FOUR ZOAS VIIB / 91:1-93:25 (81:14-106:2)


 Though in Night VIII
 Vala narratively inter-
 sects the Shadowy Fe-
 male (104:27), in Night
 VIIb, it is only in per-
 ceptions other than the
 narrator's that such a
 reduction is made: in
the distorted perception
arising from Orc'sjeal-
 ousy (9:14) and in the
 dialogue between the
 Shadowy Female and
Tharmas (93:39-94:26).
 Each of these percep-
 tions involves a contra-
 diction of the narrative
 proper.










 Orc's jealousy of the
 Shadowy Female pro-
 duces his serpent form.



 The emergence of
 incommensurable
 restructuring of ele-
 ments of the narrative
proper at the alternative
account of Orc's assum-
 ing a serpent form


re-emerged in the Demons' song at Orc's birth in Night V) to usurp
Urizen's power in the "Tree": "Compelld by the iron hearted sisters
Daughters of Urizen / Gathring the fruit of that mysterious Tree circling
its root / She spread herself thro all the branches in the power of Orc"
(101:23-25). The "False Feminine Counterpart," a transformation of the
Shadowy Female, is herself eventually "Created... from Fruit of Urizens
tree" (105:20).
 In Night VIIb, an alternative version of the Shadowy Female's assump-
tion of power further develops the relationship between the Tree and the
Chain. The Shadowy Female, who is dialogically but not narratively
identified as Vala in VIIb, is called "The nameless shadowy Vortex" and
the "Shadow." Orc's sexual rending of this female accompanies his freeing
himself from his bonds (his rending his "links")-an event that at first
glance contradicts Orc's role in Night VIIa. At precisely this crux in the
text, however, the narrator uncharacteristically shifts inside Orc's
thoughts to focus on what Orc "knows"; yet key details of Orc's "know-
ledge" at this point violate relationships in the narrative proper:


 Knowing the arts of Urizen were Pity & Meek affection
 And that by these arts the Serpent form exuded from his limbs
 Silent as despairing love & strong as Jealousy
 Jealous that she was Vala now become Urizens harlot
 And the Harlot of Los & the deluded harlot of the Kings of Earth
 His soul was gnawn in sunder
 (91:11-16)


In this interlude, which is situated in the text just as Orc is breaking free
from his bonds, Ore "knows" he has already been transformed into a
serpent by Urizen's "arts," thereby presupposing the action of Night VIIa,
even though in the plot of Night VIIb Ore's act of rending the Shadow
produces his serpent form.
 At this point, where Nights VIIla and VIIb simultaneously intersect and
interfere with one another, Orc suddenly "knows" of relationships be-
tween Vala, Urizen, and Los that have no prior ground in the events of the
narrative proper. As a narrative defense mechanism, Ore has been func-
tioning as the repressed sexuality of both Urizen and Los, appearing to
Urizen as a political enemy he envies and to Los as a son of whom he is
jealous. Though Vala has had no direct relation to Orcper se in the narra-
tive proper, she re-entered the poem in the Demons'song of Night Vat the
point of Orc's birth, and that song (which dealt with the sexual division of
dark Urthona) constituted a primary narrative ground for the emergence
of the Chain ofJealousy. Orc's "Knowing" at the moment of his rending
the links in Night VIIb superimposes and inverts all these sexual relation-
ships. Ore's jealousy toward Urizen and Los appears almost as a reflex
re-enactment of Los's jealousy toward Ore: whereas Los's jealousy in
Night V bound down both Ore and Los, Ore's jealousy in Night VIIb