One of the only remaining literary critics who hadn't become a political writer rather than an aesthetic one, Harold Bloom was among the most Romantic, pugnacious and controversial critics of his time. His dictum that 'the only method is the self' divided him from an academy increasingly convinced that the only method was the use of socio-political-cum- literary 'Theory'. The
Thank you for this. When I discovered Bloom, it was with Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Kids, which I took great pleasure in reading (for obvious reasons then) and then tried to read with my kids (to underwhelming applause). For years I indulged a great fantasy ... to one day bear some smidgin of a resemblance to him. Not physically, of course, you understand :) But in holding such vast stores of knowledge in my head, of having read not just the western but also some version of the eastern canon of great Persian and Bengali and Indian writers and imagined the writing that would flow. The fantasy remains fantasy but now it fights a losing battle with time.
In the meantime I love reading your writing and am delighted by the serendipity that led to this piece this morning. Procrastination consider thyself redeemed!
Thank you for this. When I discovered Bloom, it was with Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Kids, which I took great pleasure in reading (for obvious reasons then) and then tried to read with my kids (to underwhelming applause). For years I indulged a great fantasy ... to one day bear some smidgin of a resemblance to him. Not physically, of course, you understand :) But in holding such vast stores of knowledge in my head, of having read not just the western but also some version of the eastern canon of great Persian and Bengali and Indian writers and imagined the writing that would flow. The fantasy remains fantasy but now it fights a losing battle with time.
In the meantime I love reading your writing and am delighted by the serendipity that led to this piece this morning. Procrastination consider thyself redeemed!
Have a lovely day!