Techno-Prosthetic Romantic Futurism

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being

My old heroes make me uneasy: Blake makes "Albion" his "Ancient Man," Byron dies for Greek liberty. Until recently both seemed fine choices. But consider their larger cultural implications. [1]   Albion founds a lineage of "Ancient Britons," true progenitors of Humanity. Greece founds the lineage of Western Culture, classical bulwark against barbarians. Albion is white and so is Athena. It never occurred to me to question the obvious. Why query the color of Romanticism? As we all know it has none. [2]   Right?

Notes

1. As does Saree Makdisi, sort of. See William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003).

2. White goes unmarked. See Richard Dyer, White (London: Routledge, 1997).

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