Beyond reason, rhymes - New Yorker has 'enlarged the vocabulary of American poetry’ Nov 8, 2008
Critic Harold Bloom, one of the poet s champions, has proclaimed that we live in the Age of Ashbery. His work, like a mountain top, is easier to take in from a distance than to actually set foot upon. (Missoulian, MT)
Authors regard Obama as a peer Nov 7, 2008
Obama's student poetry was even lauded and compared to the work of Langston Hughes by the most discerning of critics, Harold Bloom. Slide show. (MSNBC -- News)
Over the rainbow Jul 19, 2008
However, Kripal, like Harold Bloom, makes a strong case for paying more attention to this strand of thought in American history, which connects Emersonian transcendental tendencies to activist politics, and turns religion into secular spirituality and utopian social vision. Baum's Land of Oz belongs in this tradition, and he was banned for decades in US schools and libraries for exhibiting communist tendencies. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
The attraction of B&W mythologies May 6, 2008
wrote on May 5, 2008 11:22 AM:" I've written about biblical subjects many times on this blog and on the Trib blog. I do agree with the literary critic Harold Bloom (who calls himself a 'gnostic Jew') that one ought to assume that BELIEVERS do believe after all and that a literalist attitude toward the Bible would be more expected than a critical one. That doesn't prevent biblical mythology from having its own bizarre aspects; I also agree with the mythologist Joseph Campbell that every religion... (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
The death of Kings Mar 15, 2008
You can look at the two Henry IV plays in a variety of ways: as a Bildungsroman about the education of a prince or, like Harold Bloom, as a character-driven portrait of Falstaff. But the diptych makes best sense when seen as a totality about the way faction, dissent and decay infect a whole kingdom. (Guardian Unlimited)
Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon Mar 7, 2008
Morrison, however, does not follow this classical structure directly, describing the novel in Harold Bloom s companion as her own giggle (in African-American terms) at the proto-myth of the journey to manhood ... Harold Bloom, ed. Toni Morrison s Song of Solomon. (Suite101.com)
A Week Without Speech: Girl tries out not talking for a fast Mar 1, 2008
Harold Bloom wrote on Feb 29, 2008 2:21 PM:" Thirteen years old?? Congratulations, that's a very well-written article. Good luck with your fast. I hope you write a part two. ". Kyle Worley wrote on Feb 29, 2008 10:38 AM:" Kayla- I know that it was difficult, but I am proud of you! You made a decision and you stuck with it. That takes strength and patience. Hopefully through this experience you can make everything you say have meaning from now on!!! Great article and Great job! ". (Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, OK)
The anatomy of Yeats's inventions Feb 17, 2008
With "After Long Silence" Vendler has recourse, as she does at other places in the book, to Yeats's manuscripts, by way of helping us to follow "the poet's creative thinking as it motivates the evolution of the poem." As for "Easter 1916," which Harold Bloom once found was, in its clarity, uncharacteristic of Yeats, Vendler finely brings out its complicated clarity, but also points out something about the poem that I, at least, had never noticed: that the date of the Easter rebellion, April 24,... (Boston Globe)
Mini movie reviews Jan 25, 2008
" (Trisha Klein, staff). 84 min. PG-13. Beechwood: 5:20, 7:25 and 9:30 p.m. daily, with additional shows at 1:10 and 3:15 p.m. Friday-Sunday; Carmike: 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40 and 9:50 p.m. daily. Rambo - Sylvester Stallone heads back into action 20 years after Rambo III. (Dallas Morning News) 93 min. R. Beechwood: 5:25, 7:40 and 9:55 p.m. daily, with additional shows at 12:55 and 3:10 p.m. Friday-Sunday; Carmike: 1, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45 and 10 p.m. daily. There Will Be Blood - As a... (Athens Banner-Herald)
Today's best bets Jan 24, 2008
Your Connection to the. Web Search powered by YAHOO. (Athens Banner-Herald)
Newsweek: Was Proust a neuroscientist? Jan 9, 2008
To take but one example, there's a quote from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that I've always thought captured a very modern scientific idea, which is that our perceptions are influenced by our linguistic descriptions of the world: "And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." I think [the critic] Harold Bloom was right to point out that it's hard to imagine human nature without "Hamlet"... (MSNBC -- Technology)
Spiritual theme lights the way Jan 1, 2008
According to the literary critic Harold Bloom, in contemporary America the dominant world view is a form of gnosticism. Perhaps Pullman is of the spiritual party without knowing it. (The Australian)
The curse of the unread Dec 30, 2007
Readings, he says, "grew up on a false analogy with music: the text is the score that doesn't come to life unless it's performed. It's false because people can read words, whereas they can't read music." Finally, one learns from Harold Bloom that he loves TV evangelists, especially Jimmy Swaggart, over whose disgrace he gloats wearisomely. But that is not the most depressing of his revelations: "I watch MTV endlessly, my dear, because what is going on there, not just in the lyrics but in its... (Boston Globe)
Book review: The Paris Review Interviews, Volume 2 Dec 27, 2007
No one in this collection, of course, is more of a performer than the critic Harold Bloom. His interview is a tumultuous ride. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Obituary: Diane Middlebrook Dec 18, 2007
