely as possible. Modern developments in computer 
technology are, more than ever, making such close reproductions a true 
possibility. Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi are making huge strides towards 
disseminating the authenticity of Blake.s artistic intentions to a wide 
audience with their work on The Blake Archive.

It is ironic that the millennial messages of Blake would find their home 
during the millennial atmosphere partially ushered in by the very 
technology that would hopefully be adapted to fully capture his work. The 
early 1990s fostered four phenomena that aided the development of The 
Blake Archive:

...the completion of a broad base of mature and sophisticated Blake 
scholarship, capped by the publication of the first trustworthy map of the 
history of Blake.s illuminated-book production; the appearance of a 
technological formation sufficiently revolutionary to alter some 
fundamental assumptions in scholarly editing; the emergence of sound new 
technical standards sufficiently robust to check, if not eliminate, the 
formidable threat of overnight obsolescence for large electronic editorial 
undertakings; and, finally, the creation of an organization specifically 
devoted to giving technological form to the ideas of humanists. Together 
these four events combined to provide the cornerstone of integrated 
archival, editorial, and educational initiatives that would have been 
impossible ten years, and probably too risky even five years, earlier. 
(Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi 222)
At the same time, technology associated with the Internet and the World 
Wide Web was beginning to fully revolutionize methods involved in 
traditional archiving and editing, allowing for a greater amount of 
versatility in the quality of the work that was collected, in addition to 
the sheer scope of possible accessibility to these new catalogues. Due to 
these technological advances, it suddenly became possible .to conceive a 
long-distance professional collaboration and an .edition. of Blake that 
would challenge the limitations of conventional scholarly editing and in 
the process close some of the gaps. (Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi 222-223). 
While the ambitions of the editors sometimes still came in conflict with 
the limitations of the technology, forward progress was made on The Blake 
Archive project, as the editors began to experiment with the use of a new 
medium for their archiving purposes.

The William Blake Archive has become an extensive library of various 
versions of Blake.s creative work, especially concerning its collection of 
illuminations. Providing an accessible way to experience the full richness 
of each piece, the reader is allowed full access to both the image of the 
work itself in addition to a text-only translation, which takes only the 
smallest liberties in its .corrections. of Blake.s original unconventional 
typography and punctuation, and provides two mediums with which to 
experience Blake simultaneously. By opening up the image of the work in 
one window and the textual transcription of the work in another, the 
reader is allowed full access to the multidimensional and multimedia 
nature of Blake.s illuminated manuscripts. The Laocoön is an excellent 
example of the possibilities of such an online exhibit on The Blake 
Archive. With the use of Java technology, the image is presented on screen 
with various methods of manipulating it; for example, the reader can zoom 
in on specific details of the illumination (up to 1000% of the original 
image size) and position the image on the screen within the framework of 
the Java program. This gives the reader direct and easy access to reading 
the words of the broadside within their original medium. However, within 
the Text & Image Options drop-down box, the reader also has the option of 
pulling up a .textual transcription. in a separate pop-up window, which 
not only provides a clear, linear arrangement of the .aphorisms. engraved 
in The Laocoön, but also provides small links to footnotes about the text. 
(For example, unlike the book editions mentioned earlier that contain 
different versions of The Laocoön, The William Blake Archive translates 
both the Hebrew and the Greek for an audience that may or may not be 
familiar with those characters.) All of the work on The William Blake 
Archive can also be searched by various keywords which relate to visual 
imagery that is found in any illuminated text. While this feature seems to 
require a great deal more fine-tuning, the ability to reference many of 
Blake.s texts at once by simply querying one shared keyword is testament 
to the hypertextual nature of his body of work. In fact, it is this 
unconventional, hypertextual nature of the work itself that makes William 
Blake so conducive to transmission over a digital medium.

Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi are quick to explain their rationale for 
focusing on the fidelity of images, as well as their desire to create the 
highest quality images possible that even anticipate future technological 
advances that may improve the pre-existing formats: 

The priority that we grant to the media, methods, and histories of 
artistic production has dictated a feature of the Archive the influences 
virtually every aspect of it. It is utterly fundamental: we emphasize the 
physical object -- the plate, page, or canvas -- over the logical textual 
unit -- the poem or other work abstracted from its physical medium. This 
emphasis coincides with our archival as well as with our editorial 
objectives. (Eaves, Essick, and Viscomi 225)
In addition to this focus on archival quality, The Blake Archive also 
seeks to contextualize Blake.s various texts, not only in reference to 
each other, but also in reference to the historical and political 
environment that charged many of Blake.s writings and artwork. There is no 
better way to simulate these connections than by the use of the 
.hyperlink. in the context of the modern web browser. Just as Blake 
referenced Lessing.s Laocoön essay with the central image of his 
broadside, The Blake Archive might provide an actual word or image that 
would .link. to the physical essay itself within the virtual realm of 
cyberspace. The ultimate goal of the editors, of course, is to provide an 
electronic representation of all Blake.s works -- both visual as well as 
verbal -- a goal which .has never been technically possible before this 
decade. (Curran 216). Once all of these texts are made available, a reader 
will have full access to the total significance of Blake.s illuminated 
works, and will be able to forge his or her path through the nodes of 
documented scholarship. For the first time in history, Blake finally has 
secured the .millennial audience. he was hoping for; for the first time, 
his creative work has been made fully available to the world in the 
hypertextual context that compliments it best.

In the words of McKenzie Wark, .writing is not a matter of the text, but 
of the assemblage of the writer, reader, text, the text.s material 
support, the laws of property and exchange within which all of the above 
circulate, and so on. (wark.html). Language is not an abstraction that 
remains far from the grasp of the ordinary reader; rather, it is a living, 
breathing, and constantly evolving entity that is manifested in much more 
than the simple written word. The different contexts in which Blake 
mediated the conflicts between various forms and genres of language were 
blatant usurpations of the linear dynamic in response to an academic 
environment obsessed with limitation: .Linearity is a familiar road -- and 
Blake.s Laocoön offers a kaleidoscope that needs only a shake to create a 
new pattern. While Lessing, and Fuseli, separated the arts and delineated 
their limits, Blake combines the arts and transgresses their limits. 
(Wright 26). This nonlinearity of Blake.s creative work, combined with his 
multimedia presentation, were aspects that created a precursor to the 
digital age -- traits that shaped a flavor of proto-hypertext in his 
illuminated texts and broadsides. The Laocoön, more than any other work, 
best depicts the stormy relationship between image, text, and technology 
in the work of William Blake. While .the digital revolution promises new 
vantage points from which graphicality and textuality might be seen more 
clearly and fully for what they have been if not for what they .are.. 
(Eaves .Graphicality. 116), Blake.s creative pursuits encourage a 
re-evaluation of the very nature of .text. and .image. -- the same 
re-evaluations made, explored, and exemplified by hypertextual work in the 
new virtual medium of the computer.



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