h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I believe the "dark satanic mills" referred to by Blake in Jerusalam was a reference to English public schools and not to the factories of the Industrial Revolution as the entry implies. Blake considered the schools to be hotbeds of homosexuality (of which he disapproved) and was musing on whether a Jerusalam could be built while they existed...

An interesting interpretation - is there evidence for that?

Another possibility is that it is a Biblical reference, via Milton, to Samson.

There are various other literary comparisons between the fires of manufacturing works and the fires of hell. For instance, Burns, on first seeing the fire and smoke of the Carron Iron Works in 1787, wrote:
We cam na here to view your warks
In hopes to be mair wise,
But only, lest we gang to Hell,
It may be nae surprise.

There is also the famous vision of hell (depicted by Dickens) of St Paul's Cathedral silhouetted against the redness of the sky lit up by the fires of the limekilns of Smithfield, with the smoke and the smell adding to the scene.

Bels

Whatever it alludes to for some reason I always think of "The Water Babies" when I hear it. I read it when I was young and the image of a crust of soot and grime falling away from the chimney sweep to create a water baby has stayed with me to this day.

Oh yes, absolutely. When I read 'The Water Babies' I was too young to understand it, but the images have stayed with me. It must be incredibly evocative of something - must go back to it and try to find out what!

I'm always surprised that it doesn't seem to be part of any curriculums I have heard of. From what I remember it was political, literary, and humanist in a very readable form. I'm definitely going to pick it up this weekend. Thanks for triggering a good memory.

Just to add to the last, I told my 17 year old daughter about 'The Water Babies' and she is very excited about it. She sees parallels with globalisation and corporate non-citizenship. I may have to buy two copies.

Ah, but 17-year-olds are always seeing parallels with globalisation and corporate non-citizenship!

But I think the most significant idea I picked up from The Water Babies at such a tender age is where it says about how what is going on (in the realm of the water babies) is actually happening all the time, yet Tom cannot see it until his eyes are opened. Isn't that so true of life?

It reminds me of a character Goethe writes about in 'Harzreise in Winter' who is actually surrounded by love and loving people but just cannot see it, and has nothing but hatred for mankind.

I'd always understood the "satanic mills" to refer to the factories and cotton mills in the north/middlands.

Too true, I wish I was young again. As for the reference I believe it was to the ills of the English Industrial Revolution and nothing specific. As a poetic metaphor I suppose it stands alone. Maybe my daughter has one of the handles this phrase presents.

call me naive but always thought that 'the dark satanic mills' was a reference to the country as it then was which was then juxtaposed with the the country as we would want it to be i.e the 'new jerusalem' which we are encouraged to spare no efforts in building.

That said, I had an engish teacher who insisted that teh spears, bows or burning gold and arrows or desire were all something to do with repressed sexuality.