She put herself through college, ending with a PhD in English literature at Yale under the legendary Harold Bloom. She was taken on as an assistant professor at Stanford while she was still a graduate student. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Ralph Rader, at 77; theorist on novels Dec 6, 2007
It was outlined most famously by Harold Bloom in his 1973 book, "The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry.". "For Ralph, it was a matter of influence without the anxiety," Hale said. (Boston Globe)
Chain of experience Dec 3, 2007
Michael Welch wrote on Dec 2, 2007 2:01 PM:" It's important as I tried to say below in my first post that the mindless 'submission' to either a 'holy book' or a series of doctrines or a centralized clerical authority or the superego in your own head be mitigated by your very humanity. As the great literary critic Harold Bloom notes in his fine study of 'Jesus and Yahweh' there are several Jesuses (including an 'Americanized' one) -- there's the one in Matthew that I quoted saying 'love your... (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Asking for more in my final act Nov 23, 2007
The reviews had just come out and they were almost unanimous in praise of the Coen brothers' adaptation of the novel by Cormac McCarthy, he who has been lionized by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Harold Bloom. I have to admit that I had never been crazy about McCarthy - "All the Pretty Horses" being too purple and "Blood Meridian" too portentous for my taste. (Boston Globe)
Sex, murder and Heidegger: a detective story Nov 22, 2007
Maybe Harold Blooms got a heart condition and theyre worrying someones gonna ask the wrong question give the old man a stroke ... He grunts, but I know the chief wouldnt recognize Harold Bloom if the literary critic tried to cop a feel. (Yale Herald, CT)
Read about 'Why We Read What We Read' Nov 15, 2007
Harold Bloom puts it this way in his book How to Read and Why. Irony demands a certain attention span, and the ability to sustain antithetical ideas, even when they collide with one another. (USA Today -- Life)
Questions you should never ask a writer Oct 16, 2007
One of the most pointed criticisms of Lessing came from Harold Bloom, the Yale professor and literary critic, who told The Associated Press, "Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable." He went on to add that the prize is "pure political correctness." Interestingly, Lessing had some strong thoughts about political correctness, thoughts she expressed in this adapted article, which appeared on... (International Herald Tribune)
Doris Lessing: 'I have an impressive list' Oct 13, 2007
The literary critic Harold Bloom has called the academy's decision "pure political correctness", I say ... "Oh, Harold Bloom. What does he mean, do you think? Maybe he thinks it's time they gave it to a woman." The phone rings again ... "Tell Harold Bloom, I've had much posher recommendations," she says, chuckling. (Guardian Unlimited -- UK)
THE NOBEL PRIZES: Literature Oct 13, 2007
"This is pure political correctness," said American literary critic Harold Bloom, commenting on Lessing's Nobel. "Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable ... fourth-rate science fiction.". (San Francisco Chronicle)
Lessing Wins Nobel Literature Prize Oct 11, 2007
However, American literary critic Harold Bloom called the academy's decision "pure political correctness.". "Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable ... fourth-rate science fiction," Bloom told The Associated Press. (Newsmax)
An audience with Philip Roth Oct 7, 2007
Since his debut in The Ghost Writer in 1979, Nathan Zuckerman has become Roth's most celebrated alter ego. To mark the publication of Exit Ghost, in which Zuckerman takes his final bow, America's foremost novelist talks to Hermione Lee about his life and work. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Read on... Oct 2, 2007
Swoosie Kurtz - Entertainment News - Variety. Stars as Lily in ABCs 'Pushing Daisies'10/1/07 9:00am Stars as Providence gangster Michael Caffee in Showtimes 'Brotherhood'9/29/07 1:14pm Plays Sgt. Doakes on Showtime's 'Dexter'9/27/07 9:00am Plays Rita Bennett on the Showtime series 'Dexter'9/26/07 10:00am Voice of Bart Simpson who hosts a No Limit Texas Hold Em Tournament to benefit PALS9/25/07 8:00am. (Variety)
A sharp pen that too often drips with acid Sep 30, 2007
His targets - Mortimer Adler, George Steiner, Harold Bloom, Edmund Wilson - don't really need to be taken down ... Harold Bloom - surprise. (Boston Globe)
What does soulful mean? Sep 1, 2007
In the space of one volume of collected essays on Hurston - Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom - we find a critic arguing that the negative criticism of Hurston's work represents an "intellectual lynching" by black men, white men and white women; a critic dismissing Hurston's final work with the sentence, "Seraph on the Suwanee is not even about black people, which is no crime, but is about white people who are bores, which is"; and another explaining the "one great flaw" in... (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Encountering what is most real in Shakespeare’s plays Aug 9, 2007
But the amazing achievement of the plays, as critic Harold Bloom and others point out, is when characters such as Hamlet, King Lear or Macbeth transcend the words they speak and come to life transformed into what the poet Shelley called forms more real than living man. Other playwrights use characters as mouthpieces for their own philosophy. (Winona Daily News, MN)
A send-off fit for a wizard Jul 28, 2007
