Who is Harold Bloom and why does his opinion matter?

Harold Bloom (born July 11, 1930) is an American literary critic and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University.[1] Since the publication of his first book in 1959, Bloom has written more than 20 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and a novel. He has edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm.[2][3] Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Bloom came to public attention in the United States as a commentator during the Canon wars of the early 1990s.[4]

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>>8045103
Dunno but he makes funny meme pictures

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He's a big guy

He's the Samuel Johnson of our age.

>>8045103
Freudian literary critic who has shilled his name into semi-household name status by bitching about books that everyone knows are shit.

He claims Shakespeare is the greatest yet is a 2nd-rate Shakespearean at best. His skill is in aggregate opinions of those who came before him and coming up with a stance that agrees with his secular Jewish Gnostic worldview.

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>>8045110
Edited for extra memage

>Who is Harold Bloom
A literary critic

>why does his opinion matter?
it doesn't.

>Why does his opinion matter?
Because he is incredibly well read and has devoted his life to studying and preserving the study of the greatest works of literature.

>>8045160
This probably applies to plenty of people that /lit/ doesnt' meme constantly as well

>>8045115
Was this means?

>>8045175
He's a fat literary critic who loves Shakespeare.

>>8045160

He thinks Infinite Jest is good, and wants Cormac McCarthy in the Western canon.

>>8045194
Actually he doesn't like Infinite Jest.

>>8045189
I thought Johnson was an enemy of Shakespeare. No?

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>>8045194
'David Foster Wallace..no discernible talent'
He said IJ was terrible, but he does love McCarthy; no to the extent of making him a canonical writer though.

>>8045206
He loves Blood Meridian, literally that's it.

>>8045206
He considers Blood Meridian canonical, as well as some of his other books like Child of God, Suttree and All the Pretty Horses. Think he also liked The Road to some extent

>>8045212
I know he said Blood Meridian was excellent and All the Pretty Horses as well, although the other members of the border trilogy are 'not as fine'.

>>8045216
He also didn't like No Country for Old Men. Felt the violence was unjustified or something, which is actually an interestingly similar opinion to film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's on the film adaptation.

>>8045206

Whoops, I meant to say Gravity's Rainbow.

The problem with most of the criticism of Bloom here is that he's an easy target because he seems snobbish and is old and fat, but a majority of the people on /lit/ would say that his list of canonical works was the greatest selection of literary art ever produced if it were attributed to DFW.

It surprises me that Bloom holds Blood Meridian in such high regard considering the last third of the book peters out to a large extent and much of the prose is formulaic with characterization not really existing beyond Holden and maybe Glanton.