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/lit/ - Literature

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13358730 No.13358730 [Reply] [Original]

>tfw you read the intro, outro and parts of Harold Bloom's Western Canon, and all his interviews, and realize everything he says is right

It's a beautiful thing to think about literature not as a competition of social forces, but the ability to express difficult and complex thoughts which expand one's mind. Nonetheless a canon which is not viewed for its moral, religious, or political virtues, which I would personally describe as the 3 realms of bullshit.

Harold Bloom's life is very clearly coming to an end very shortly, he's been appearing almost dead for the past 20 years and he's reaching the age which no one surpasses. Does anyone else stop and think about how Harold Bloom has influenced them, and how long it will be until our world takes time to appreciate literature as a solitary comfort, and not a social currency? and furthermore, as a challenge to the intellect?

If only we used the secular canon as a tool through which to teach ourselves, not morality, religion, or political agendas.

>> No.13358751

>>13358730
He has good takes on a lot of things but his gnosticism nonsense is stupid and regrettable. He's right about resentment-discourse-based 'criticism' though.

>> No.13358768

>>13358751
I'm not sure what you mean by gnosticism, I haven't heard him say anything about it, and googling the term it doesn't remind me of anything he's said.

>> No.13360013

>>13358730

He's wrong about Tolkien.

>> No.13360624
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13360624

>>13358730
He came to define himself too much by opposition to certain currents of academic criticism that he should have just ignored because they're ignorable and dumb.

And despite what you say, Bloom's view of literature was often too competitive and dickfightish. Anxiety of Influence often feels like he'd rather be doing sports commentary.

He also succumbed to the most obviously fake memes about inevitable culture decline and how poets can't have the "strength" they had in the past. Believing your poetry is magical and throwing yourself into a volcano isn't strength. The 20th century meme of how culture has declined from the grandeur of the past and artists can now only have a quieter, more reserved strength is one of my least favorite.

>> No.13360674

>>13360013
No, no he’s not, you’re just a slackjawed genretard.