>In 2003, Harold Bloom wrote in the Boston Globe that there were only four great American novelists alive and working: Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. Is this true? Does it really not get any better than these four?

File: 28 KB, 564x423, harold-bloom-1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 11:49:54 2019 No.13787437 [Reply] [Original]

>In 2003, Harold Bloom wrote in the Boston Globe that there were only four great American novelists alive and working: Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth.

Is this true? Does it really not get any better than these four?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 11:50:33 2019 No.13787441 >Don DeLillo Man, aging and dementia is sad. Bloom really lost it towards the end

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 11:50:58 2019 No.13787443 >>13787437 >Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. Yeah he's more or less right.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 11:57:32 2019 No.13787478 File: 6 KB, 219x230, pepe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] TFW no DFW

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 12:02:03 2019 No.13787504

>>13787478
>Asked about novelist David Foster Wallace, who took his own life in 2008, but who has a new book out, “The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel,” put together from manuscript chapters and files found in his computer, Bloom says, “You know, I don’t want to be offensive. But ‘Infinite Jest’ [regarded by many as Wallace’s masterpiece] is just awful. It seems ridiculous to have to say it. He can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent.”

>It’s all a clear indication, Bloom notes, of the decline of literary standards. He was upset in 2003 when the National Book Award gave a special award to Stephen King. “But Stephen King is Cervantes compared with David Foster Wallace. We have no standards left. [Wallace] seems to have been a very sincere and troubled person, but that doesn’t mean I have to endure reading him. I even resented the use of the term from Shakespeare, when Hamlet calls the king’s jester Yorick, ‘a fellow of infinite jest.’

>“It’s sort of a dark time. Imaginative energy I think is very difficult to summon up when there are so many distractions. There’s a kind of Grisham’s law [in literature]; the bad drives out the good.”

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 12:05:53 2019 No.13787528 >>13787504 Based

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 12:10:18 2019 No.13787550 File: 1018 KB, 3264x2448, ECicMd8.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>13787437 >Thomas Pynchon >novelist

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 12:10:22 2019 No.13787551 >>13787504 Interest. As someone who has read and enjoyed DFW I honestly can't say I disagree that much. Dude is unreadable at times. However, there are some parts of the Pale King that are amazing

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:08:59 2019 No.13787906 >>13787504 what a pseud

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:14:23 2019 No.13787946 >>13787437 Definitely wrong about Roth

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:21:13 2019 No.13787982 >>13787946 Why, when Roth is the best of the bunch?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:33:17 2019 No.13788055 >>13787982 Pynchon > McCarthy > Roth > DeLillo

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:38:12 2019 No.13788074 >>13787982 Muh shiksas Muh goy cattle Muh embarrassing relatives

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:45:23 2019 No.13788100 >>13787946 Roth was an extremely good writer. He is underrated these days, /pol/tards hate him for being a Jew and libtards hate him for being politically incorrect.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:49:57 2019 No.13788120 >>13787437 Out of those only McCarthy and Pynchon are real pals.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:50:00 2019 No.13788121 >>13788100 What's hilarious is that American Pastoral is the quintessential right wing boomer book

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:53:45 2019 No.13788140

>>13788074

Which books have you read?

I’ve read The Plot Against America, American Pastoral, and The Human Stain.

I’m about to write an essay about his central theme: existential betrayal.

American Pastoral > Mason & Dixon > Underworld > The Human Stain > Gravity’s Rainbow > Blood Meridian > Portnoy’s Complaint > White Noise > Slow Learner > Mao > The Crying of Lot 49 > The Plot Against America

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:58:50 2019 No.13788162 None of you have read Libra and it shows.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 13:59:32 2019 No.13788168 >>13788162 Is it good?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:01:46 2019 No.13788180 >>13788162 it was good but if thats the peak of America then you people are f*cked

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:02:15 2019 No.13788182 >>13787504 Based. And I thought the pale king was amazing

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:02:28 2019 No.13788183 >>13787437 >great >American

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:11:44 2019 No.13788235 >>13787504 I tend to enjoy Bloom’s analysis but Jesus Christ what a fucking snob. Peak boomer academy in my opinion.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:16:56 2019 No.13788267 >>13788140 Portnoys Complaint and Sabbath’s Theater

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:18:13 2019 No.13788271 >>13788235 Cause he said a book you like is trash? Get a grip.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:19:33 2019 No.13788276 He’s definitely wrong about Roth living. The Jew is stone fucking dead

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:21:02 2019 No.13788282 >>13788276 >In 2003

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:22:27 2019 No.13788290 >>13788282 He just died in 2018. Do a google before you open your stupid fucking mouth

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:24:59 2019 No.13788298 >>13787437 Bloom should be ignored primarily because he actually takes Kabbalah seriously, and praises Leaves of Grass for initiating a new age of spirituality in America. Literally an occultist.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:27:48 2019 No.13788308 >>13787504 you know things have gone sour when this old pasta generates unironic ass-chapping

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:30:29 2019 No.13788314 >>13788298 And Isaac Newton should have been ignored because he was an alchemist.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:32:20 2019 No.13788322 >>13788298 Get a load of this goy who doesn't want to reveal the sephirot

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:33:42 2019 No.13788331 >>13788314 This is your brain on materialism folks.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:34:16 2019 No.13788333 13788290 actual retard?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:42:48 2019 No.13788367 >>13788333 blessed trips wasted on a moron

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 14:46:16 2019 No.13788375 >>13787437 This guy knows all 500 pages of paradise lost by heart. He's basically a literary monk. Wish I had his genetics.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 16:34:57 2019 No.13788855 >>13788375 He also admits to skimming books he reviews (he calls it "speed reading")

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 16:35:44 2019 No.13788859 >>13788855 where does he review books?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 16:36:03 2019 No.13788862 >>13788859 Goodreads

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 16:43:59 2019 No.13788902 >>13788862 figures

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 17:11:37 2019 No.13789001 >>13787550 What is that pic? Moar pls....

