Harold Bloom interview on 'The Western Canon' (1994)

Professor at Yale and New York University Harold Bloom shares his new book, "The Western Canon," and analyzes the state of literature today.

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[ManufacturingIntellect]

Check out these GREAT Harold Bloom books on Amazon:

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[rellman]

He came to class an hour and a half early, every class day, to have lunch and hold office hours with his students. What a sweet man, a dedicated teacher.

[hughmanatee]

Bloom's answer to Rose's question about "What we get out of reading Shakespeare" is magisterial, and I'm grateful to Charlie that this time he did not interrupt Harold Bloom.

[Beastwck]

I'm so thankful for podcasts. This would have been so much better as a 3-hour conversation. TV interviews never felt like they had room to breathe.

[VocalEdgeTV]

Who's here 2020 and appreciating how relevant this is now...unfortunately?

[harrisonmccartney]

Harold Bloom was an enormous proponent for reading the "best of what has been written". He's not speaking to the average person, although the average person is invited to listen, but rather he is addressing the aspiring intellectual. Not as a label or some other phoney lifestyle substance, but for truly intelligent people who understand and appreciate the value that poetry and literature has in giving us insight into how other people think and feel. How applicable these myriad of situations are in relation to our own lives. One lives a fuller life with the lessons of poetry and literature. One loves others more fully with poetry and literature. One forgives more readily, accepts more readily, and embraces more readily with poetry and literature, and not just towards other people but towards oneself as well. Literature is as close to a gesture of love from one person to another as anything there is.

That being said, some writers have done this better than others, and it takes a long time for books to find relevance in the Canon, which are foundational works that emphasize a certain novel writing style or become so widely read and discussed amongst critics in reference to other works that they pass into casual conversation when the topic of newer works arise. A work is canonical if one mentions it frequently in reference to what other books have attempted to achieve. The influence of that work becomes inescapable, and therefore it serves to inform what other writers have drawn from it, either directly or indirectly. Bloom tried to keep as contemporary as he could, and he made a wonderful appraisal of Blood Meridian as one of the most recent novels to enter the American Canon, but so few writers can even match, let alone imitate McCarthy's level, but nearly everything else goes back to the early 20th century, as those works have matured into their relevancy in discussing their impact on future novels. People can and should see their own personal value in literature, and hold their opinions as boldly as Bloom does here. But for the literary critic, or the brightest minds who feel up to the challenge, understanding the Canon produces a wealth of delight in further reading. Countless are the number of scholars and intellects who have found endless pleasure in thumbing through the pages of Ulysses because their knowledge of Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and so on produce such deeper meaning on the page. A person without this knowledge may be at a loss or think some sentences or phrases just plain random, but for those familiar with the Canon it illuminates so much more than just the words on the page. It harkens to what might comparatively be called an "in-joke", or something where the experience of readers who understand is vastly different than the experience of readers who don't.

[Crowborn]

"Pseudo-historicists calling themselves new but nothing more than a mixture of the French theorist Foucault and a lot of salsaparilla" is a quote for the ages

[Tsnore]

A canon is such because it has survived generations of scrutiny, giving pleasure and meaning to good minds across societies. Post-modernism poisoned this with its crude political reductionism and dissections. This Bloom loves aesthetics, brains, and high-quality skillful work. And hats off to him and his seeking cognitive, rhetorical, and open-minded power. It enriches our lives.

[TheNutmegStitcher]

When I was in college, I befriended a fellow English major who had never read a book completely through. That was in 1989.

[cryptaker]

This guy is a prophet for what is currently happening in the universities. He saw what was coming

[sergiolobato]

I'm always in awe of this man's intellect and comprehension of humanity! I've always had great sympathy for Profs Bloom's literary proselytizing RIP dear Prof.!

[BestFilmproducer]

This interview might truly be a testament to the fact that intellect supersedes appearance in any way. I listened to this entire interview (not just this video) while bicycling, and I was amazed by many of Bloom's insights and his soothing and calm voice.
Of course, I may disagree with some of his arguments, but that's beside the point, I am trying to make.

[SerWhiskeyfeet]

It's insane how relevant this is right now.

[haribo]

Good literature will always be relevant. As Ezra Pound once said: "Literature is news that stays news!"

[rechtsoffmann]

Wow, not only writes so well but so very articulate in conversation too...amazing

[Violetcas]

While I may not always agree with everything he had to say, I would be lying to say I do not owe a great debt to Harold Bloom for my mind and its freedom. I think my greatest advocacy of Bloom is that I disagree with him often, because the journey of academia begins in healthy disagreement and from disagreement we discover the passion and the joy of discussion, and inevitably the climax of consensus. This is the fruit of academia, and I have Bloom to thank for engendering this attitude in me and many, many other people. We lost perhaps the last true classical academic when he died.

[samanarfaie]

More than ever we need deeply penetrative thinkers like Professor Bloom. Our society needs people who can critique and challenge the intellectual status quo. His departure leaves a great legacy of scholarship. You will be missed, Harold. Greatly.

[LifewaveXKneeProtocol]

Here I am again listening to this. So important…

[myimorata]

I know it was probably time, but his passing is a sad occasion for me. RIP Prof. Bloom. You will be missed.

[lvan_studio]

Why did it took me this long to discover this intellectual giant? Thanks for sharing! 🙏🏼