tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post5781412307794479739..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: For them to read when they're in trouble \ And I am not - the authority of Harold BloomAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-15788349930239419102016-04-03T22:36:13.316-05:002016-04-03T22:36:13.316-05:00Pleasure, yes, thanks.Pleasure, yes, thanks.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-13799894768894889102016-04-03T22:01:02.653-05:002016-04-03T22:01:02.653-05:00I had forgotten that I pilfered something from tha...I had forgotten that I pilfered something from that poem until I read it again. For your momentary pleasure (or not, as the case may be), <a href="http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2003/julaug/27.14.html" rel="nofollow">hop here.</a> Marly Youmanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02377938366750387442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51354023319993025752011-02-11T11:28:43.081-06:002011-02-11T11:28:43.081-06:00william, thank you for writing that. Anyone willi...william, thank you for writing that. Anyone willing to work through some of Bloom's idiosyncracies will find real wisdom. He is "made by the best writers" - exactly. In that way, he is exemplary.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-66729512976558251022011-02-11T08:47:58.767-06:002011-02-11T08:47:58.767-06:00I happily bought this great book on the day it cam...I happily bought this great book on the day it came out having waited for it for years. Harold Bloom is a sage and guide for me everyday and as a common reader I have enjoyed this book from cover to cover over and over. Though he would probably not say he's much of a guide, he channels and is influenced and made by the best writers. Professor Bloom keeps most of himself out of his books we read like Shakespeare does. We know a little yielded about him but there is so much we do not know. I seek not to actually strive know him, unless I am permitted, and substitute hope in the place for knowledge. This is also a theme in the late past post-pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty, whom Bloom was friends with and whom he called the closest to Emerson we have when he was living. I suppose that something in me resists learning, but on days when I feel my own depressions Bloom's advise to memorize poems like "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson has helped. I find Bloom's a great trend, and I hope that his writings do not ever become watery period pieces.william mcbridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05981624058014573760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-52668993547426566902011-01-25T14:53:42.947-06:002011-01-25T14:53:42.947-06:00What a compliment! Thank you so much.What a compliment! Thank you so much.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-56262762860404042812011-01-25T05:52:05.104-06:002011-01-25T05:52:05.104-06:00The post in which I compare what you do to what Fi...The post in which I compare what you do to what Fish does in his new book is up today.Jeannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01374498643286099244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-67601078768196092112011-01-10T22:00:23.166-06:002011-01-10T22:00:23.166-06:00I owe a real intellectual debt to Bloom, so I try ...I owe a real intellectual debt to Bloom, so I try not to mock him too much, although he is <i>eminently mockable</i>. We could find some fine examples in <i>The Western Canon</i>. Any of that stuff about gnostic Agons. I'm not sure, Betty, that making people want to read good books is <i>all</i> that a good critic should do.<br /><br />I'm not at all insulted by a comparison to Stanley Fish. He's a real authority, too, for similar reasons - a leading Milton scholar, for example. I just doubt he has read as much literature as Bloom. Who has? I don't know enough about Fish or what he reads - I know more about his sports cars and tailored Savile Row suits! He's also supremely mockable, although I believe David Lodge has that racket pretty well sewed up.<br /><br />I don't want to comment on the Housman poem, Jenny. It is too sad! The "true, sick-hearted slave" - I'll just burst into tears!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51350699635890061992011-01-07T19:10:13.382-06:002011-01-07T19:10:13.382-06:00It was not Harold Bloom who made me think of you, ...It was not Harold Bloom who made me think of you, but Stanley Fish. (I hope you do not take this as an insult.) Right now I'm pondering writing up my thoughts on his little book entitled How to Write a Sentence, and what I most want to say about it is that you could have said it better, or at least with less fuss.Jeannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01374498643286099244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-81973602381743424442011-01-07T16:44:01.889-06:002011-01-07T16:44:01.889-06:00An interesting thing about "Not me",Bett...An interesting thing about "Not me",Betty, is that it takes Housman a whole stanza todecide that's what it is, which suggests he isn't as sure as he'd like to beRogernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-71679334680368926192011-01-07T07:50:14.565-06:002011-01-07T07:50:14.565-06:00I've recently taken up Bloom's book on the...I've recently taken up Bloom's book on the Western Cannon, and find myself enjoying it very much. He does what a good critic should do--which is, make people want to read good books.BettyDuffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17130418609022759086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-702616999952510162011-01-06T23:57:24.323-06:002011-01-06T23:57:24.323-06:00Me, too (love Housman.)
