Harold Bloom: 'The Anatomy Of Influence' New York Times Book Review

nytimes.com:

At the age of 80, with almost 40 books behind him and nearly as many accumulated honors, Harold Bloom has written, in "The Anatomy of Influence," a kind of summing-up -- or, as he puts it in his distinctive idiom, mixing irony with histrionism, "my virtual swan song," born of his urge "to say in one place most of what I have learned to think about how influence works in imaginative literature."

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[Erewhon7]

12:14 AM on 05/24/2011

Bloom is the crowning jewel of American high brow literary criticism today.
No one even comes close.
Especially appreciated are his efforts (by example) debunking the kind of deconstructiive nonsense which passes for literary criticism in some academic departments.

[tswift4evar]

08:52 PM on 05/22/2011

Thank you for posting this. Reading that article helped revive in my memory all the reasons that I can't stand Harold Bloom.

[John Dav Redux]

03:36 AM on 05/23/2011

Why?

[Aaron Cogan]

12:08 PM on 05/23/2011

I'm guessing because he's not Taylor Swift-ey enough.

[tswift4evar]

06:18 PM on 05/23/2011

His "ZOMGGGG Shakespeare" attitude and just his general stodginess and ethnocentrism.

[AntonioSaucedo]

02:10 PM on 05/22/2011

HB is great, but I find his obsession with Shakespeare a bit off-putting.

[John Dav Redux]

03:37 AM on 05/23/2011

Off-putting? Is there any better writer in the history of the English language?

[Aaron Cogan]

12:10 PM on 05/23/2011

Better writers? Maybe... Better poets? Nope.

[AntonioSaucedo]

04:40 PM on 05/23/2011

But HB thinks WS is the best writer ever in the history of the world, regardless of language and epoch.

[elevando]

01:48 PM on 05/22/2011

Thank you for this link. He seems like he would be tough to deal with at times, but that is to be expected of someone who possesses sublime genius.

[Aaron Cogan]

12:22 PM on 05/22/2011

Harold Bloom's "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" is one of my fave Bard books, not just for the subject matter but the deft style of the author as well.

I'm looking forward to his latest.

[3fingerbrown]

08:03 AM on 05/23/2011

Yeah, I reach for that book whenever I see a Shakespeare play or film -- I don't always see the play the same way Bloom does, but he always enriches the experience for me. (Another staple in my Shakespeare commentary team is Isaac Asimov's guide, which annotates the plays from the historical perspective and sorts out all those dukes and earls and bishops.)

Ever read Bloom's "Jesus and Yahweh"? A nice companion to the Shakespeare book, analyzing the God of the Old and New testements as literary conceits. Love Bloom's take on Yahweh as an early incarnation of Lear -- a peevish, jealous, half-mad old king.

[Aaron Cogan]

12:19 PM on 05/23/2011

I wish I liked Isaac Asimov's guide better. (He's my second or third cousin!) I remember thinking his guide was too remedial and I vaguely remember him getting a plot point or relationship wrong in one of his synopses.

I was blown away when Bloom pointed out in "Jesus and Yahweh" that the ending to Abraham sacrificing Isaac had been given a re-write; it just doesn't make narrative sense for God to step in and say, "Psych!"

Thanks for reminding me; I might need to re-read that one.

[John Dav Redux]

01:30 AM on 05/24/2011

I suggest "Shakespeare" by Mark Van Doren. Just as good, about about one quarter the length.