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Harold Bloom

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Critic

The Resume

    (July 11, 1930-October 14, 2019)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale and Berg Professor of English and American Literature at NYU
    Author of over 30 books, including 'The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry,' 'A Map of Misreading,' 'Kaballah and Criticism,' 'Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism,' 'The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages,' 'Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams and Resurrection,' 'Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human,' 'How to Read and Why,' 'Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?' and 'Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine'
    Editor of well over 100 books of critical commentary in the ‘Bloom’s Modern Critical Views’ series and others

Why he might be annoying:

    He looks like a cross between Zero Mostel and Robert Morley.
    He has almost comically saggy features and always appears to be exhausted and depressed with a gloomy, hangdog expression permanently etched on his face.
    His main contribution to literary theory, 'The Anxiety of Influence,' basically argues that all poets anxiously compete for inclusion in the literary canon by 'creatively misreading' the great works of their predecessors.
    He doesn’t take this 'anxiety' business lightly either. When he is in his high polemical mode, he often nags and scolds like an overbearing Jewish mother – implicitly trying to make his readers feel guilty and stupid (and anxious!) for not reading as much as he has. (Yeah! Get a life, you illiterate pinheads! Soon you’ll all be dead and unread!)
    He once claimed to be able to read 1000 pages per hour (if that’s true, he could have gone through ‘War and Peace’ in about 90 minutes!).
    He is heavily into second century Gnosticism, Lurianic Kaballah and psychoanalysis – and these weird, esoteric influences color a lot of his mystical outlook and writing on literature.
    He calls Shakespeare his 'mortal god' and claims to have memorized every word of Milton’s epic poem, 'Paradise Lost.'
    He esteems James Joyce’s 'Finnegans Wake' as the greatest book of the last century, a work many (including Ezra Pound) find altogether boring, pointless, unintelligible and unreadable.
    He was a mentor to controversial writer and loudmouth cultural commentator, Camille Paglia.
    Feminist author, Naomi Wolf, accused him of 'sexual encroachment.'
    He received a lot of hate mail for a scathing article he wrote in 'The Wall Street Journal' decrying the phenomenon of the Harry Potter books.
    He dislikes computers and the Internet and refuses to use email or fax machines.
    He trashes the work of many popular and commercially successful authors like Stephen King, J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling.
    He also detests noted feminist writers, Adrienne Rich and Alice Walker and evidently has little use for celebrated Beat writers Allen Ginsberg.and Jack Kerouac.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household in the impoverished south Bronx and began reading incessantly at age three.
    He believes that the only thing that matters in life is great literature and strong writing – and indeed, he practices what he preaches.
    His critical writing has been translated into at least 17 languages, and he is one of the most prolific and influential literary critics in the world today.
    He has been a distinguished professor of literature at Yale for 50 years and says he has no intention of ever retiring.
    His oldest son is a diagnosed schizophrenic.
    He recovered from triple-bypass open-heart surgery.
    He nicknamed himself 'Bloom Brontosaurus Bardolator' in reference to his long academic career as well as his inexhaustible passion for Shakespeare.
    His favorite literary character (and professed role model) is Sir John Falstaff from Shakespeare’s 'Henry IV, Part 1.'
    He said, 'We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.'

Credit: magnetic stream


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 64 Votes: 51.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 33 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 102 Votes: 51.96% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 19 Votes: 73.68% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 27 Votes: 59.26% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 37 Votes: 62.16% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 50 Votes: 58.00% Annoying