Closing is a timeless book, and I had the chance to question Bloom about his disastrous take on rock music, when he addressed the audience at Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto. He said that in the 1950s smoking was a substitute for sex or a quick fix as rock music is today. I didn't know what he meant by that or how smoking could possibly affect liberal education (for good or bad) but I said that the Cyclops throwing a rock at Ulysses was the same aberration of nature as rock music in his estimation and he was taken aback. I gathered that he privately came to the same conclusion but was shocked that somebody else could have. I think he was thinking about Mick Jagger... but all told I think his book hits more home runs (excuse the sports analogy) than most books about culture.
I recollect myself that when speaking out in public about this book I was very quick to distance myself from his take on women. Indefensible. Yea....some home runs but some definite whiffs. (btw...I read about half of Ravelstein but just was not charmed enough to keep on.)