
Harold Bloom Has Died - joaorico
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html
======
briga
There are few people who've read so widely and deeply as Harold Bloom. For all
his idiosyncrasies as a critic and for whatever personal flaws he might have
had, he inspired a generation of readers to read more and explore the classics
of Western civilization. His books are valuable guides to the vast world of
Western literature, and if they help preserve even a fraction of that heritage
for the next generation of readers I think Bloom has achieved his purpose.

We've lost a great mind today. RIP

~~~
saberience
He only read deeply or widely when it came to the "classics" of Western
Literature. He was incredibly biased towards Western literature and especially
English language literature. He had an irrational hatred for anything that
became "popular" such as Harry Potter, Tolkien, or Stephen King. He couldn't
handle novels which (in his opinion) weren't difficult or erudite that the
"average" person could understand easily.

~~~
dbspin
Thats completely fine, since there are a endless number of critics who fill in
the gaps in Bloom's preferences. Few take seriously his canonical approach to
literature anymore, but that doesn't make his critical approach to given
works, or the appreciation he communicates for literature any less valuable.

------
pixelmonkey
I wrote an essay about Bloom’s conception of “the Canon” back in 2003. Was
probably my favorite essay I published publicly from that period.

I still go back to it from time to time, thinking especially about Bloom’s
concept of “The Anxiety of Influence”. The thread I weave starts from a piece
by Walker Percy, entitled “The Loss of the Creature”. That one is somewhat
esoteric and underrated, but beautifully describes the conundrum of art
education by “experts”, and the contrast between truly experiencing art and
merely trying to “get it”.

Anyway, I archived my essay, “Questioning the Canon”, on my personal site
here:

[https://amontalenti.com/2012/12/29/questioning-the-
canon](https://amontalenti.com/2012/12/29/questioning-the-canon)

~~~
kieckerjan
Completely tangental, but nevertheless. Your quote of Percy brought back a
memory.

Almost thirty years ago I was in Avignon. It was scorchingly hot, with
temperatures reaching into the 40 degrees Celsius range. My girlfriend and I
sought refuge against the heat in the neighbouring village of Villeneuve-Les-
Avignon. There was going to be a festival of old music there in the remains of
an old fortress that evening. We could hear someone practicing a piece on the
cello.

No-one cared to guard the entrace in this impossible heat. We trespassed into
the ruins and located an old tower where the music was coming from. There was
actually no door and we snuck up the staircase until we were right next to a
room where someone was playing a beautiful piece, flawlessly. We sat there on
the stairs for fifteen minutes, transfixed by the music. We knew enough about
music to know that it was late baroque, definitely not Bach, possibly French,
but we never dared to expose ourselves and ask. It was a transcendental
experience.

~~~
davidwihl
sounds like a scene from “Tous les matins du monde”

------
bigpumpkin
Here's him reading a short section from Hart Crane's The Bridge:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRY5SelxqPU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRY5SelxqPU)

" O Thou steeled Cognizance whose leap commits

The agile precincts of the lark’s return;

Within whose lariat sweep encinctured sing

In single chrysalis the many twain,—

Of stars Thou art the stitch and stallion glow

And like an organ, Thou, with sound of doom—

Sight, sound and flesh Thou leadest from time’s realm

As love strikes clear direction for the helm. "

~~~
CamperBob2
Sounds like he must have made Douglas Adams's acquaintance at some point.

------
vonnik
Strange side note: A friend of mine knew Bloom, and one of Bloom's favorite
books was Little, Big, by John Crowley. Bloom said he saw parallels between
the 2016 election and the second coming of Barbarossa.

~~~
zebraflask
It is a great book for its genre - modern fantasy without the cheesiness that
I think Bloom didn't like about popular fantasy series.

I didn't know he hated Harry Potter. Raises my opinion of him.

------
jeffdavis
The article confuses me. Bloom thought both that Shakespeare invented
humanity, but also that literature was primarily about the aesthetic pleasure
for the reader?

I am not an expert in literature or criticism, but it seems like there's
something missing from the article to explain that gap.

