“Harold Bloom is a misogynistic narcissist. He’s not even in Yale’s English Department. They gave him his own Department of Humanities because nobody could fracking stand him.” But we still love you. R.I.P., Mr. Bloom.

More Reflections on Harold Bloom

Bloom may be wrong, he may be unsystematic, careless, hyperbolic, but his stakes are high, and that in itself is compelling.

So I think Bloom is an important figure not because he’s a writer I particularly enjoy...,

but because he represents a form of writing that is rare in the academic system, one where the writer has a very clear and very personal viewpoint, where he is able to articulate a direct response to a literary stimulus, and, by virtue of this, to illuminate how we read and to make us remember, if we have forgotten, why we read.

Harold Bloom’s defence of western greats blinded him to other cultures

Harold Bloom’s defence of western greats blinded him...