>The celebrated academic Harold Bloom is a lightning fast

becoming fluent in a language is the mark of a pleb

a true patrician like harold knows you only need to master english and have barebone proficiency in the lesser languages

>inb4 'reading translations'
it's the only patrician way senpai. reading originals is the sure mark of a brainlet.

>why has he failed to become an authoritative polyglot

>authoritative
He holds arguably the highest Humanities Chair at arguably the most (internationally) important American University.

>polyglot
>Based on the rate that he claims, he should have been able to become fluent in a language, to a scholarly level, in three months or less.

An excellent memory and reading ability doesn't correlate to an excellent language ability, nor vice versa. I knew a kid in High School who fluently spoke 4 languages before 18 and could easily pick up any language, but he was duller than hell and had no interest in reading. It's silly to compare the two. If Bloom had spent a lot of time in his youth trying to learn multiple languages, he certainly wouldn't have the same mastery of the English language.

>>8433066
>>The celebrated academic Harold Bloom is a lightning fast reader; blink and he's probably turned the page – twice. In his prime he could churn through 1,000 pages an hour
Harold Bloom, however, would most likely be sure to cite a source for this truly ridiculous claim

>2016
>not reading translations

I've read all the meme trilogy in main language (that of course isn't english) and probably got more of these books than majority of /lit/

>b-but Ulysses
>b-but Amerika

stay pleb friendos

>>8433066
>Does /lit/ really believe this baseless claim?

No, I don't.

I'm certainly impressed with people who are fluent in several languages, but I cannot say that I see putting in all that work is worth it. Unless I were traveling, I'd have no one to speak with, and I'm a poorfag. The other benefit would be of course not reading translations and having perhaps a richer reading of foreign works, which I also do not see as a worthy reward for years of study and practice. I'll stick with translations, thank you, and use my time reading more books.

>>8433098
>I've read all the meme trilogy in main language
I didn't know we had an entire group of trilogies. Shoot me now, I've blown my cover as an oldfag. The only two trilogies I've heard about are Ulysses/GR/IJ and Tunnel/Recognitions/Women and Men/2666, but that's obviously not enough for a mass noun.

Reading quickly is for STEMlords who treat literature like information dumps.

Go slowly and relish that shit. It's the good life, not a fucking competition.

>>8433133

I'm pretty sure Harold Bloom only reads that fast when reading for information. When it comes to his favourite works he goes slowly to savor the language and read closely. He encourages readers to go at their own pace, to read aloud poetry, and to reread great books.

>>8433154
Das fine then. I was scared OP meant to suggest that his published interpretations of books were the result of a half hour speed read.

>>8433185
Lmao nah

He usually recommends reading aloud as well

I doubt the can read aloud 1000 in an hour

>>8433066
I found it hard to believe, but he is rather accomplished, so the thought of him having some sort of superior intellect is not out of the question. Plus, if you follow /pol/ memes they always talk about how Jews have exceptional verbal/linguistic intelligence.

Also, you should be aware that Bloom can speak and read Hebrew, Yiddish, and English. And I've read claims that he can also read German.

I think he's exaggerating. In one interview he claimed that he could absorb a page at a glance in his prime, and could recite massive chunks of Paradise Lost, etc. But on the other he encourages readers to read aloud, and to reread. He says he read Blood Meridian 30 times, but also said he couldn't read it all the way through several times.

He's hard to pin down, but it's safe to assume two things 1) He is definitely a genius 2) He exaggerates his genius.

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>>8433066
>tfw English major and terrible as speaking but Bloom isn't good at speaking either

>>8433066
that would mean he takes 3,6 seconds to read a page.
but yet, how can this even be a number? books does not have the same size, pages does not have the same number of words, it is a variable.
Does it means he could read 1000 pages of Heidegger in one hour? All of it sounds like bullshit.

Also, a true philologist know that the real pleasure of reading resides in reading slowly, appreciating the flow of the prose.

>>8433066
>as said that he wished he spoke Spanish, German, etc. But he doesn't. So why?
because people are good at different things woooo spooky

>>8433312
I was actually really surprised when I heard him read Moby Dick outloud. He sounded awful.

>>8433066
This would explain a lot if it's true (the 1000 pages an hour part, not the part about him remembering everything he read) because a lot of his critiques sound like he just skimmed over the things he's talking about.

>>8433073
This. I actually learmed German so that I could the greats (Ulysses, Infinite Jest, Franzen) in German. And then I can read Goethe and Nietzsche in English. It's a win win.

When I read non-fiction, I can easily read ~200 pages per hour and I don't even nearly read as much as he does nor have I any reasons to practice my reading speed because it's useful for my job as it is for him, so, yes, I believe him.

>>8433066

I mean it's possible but 90% of his criticism is pretty boring to me. Especially now that all he's doing is defending his current mode of criticism from newer modes. Sometimes he makes amazing points about books that show great close reading, such as in the Great Gatsby. But just as often his comments feel like they came from a disinterested and dull speedreader.