(I'm sorry to hear of his passing, of course, and I don't mean this as
disrespectful in any way.)

~~~
blacksqr
Bloom was of the opinion that Shakespeare invented the modern (as distinct
from ancient or medieval) conception of conscious self-awareness and
introspection as a new idea of what it means to be human and experience life.

~~~
walshemj
That's interesting I will have to read more, when I did classical studies in
the 6th form. Our teacher ( head of the sixth form) commented that some of the
later Greek plays could be read in that sort of way, The Bacchae for example.

------
jchallis
I used to tutor math and physics near Bloom's office in Timothy Dwight. My
main association with the man is that he would come on strong to every female
English graduate student he could reach.

When #MeToo first came to national consciousness about men in arts and letters
who completely abused their position to take advantage of women, I thought of
Harold. How could these giants of arts and letters abuse so many? Because no
one spoke out.

It does sound near the end of his life, he got some of the medicine he
deserved: [https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/12/16/students-
organize-...](https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/12/16/students-organize-
response-to-saloveys-e-mail-on-sexual-misconduct/)

~~~
jerf
You shouldn't speak ill of the dead like this. It is uncouth and crass for all
sorts of reasons. It doesn't mean you need to forget or ignore it, it just
means... today is not the day. More days will come.

~~~
0_gravitas
Not OP but I've never liked the notion of "too soon" as a reason for not
doing/saying things, it feels very arbitrary. And I don't know much about the
person of subject but I will speak ill of anyone living or dead if they are
someone worth speaking ill of.

~~~
jeffdavis
There are two separate issues: speaking ill of the dead at all; and speaking
disrespectfully too soon after a death.

Speaking ill of the dead at all is generally not good because the person is no
longer able to defend their reputation, and no remedy can be made. The dead is
no longer in a position of power to be removed, nor can they improve
themselves out of remorse. So of something ill is to be said, saying it after
death is too _late_ , not too _soon_.

"Too soon" is problematic because you are using a death as an opportunity to
amplify your own message, and because it can amplify the grief of those left
behind.

~~~
p1necone
I don't know that I consider calling people out for shitty things they've done
to be "disrespectful". Calling people out for shitty things they _haven 't_
done would be be disrespectful.

~~~
smallnamespace
The problem with that attitude is that we all live in glass houses.

Unless you truly believed that if we were to go through your life with a fine
toothed comb, nobody could find anything at all objectionable?

------
henry_bone
If I were to read one of his books as a guide the best bits of the canon to
read, which book should I read?

The main options appear to be 'Genius', 'The Western Canon' and 'How to read
and why'.

I'd like to read more, and a good guide to Western literature might be
helpful.

~~~
pattisapu
I suggest: Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?

In my opinion here is Bloom at his boldest and finest.

He is looking for wisdom, not just in literature, but also in philosophy,
religion....

While in some ways breezy, a bit of an airplane read, and sometimes
provocative of little more than a chuckle, or a facepalm, it is, taken as a
whole, a liberal and generous conception of the humanities and human life.
That's Bloom for you.

~~~
henry_bone
Thanks for that. I hadn't heard of Harold Bloom before today, but what I've
read about his scholarship and writing today, leads me to think that I could
use one or more of his books as a guide to reading books from the western
canon.

I'll check out 'Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?'

------
prvc
We live in an era where great art has so little power that it requires
defending, and that doing so is considered to be controversial. Our time is a
spiritual dark age.

~~~
virgil_disgr4ce
What on earth are you talking about?

~~~
ellius
He's referring to the current academic climate, especially in fields like
literature, much of which is derogatory towards the past and "great works."

------
keiferski
One of the most erudite academics of the past century. It is truly a loss for
those who have a respect and admiration for the great minds of the past.

If you’re a Bloom fan, or are interested in history and literature generally,
I recommend looking into Lewis Lapham and his magazine, _Lapham’s Quarterly_.
Lapham is also an exceptionally well-read, classically-trained writer and the
magazine operates in the same areas as Bloom’s work.

[https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/](https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/)

~~~
skeptical900067
I'm familiar with classical training for music (conservatories) and painting
(ateliers, master/apprentice systems). I've never heard of classical training
for writing. What does it entail? Where can I learn more about the methods?

~~~
keiferski
Well perhaps I was using “classically-trained” incorrectly. I meant that he is
deeply educated in the classics of western and world literature. If you’re
looking for information about the classics, I recommend any of Bloom’s books.

