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Harold Bloom, Critic Who Championed Western Canon, Dies at 89
NYT ^ | 10/14/2019 | Dinitia Smith

Posted on 10/14/2019 1:23:28 PM PDT by Borges

Harold Bloom, the prodigious literary critic who championed and defended the Western canon in an outpouring of influential books that appeared not only on college syllabuses but also — unusual for an academic — on best-seller lists, died on Monday at a hospital in New Haven. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Jeanne Bloom, who said he taught his last class at Yale University on Thursday.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: connecticut; godsgravesglyphs; haroldbloom; jeannebloom; newhaven; yale
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To: SunkenCiv

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Resentment

He had a backbone attached to that brain.


21 posted on 10/14/2019 2:56:46 PM PDT by ameribbean expat (Socialism is like a nude beach - - sounds great til you actually get there. -- David Burge.)
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To: arizonarick

I think you are thinking of Howard Bloom, also a very accomplished man, with a great mind and wit...


22 posted on 10/14/2019 3:21:18 PM PDT by abigkahuna (How can you be at two places at once when you are nowhere at all?)
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To: Borges

Podcast: Harold Bloom and Albert Brooks

23 posted on 10/14/2019 3:25:17 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it. --Douglas MacArthur)
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To: BBQToadRibs
If Hamlet was a feminist, he wasn't a very woke feminist. He told Ophelia to get herself to a nunnery.

Whether he meant a convent or a brothel is debatable. I guess a Marxist feminist might consider sex work more liberating than being a nun.

24 posted on 10/14/2019 3:30:19 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Borges

Sad news. His criticism of the King James Bible, Shakespeare and the Western Canon are a must-read.

Harold Bloom was our greatest classical literary critic. He was a champion of the classics.

A towering intellect and national resource who will be deeply missed. Baruch Dayan Ha Emet.


25 posted on 10/14/2019 3:36:29 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Borges

when I was the book buyer for our Library system, we bought a LOT of his books. Sad loss.


26 posted on 10/14/2019 3:41:29 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: livius

I look forward to reading it. He’s a joy to read and you always learn something new.

Bloom’s verdict that Shakespeare Is the central figure of all world literature is unchallenged.

The Bard is the greatest writer in the world, period. Only the Bible rivals Shakespeare for his impact on Western culture.

Western culture is Shakespeare and all of literature after him are footnotes.


27 posted on 10/14/2019 3:42:47 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: ameribbean expat
I wondered who'd invented me, I've got some warranty issues. :^) Thanks ae, well said.

28 posted on 10/14/2019 4:02:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BBQToadRibs
He nailed it. Whoops, that's a sexist term (y'know, for people who live by the tenets of An Agenda Driven Life)..

29 posted on 10/14/2019 4:03:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Columbia is once again in the throes of deciding whether the core curriculum which still emphasizes the canonical literature and philosophy of Western Civilization or should divert resources and teaching to more diversity.


30 posted on 10/14/2019 7:45:12 PM PDT by wildbill
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To: wildbill
"...masters in third world basket weaving...

31 posted on 10/14/2019 7:50:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Borges

RIP.


32 posted on 10/15/2019 5:38:05 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Who will think of the gerbils ? Just say no to Buttgiggity !)
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To: BBQToadRibs
If you’re interpreting with a political angle, you’re re-writing the book, not reading it for personal insight.

Leftist liberal feminist theologians do the same thing with the Bible, even to retranslating the Will of God completely out of it, using the "dynamic equivalency" hermeneutic.

33 posted on 10/15/2019 8:32:18 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: SunkenCiv

I did some graduate studies not so many years ago and found the curriculum being driven by diversity studies even then. The funny part was there just isn’t that much great literature or philosophy texts outside of the Western Civilization cannon.


34 posted on 10/15/2019 8:26:25 PM PDT by wildbill
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