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 17:27:17 2019 No.13789068 >>13789001 letter written by pynchon you can search warosu and google for more

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 17:39:06 2019 No.13789110 >>13788168 delillo's best novel, as in not experimental and just him going to town with his strongest suits (set-pieces, military-political angles, conspiracy etc)

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 17:56:53 2019 No.13789193 >>13788375 You sound so fucking gullible.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 18:16:26 2019 No.13789268 What about Gass?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 18:48:31 2019 No.13789431 >>13789268 don't mind if I do

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 18:49:53 2019 No.13789437 >>13787437 At the time Tom Wolfe was still alive. Wasn't he highly rated?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 18:57:48 2019 No.13789479 >>13789437 Bonfire of the Vanities had good reviews. His later novels weren’t quite as well received.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 18:59:38 2019 No.13789484 >>13787437 Roasties BTFO once again.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 19:18:04 2019 No.13789569 >>13787478 DFW would be really entertaining to have alive right now.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 19:40:56 2019 No.13789688 >>13789437 No he was considered middlebrow.

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 20:41:46 2019 No.13790014

>>13787437
Well he definitely thought other writers were good from that era. Whether he thought anything by someone younger than Tony Kushner is good is a good question.

Actually he praised Joshua Cohen's Book of Number's. So that's one millennial he approves of.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 20:44:01 2019 No.13790024 >DeLillo Midwit >McCarthy Okay, but only on account of blood meridian >Pynchon True >Roth Lowbrow at best, just a friend of Bloom.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 20:47:32 2019 No.13790043 >>13790024 What about Sabbath's Theater?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 20:49:30 2019 No.13790052 >>13790043 His one truly great book. Overrated due to Bloom’s critical praise though.

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:06:41 2019 No.13790117

>>13789268
P sure Bloom had a public dispute with Gass or some shit. After all, they were both competing on the same turf, except Gass was a bonafide artist whereas Bloom was essentially a schoolboy. Bloom tends to skip over the post-Nabokovians in general (probably from his inability to wrestle with Nabokov) except for Pynchon, who has the benefit of being his friend. His comments on Gaddis and Barthelme, for example, are limited if not virtually nonexistent.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:07:29 2019 No.13790121 Pynchon > McCarthy > DeLillo >>> Roth I don’t believe for one second that Bloom’s old ass actually read all of Infinite Jest so his take on Wallace is irrelevant.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:08:31 2019 No.13790126 >>13790117 Did Bloom ever actually meet Pynchon? I know Pynchon is said to have met a lot of writers, though.

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:10:51 2019 No.13790137

>>13790126
I’m pretty sure I’ve read something somewhere about them talking on the phone. I know for a fact he was friends with Roth, and still maintains regular correspondance with McCarthy. Pynchon would make further sense given his wife was a major New York editor.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:11:55 2019 No.13790143 >>13790121 This. This was from his era of ressentiment. Pretty sure Bloom stopped reading contemporary lit after Mason and Dixon.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:14:33 2019 No.13790154 >>13790143 He claims to have read Joshua Cohen's Book of Numbers. Might have read it in advance of Cohen's interview, though?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 21:15:36 2019 No.13790156 >>13790137 Let's be real, he's probably friendly with Delillo too.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 22:44:17 2019 No.13790595 >>13787437 One guy's opinion. I like some of Delillo's stuff. Delillo's stuff made me want to read more. Haven't read the other three, not sure I care if I do unless somebody wants to recommend each author's absolute best work.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 22:47:08 2019 No.13790605 obviously false, as i was alive and in 4th grade in 2003 fucking retard

Anonymous Mon Sep 9 22:47:16 2019 No.13790607

>>13788162
>nderworld > The Human Stain > Gravity’s Rainbow > Blood Meridian > Portnoy’s Complaint > White Noise > Slow Learner > Mao > The Crying of Lot 49 > The Plot Against America

Is Libra worth it? I was going to read Mao II or Libra and never got around to it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 22:50:51 2019 No.13790624 >>13790607 Slow Learner?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 23:12:54 2019 No.13790720 >>13790624 didn't read the other ANON's post, my bad man is it his best?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 23:34:34 2019 No.13790813 >>13790595 Gravity’s Rainbow Blood Meridian American Pastoral

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 9 23:55:41 2019 No.13790884 >>13787437 goddammit bloom is one ugly motherfucker just look at his stupid smelly lip. Sitting next to him would be my own personal hell as I'm sure he smells like very VERY rancid shit and piss

>>	Anonymous Tue Sep 10 01:06:13 2019 No.13791132 No love from Bloom for the ace, Mr. Kennedy, William Kennedy? If the city of Albany were to be destroyed, it would be possible to rebuild it by reading Kennedy’s novels. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQzXPZFojk

>>	Anonymous Tue Sep 10 03:09:49 2019 No.13791477 >>13787504 >in the end, it turns out i was the fellow of infinite jest

>>	Anonymous Tue Sep 10 04:26:43 2019 No.13791678 >>13790605 pyw>>13790607

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