~~~
skeptical900067
Ah thanks. You had me excited for a moment: classical methods for drawing were
tedious, but rewarded my patience by improving my ability exponentially faster
than other forms of practice. I had hoped for something similar WRT writing.

------
Jun8
The Paris Review interview with him:
[https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2225/harold-
bloom-...](https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2225/harold-bloom-the-
art-of-criticism-no-1-harold-bloom)

~~~
spats1990
unpaywalled full version:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170602064548/https://theparisr...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170602064548/https://theparisreview.org/interviews/2225/harold-
bloom-the-art-of-criticism-no-1-harold-bloom)

(psst...I encourage people to subscribe for access, but most older Paris
Review interviews are accessible through archive.org.)

------
teflodollar
It's too bad to read these reports about his lecherousness, because he was
without question a giant in the US world of letters.

~~~
coldtea
Well, hitting on women (for men), hitting on men (for women), drinking, taking
drugs, being tightwad, being lavish, being easily angered, and tons of other
things, never stopped anybody from being a giant of letters or the arts, a
great politician, a good scientist, a great athlete, a great actor, a great
humanitarian, a great businessperson or any other thing...

In fact it's probably more common in the great men and women, than in the puny
average moralists who never achieved greatness, but also never dared go into
any excess as people, and had far far less chances to indulge in such
things...

~~~
supernova87a
Is it possible that extreme greatness in certain talents comes with
unavoidable flaws in others? Creativity, depression, wit, temper, outbursts,
humor, affection. Would banishing some also eliminate the others?

Lots of amazing writers, poets, scientists, are terribly flawed, depressed,
tortured souls. Hell, even we here on HN debate every day the ridiculous
company founders and VCs whose behavior creates interesting enterprises but
leads to inevitable problems later.

We seem to want saints who pique our attention, stimulate our fancy, and
amuse/entertain us. But as some witty person said, living in heaven with the
saints would be worse than hell.

~~~
smhost
well, i don't know if either of you have been paying attention to anything
that's been happening the past several decades, but there's an inherent
problem with the codification of offensiveness. if everything's just a bunch
of offensive meaningless shit (mormon amusement parks and dragon dildos or
whatever), then you run into problems with the the moral relativism of
offensiveness (or, in your case, sexual assault) itself becoming some kind of
heroic righteous category.

so which is it? should sexual assault be condemned, or should it be
celebrated, like you're doing here? to be clear, i care less about where you
stand than i care that you pick a fucking stance.

~~~
supernova87a
I wasn't commenting about those allegations, I was replying to the parent
comment about creative types who have extremes of personality.

I personally have no knowledge of those serious claims. I don't read in any
reports here or elsewhere that Harold Bloom came close to perpetrating sexual
assault. Do you, or do you have personal knowledge? If not maybe you should
think about your own relativism as you try to turn every possible act by a
person you don't know into a rallying cry to fuel your righteous indignation?

I was commenting that the people who have the most creativity often display
severe personality flaws. I wasn't excusing anything. Seems like you're quite
angry?

------
hardlianotion
Nothing to do with Bloom filters then.

------
saberience
Sure it's sad when anyone dies but I never agreed with Bloom's view of
literature. He was unbearably snobby about his tastes and thought anything
popular was shit and the coming of the end of literature. See his thoughts on
Harry Potter, Stephen King, Tolkien, etc. Basically he was living in the past.

He was also incredibly biased towards English language books and had barely
read any Eastern or African literature. Not to mention his general bias
against anything written in the last 20 years, I seem to remember him saying
that there were only three authors in the last 20 years who wrote a good
book...

