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Harold Bloom Is Not Well
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/01/11/bloom-cancels-class-due-illness/
We joke about Harold Bloom here on the site, but the truth is I don’t know much about the man. I have “Invention of the Human”, and I’m not lying when I say that I can’t finish it. That doesn’t necessarily say anything about the man, however – I adore Isaac Asimov, and I have trouble with his tome as well.
It’s unfortunate, then, to report on Professor Bloom’s failing health:
English professor Leslie Brisman described Bloom as “gravely ill” in a Jan. 7 e-mail to students in Bloom’s fall seminar, “Shakespeare and the Canon: Histories, Comedies and Poems.” Bloom has been in the hospital since December.
For those that are interested, somebody’s set up a Get Well Harold account on Twitter for sending him well wishes.
4 comments:
I often equate my intellectual awakening with Bloom (with Dostoyevsky as a dark predecesor). I deeply admire the man and am heartened to see the kind words that are expressed here on this page.
Harold Bloom has taught me more than I can remember. One of the most important writers of the past half century.
I wonder what the joking over Bloom could be about? On a Shakespeare site I mean. He extended his great Shakespeare tome Invention of the Human with a extended book just on Hamlet (Poem Unlimited), and has written about Shakespeare many, many times. Few people have written nearly as well, from the past or the present. I don't understand why some people seem alomst proud of dismissing him. So he has opinions as well as understanding, knowledge and insight. Opinions and the internet - it's a real head-scratcher for me. The internet, it seems to me, is a limitless forum with room only for the single mind.
I started reading Bloom shortly after I started reading seriously about 17 years ago. I've found that those who have actually read him, whether they like him or not, realize he is not the racist sexist monster that his weakest critics make him out to be.
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