Farewell Harold Bloom
1930-2019.
As those who have actually bothered to read The Western Canon know, Harold Bloom's knowledge of, and appreciation for, literature, was transcultural and global. His critics could not match his capaciousness, so they pretended that he was as parochial as they were—and then faulted him for their own deficiencies. He was, by profession, both a literary and religious critic, modeling himself after Dr. Samuel Johnson and Walter Pater in the former capacity, and after the divine Mr. Emerson and William James in the latter. Now, of course, his detractors will come out and claim to have been with him all along. And so it goes…
His mind was itself a library.
As those who have actually bothered to read The Western Canon know, Harold Bloom's knowledge of, and appreciation for, literature, was transcultural and global. His critics could not match his capaciousness, so they pretended that he was as parochial as they were—and then faulted him for their own deficiencies. He was, by profession, both a literary and religious critic, modeling himself after Dr. Samuel Johnson and Walter Pater in the former capacity, and after the divine Mr. Emerson and William James in the latter. Now, of course, his detractors will come out and claim to have been with him all along. And so it goes…
His mind was itself a library.
posted by Sidi Hamid Benengeli | 7:52 PM
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