Crossing alone the nighte...Me, too (love Housman.)<br /><br />Crossing alone the nighted ferry<br />With the one coin for fee,<br />Whom, on the wharf of Lethe waiting,<br />Count you to find? Not me.<br /><br />The brisk fond lackey to fetch and carry,<br />The true, sick-hearted slave,<br />Expect him not in the just city<br />And free land of the grave.<br /><br />What about that "Not me."?Jennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00251983804060081813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-85413444275813500362011-01-06T23:52:41.102-06:002011-01-06T23:52:41.102-06:00Oooh, that's good. Yes, argument, real argumen...Oooh, that's good. Yes, argument, real argument, requires a renunciation of authority. When Bloom says that Hart Crane is the greatest example of the American Sublime since Whitman, or I say that X, Y, and Z are the major works of Nabokov, we are not engaging in real argument!<br /><br />And then - also quite, quite good - art, poetry is an end run (sports metaphor!) around authority. Art can even destroy authority, replace it with something else that is beyond argument, true even if we're not sure why. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.<br /><br /><i>Framley Parsonage</i> will not follow soon. The Barchester books stretch form 1855 to 1867. Why should I be in a bigger hurry? They <i>are</i> fun, enormous fun. And reading Thackeray has been a huge help with them. Who am I kidding, I won't take 12 years. <br /><br />As for WWI lit, I can safely say that I am badly read there. <i>Parade's End</i> was last year's contribution. Oh, wait, how about Svevo, <i>The Confessions of Zeno</i>? You have to be patient - the WWI stuff is all at the end. But it's, um, a home run, or something. Also, <a href="http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2009/04/war-is-different-matter-s-anskys.html" rel="nofollow">S. Ansky</a>.<br /><br />That poem - I do love Housman.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-10215923717717541102011-01-06T20:39:51.514-06:002011-01-06T20:39:51.514-06:00Ooh, that poem. I think you may be right about it....Ooh, that poem. I think you may be right about it.nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-53054962332112615462011-01-06T19:24:50.439-06:002011-01-06T19:24:50.439-06:00Is authority something you can assert? I wonder. I...Is authority something you can assert? I wonder. I have a hunch (I could be wrong) but the hunch is this, that if you engage in argument, you announce to the world that you have no authority. That's why you provide reasons for this or that pet theory or claim. Take Whitman, for instance. What has he to do with argument? Nothing. He neither loves nor hates them, but he dispense with argument entire, as he should, I suppose, being a poet. I read Song of Myself last night and found myself (not Myself but myself, me myself) bowing down before Whitman's authority. His language is so damn compelling that I believe it, I believe him, I believe the things he says, I believe that death just might be beautiful, frightened though I am of it. Authority. Hmm. By damn, I think he's got it. I suspect this is a tanget. My apologies. KevinInterpolationshttp://interpolations.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-83284412536009754142011-01-06T17:26:04.812-06:002011-01-06T17:26:04.812-06:00So impressive the way you're coming out in the...So impressive the way you're coming out in the new year slugging and smoothly driving the ball over the fence every time. Brings on the sports metaphors, apparently, as in my last note.<br /><br />Seque to not reading mountaineering lit, or not now but soon. Any LitWWI notes, as I'm beginning to explore at my place? And are we to assume that Framely P. will follow B. Towers, and the ecclesiastical sextet will be swiftly dispatched? It's good fun stuff.zhivhttp://zhiv.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com