In 2000, Harold Bloom despaired for her readers. "In an arbitrarily chosen single page - page 4 - of the first Harry Potter book", he objected, "I count seven clich;s, all of the 'stretch his legs' variety". (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
The boy wizard takes his final bow Jul 23, 2007
(I'm guessing Harold Bloom has never read the "Gossip Girl" series. . (Christian Science Monitor)
web watcher: We’re 37th in the world? What’s that all about? Jul 22, 2007
And I found American literary critic Harold Bloom s Jesus and Yahweh a mesmerizing, acutely perceptive and entertaining series of essays re: differences in the God(s) of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Graves book was published more than 60 years ago and Bloom s only last year I believe, but both are enlightening, provocative reading and WELL worth your time. (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Tight Security Keeps Harry Potter Under Wraps Jul 19, 2007
The books have been slammed by literary poobahs like Harold Bloom, but I love their balance between enchantment and dread. Order of the Phoenix is, in some ways, an improvement over Rowling's novel, which is mired in Harry's angst and builds to a climactic wand-off better ogled than read. (NPR)
Growing up with Harry Jul 15, 2007
Literary scholar Harold Bloom has argued that the Harry Potter phenomenon represented "another confirmation" of the modern "dumbing-down" of culture. It's beyond argument that this dumbing-down exists and is present in every form of art today. (Boston Globe)
The greatest story ever sold Jul 8, 2007
The great Harold Bloom decided this wasn't great literature. Christian fundamentalists had to have it explained to them that good always triumphs over evil in a Harry Potter book. (Globe and Mail)
A happy homemaker Jun 28, 2007
But the web site -- radioopen -- will carry on, including online conversations with Harold Bloom and Larry Summers, among others. Tingle's Scottish dream Comic Jimmy Tingle is gearing up for August's Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a few last performances of "Jimmy Tingle's American Dream" at his Somerville theater. (Boston Globe -- Living)
Jonathan Storm | PBS's 'The Mormons' traces faith's evolution Apr 30, 2007
Professorial superstar Harold Bloom, a Jew, gets the second-to-last word in the report. "Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death," he says. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
A gripping look at foundations of Mormon faith Apr 27, 2007
And, notes Yale professor Harold Bloom, America's Yoda on all things spiritual, "All religion depends on revelation. All revelation is supernatural. If you wish to be a rock hard empiricist, then you should not entertain any religious doctrine whatsoever.". "The Mormons" brims with informed talking heads -- church historians, journalists, church elders, and a constellation of happy Mormons. (Boston Globe -- Living)
A terrifying Rome comes powerfully to life in the Actors' Shakespeare Project's Titus Andronicus.'' Apr 3, 2007
CAMBRIDGE -- William Shakespeare wrote "Titus Andronicus," the critic Harold Bloom has argued, as an over-the-top parody of Christopher Marlowe. We're not meant to take its rivers of red blood and oceans of purple metaphor seriously, Bloom asserts; it's all a big, gory joke -- so silly, he concludes, that he wouldn't see it again unless Mel Brooks were directing. (Boston Globe -- Living)
Oprah Picks Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' Mar 29, 2007
Critic Harold Bloom, famous for his discerning taste, has called McCarthy one of the greatest living American writers, along with Don DeLillo, Philip Roth and Thomas Pynchon. In coming weeks, the reclusive McCarthy, who did not appear on the show Wednesday and who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., will conduct his "first television interview ever," Winfrey said. (CBS 4, CO)
Robert McCrum meets James Salter Mar 26, 2007
Light Years followed, the novel of a disintegrating marriage that Harold Bloom has placed in his Western Canon. Mention this to Salter, and he brushes Bloom's advocacy aside. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
A scholarly supernova Mar 18, 2007
Greenblatt rejects what might be called the Harold Bloom school of the celebration of genius. "It's not inappropriate to admire the work, but admiration is not sufficient. I don't think Shakespeare was a God. I don't think he invented the human, to coin a phrase." (Bloom's book was titled Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human). (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Let teenage student weigh in on plans, goals for summer Mar 18, 2007
For example, Harold Bloom has edited a series of study guides that illuminate, rather than flatten, the classics. Ron Fletcher teaches English at Boston College High. (Boston Globe -- Local)
Her father's voice Mar 11, 2007
The critic Harold Bloom famously read the Romantic poets in terms of "the anxiety of influence", arguing that their creativity stemmed from an Oedipal reaction against their canonical predecessors. "Strong" poets are those who throw off the burden of the father and find a voice that is fully their own. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Who is the greatest of them all? Feb 23, 2007
The American critic Harold Bloom, who was bold enough to write a book listing the western world's canonical works, refers to a great author's "sublimity" and "representative nature", by which I assume he implies some transcendent, quasi-religious quality. His talis-folk include Shakespeare (the "centre of the canon" and "the largest writer we will ever know"), Dante, Chaucer, Cervantes, Milton, Goethe, Dickens, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Freud, Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Kafka, Borges and Beckett. (Guardian Unlimited)