He works much better with poetry than novels, I believe he probably speed reads novels very often and that's why his fiction criticism is such crap in comparison.

how was his sci-fi novel that he renounced?

>>8433455
This sounds like the plot to a Borges story.

>>8434070
i find it funny that he is some highfalutin literature critic and yet he wrote some shitty sci fi novel

>>8433455
patrician af senpai

>>8433478
self help books dont count

>>8433312
>>8433348
His first language is Yiddish and he learned English, he claims, by reading William Blake's poetry (and at first not really understanding anything).

>>8434070
>>8434096
I think it's more fantasy than sci-fi, apparently it's also quite good

>>8433455
I mastered English and Russian so that I have the ability to translate English translations of Dostoevsky back into Russian.

:^)

>>8433286
I don't think the memory claims are exaggerated very much. Ever listen to his interviews? The man has enormous amounts of poetry by heart. Every time an interviewer mentions a poem or starts reading one, Bloom picks it up and runs with it from memory and often then mentions one he likes better from the same poet and recites that too.

No, I don't really believe it. Depending, of course, on what it actually means.

If we assume that he actually reads and comprehends everything, he simply physically can't go faster than something like 900 words per minute - well less than 1000 pages an hour, which would require several thousand words per minute.

But if he skips and whatever, there is no limit. But really, he'd be reading hundreds of words and skipping thousands, every minute. Hard to see the value in that kind of "reading".

wait, he really only speaks english and jewish?
how is he such an authority on the western canon?
now, im no omni-glot but i would have sworn german, latin, greek and french were essential to humanities minimum. this guy is giving his opinions on the history of literature the majority of which he cant read?

perhaps he is being merely modest, but is proficient enough to read these languages. i heard he can read german fluently but is unable to have a simple conversation.

>>8435389
>jewish

>>8435389
>perhaps he is being merely modest, but is proficient enough to read these languages
That's not being modest, he said he can't speak them. Reading them is much easier (or at least it requires a different and more accessible kind of practice)

>>8435389
if he learned those languages, he'd simply do those translations in his head

why not leave that job to professional translators?

really tho, you need to take that stuff into account. don't trust any single person to be a real expert of the "western canon", it requires 2 much. just accept the inherent subjectivity of this form of expertise.

>>8433129
Why are you grouping unrelated books as trilogies? I don't understand.

>>8435393
as in yiddish and hebrew you cunt
>>8435389
apparently he did greek and latin for four years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spv0rln-egY&feature=youtu.be&t=1764

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>>8433066
Holy shit.

I thought the person who developed the Western Canon was HOWARD BLOOM.

I have been watching this cunt's videos on youtube for months now and thought it was strange that he didn't have more viewers. I was always surprised at how highly retarded he seemed.

https://www.youtube.com/user/howbloom/videos

MFW it turns out I've been watching HOWARD Bloom, who according to wiki is a publicist/author, thinking he was some highly regarded intellectual.

Fucking kex.

>>8435242
>apparently it's also quite good

i love papa bloom but it really wasn't

so when this old fuck kicks the bucket, who will be the most patrician living on the planet?

>>8435173
He's a completely native English speaker now, that has nothing to do with how he speaks.

>>8435716
kek

>>8436205

he's said before that he pronounces some things very oddly because he read so much as a child and never spoke the language until around first grade. not sure what interview it was from, but yeah.

Can anyone point me to any good literary criticism that he has actually produced? Most of it at a cursory glance seems pretty banal.

>>8433478
how?

>>8433129
kys

>>8436254
whatever you think literary criticism is is almost certainly nothing like "real" literary criticism in the academic sense

>in his prime

So long ago ;_;

>>8435464
And he still isn't fluent in them. Bloom probably can only read slightly faster than the average professor, and until his claims are verified, nobody should believe his bs.

>>8435405
>if he learned those languages, he'd simply do those translations in his head

That's not how fluency works, buddy.

>>8435427
This is called a mee-mee. These things are very much en vogue these days among the younger generation.

>>8435716
Witness the octogenarian patrician still at it:

http://youtu.be/UM-uBIDqmoU

>>8436570
he really does sound like shit

>>8436680
His mind is still as sharp as ever, though. No sign of cognative decline

>>8435254
I hope they were Garnett's translations!

>>8433154
I need to re-read books. Going to start by re-reading Notes from Underground. I want to see if you really do get more out of it.

>>8435327
You probably know a load of song lyrics and odd little facts or tv lines off by heart. Its a similar sort of thing just applied in a different way.

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I would like to see Bloom tear apart John Greens Sjw safespace Crash Course book analyses.

>>8436838
I have perfect memory of so much shite pop music but can barely remember the characters names from the last book I read:(

>>8436898
Same. Id rather remember plot / themes than characters. Besides the one is drilled into you on an almost daily basis.

>>8433082
>>8433107
>>8435464
tl;dr Bloom is much dumber than myths about him suggest