I have read “How to Read and Why” and did not remember much other than the Shakespeare and that is was an overall “difficult pleasure”. Thank you for, with your excellent piece, reminding me why I looked to Bloom’s book in the first place.
Pleased to see your comments on Bloom; he probably gets short shrift these days for now being of the proverbial old dead white guys.
I'm only able to take him in small pieces (and his formal criticism only in particles) yet I do hang on to a few of his books for occasional rejuvenation, pleasure and sting.
The closest I can recall getting to the lofty heights of transcendence in a group was in the classroom of a talented professor of literature, decades past. Thanks for taking the time to work this up... and, oh yes, is there any longer a place for the western canon?!
That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? (Well, one of them.) I think there will probably always be a canon, though it might not be strictly "western" anymore, and we might find a less musty word for it than "canon." But I think people will always want to know what they "should" read, there will always be other people happy to prescribe to them, and there will always be some degree of consensus among those people. Plus, the idea of a canon keeps us all tussling over what's worth reading, which I figure is a good thing!
Love this essay, Kathy! And I love that I now have permission to read alone!
Isn't that funny we need permission?!
I have read “How to Read and Why” and did not remember much other than the Shakespeare and that is was an overall “difficult pleasure”. Thank you for, with your excellent piece, reminding me why I looked to Bloom’s book in the first place.
You're welcome! I think remembering "difficult pleasure" as a takeaway was probably a great way of honing the whole thing down to its essence, though!
I love that paragraph you shared from the prologue. Thank you for writing this wonderful piece! It gives a lot of food for thought.
Glad you liked it, Lauren. I enjoyed writing it--gave me food for thought, too!
Hello Kathy;
Pleased to see your comments on Bloom; he probably gets short shrift these days for now being of the proverbial old dead white guys.
I'm only able to take him in small pieces (and his formal criticism only in particles) yet I do hang on to a few of his books for occasional rejuvenation, pleasure and sting.
The closest I can recall getting to the lofty heights of transcendence in a group was in the classroom of a talented professor of literature, decades past. Thanks for taking the time to work this up... and, oh yes, is there any longer a place for the western canon?!
That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? (Well, one of them.) I think there will probably always be a canon, though it might not be strictly "western" anymore, and we might find a less musty word for it than "canon." But I think people will always want to know what they "should" read, there will always be other people happy to prescribe to them, and there will always be some degree of consensus among those people. Plus, the idea of a canon keeps us all tussling over what's worth reading, which I figure is a good thing!