Nah it's just ol'age. My professors, grandparents, and neighbour, drink their coffee like that! They get shaky at that age. Think their muscles; don't connect with da brain sonwell
I’d love to see what Bloom would have to say about these adult “booktubers” whose “top ten of the decade!!!” Lists are comprised almost entirely of young adult novels whose prose doesn’t exceed double syllables. Always amazes me when I see that kind of thing.
You're right. I absolutely feel embarrassed yet baffled seeing people in their late 20s naming Harry Potter as their favorite book when they have an entire bookcase behind them to choose from. God only knows what the other books are 🙂!
He passed awag, but I'm pretty sure he'll be highly dismissive towards them. I won't blame him though, most of them are really *bad* in book recommendations and reviews.
I grew up with a strict Nanna who took back my Harry Potter book because it said witchcraft on the back. Instead, I was allowed to get a Goosebumps book. I don't know how Goosebumps is any more Christian? However, I enjoyed those Goosebump stories as you got to choose which path to take in the story. I didn't get help reading much as a kid. However, when I was a teenager I began to read the Bible myself quite religiously. Because I only really had read the Bible I started to write like that also. Only later in life did I begin to read some classics and now I love them. After reading Nietzsche I also picked up some of his style when I write sometimes. I think although Harold Bloom was a bit of a snob, he still has a valid point deep down - reading the best that history has to offer creates in the reader an edifice to produce a similar quality of mind and works.
Your Nana though ultimately right was a bit silly to think a pulpy children’s escapism could have anything to do with immoral codes and real witchcraft. JK Rowling is no Alaistar Crawley. On the contrary the arc and structure of HP borrows heavily from the Bible.
@@rishabhaniket1952 This one of the dumbest and old fashioned comments I've ever read!Her granny was right to gatekeep a book?What is wrong with you, people?
@@serban8298 I don’t think you can comprehend English or you have taken some drugs. Clearly failing to understand what seems to be written and then projecting your cheap opinions on it. Wipe your tears and get a reality check, Harry Potter was a book loaded with unexecuted philosophical ideas meant to tantalise people of a certain age and build a fan base. It clearly worked, as adults like you are still wandering around feeling nostalgic and sacred about a piece of work by mixing your own childhood experiences with a piece of young adult fiction. Grow up, there are other things to read and watch. Whining little child. And change your diapers you silly sod.
@@rishabhaniket1952 You don't even know who you're talking to!I've read and I'm reading plenty of books both classic and contemporary, both acadamemic and for entertainment and Harry Potter is definetly worthy of all its praise and you will never understand why if you don't open your mind for more!
I think in this day and age, if a person reads at all, that itself is a miracle. A Harry Potter or a Stephen King book might be just what someone needs right now.
I have three bookshelves dedicated to Harold Bloom. His works, his Canon, his commentary, his works as editor. I also read and enjoyed Harry Potter. Even when he shames me I adore him and his literary brass balls
I also went from HP to Alice in wonderland. I felt like Alice in wonderland was the equivalent of taking heaps of acid then writing book about your experience.
Exactly! I don't mind Bloom as a character, his women hating tendencies aside, but his prognostications on things that he knew nothing about like children's development show him to be a fool in many respects. I mean honestly, did he want children to read so that they would wind up as potential sexual abuse victims in his seminars at Yale?
@@royalmitchell4905I did but there’s a gap of around ten years between those two things. Harry Potter isn’t a springboard to anything great, it’s just the process of growing up that will allow you to move on to better books.
Which of King's novels did he actually read though? His snarky comment about King is based on a statement from him that I couldn't even find. Also, he criticized the Potter books for using "cliches" like "stretched his legs" multiple times, but it turns out that phrase was only used in the first book literally one time.
@@windandcloudshadow158 I won’t forget him and so will many ppl all over the world both in serious literary academic circles and passionate individuals who love literature like myself. Jk Rowling and Stephen King are only talked about today out of shallow nostalgia and movie reboots; they were merely penny novelist who got lucky. True culture always out last pop culture or as Nabokov called it: Poshlust.
@@Strong_Opinions What? Bloom won't be remembered lol he bashes things yet will be forgotten, King will always be remembered perks of being the king of horror 8) even if I don't believe that he's not even my favorite writer ask anyone who he is they will know. Ill give you JK Rowling because she's had only one successful book series while King has multiple best selling novels and numerus awards, Bloom is smart but let's not act like anyone knows his name as much as King's intellectual or not.
I love Harold Bloom, but once in a while, after a healthy dose of Dostoevsky or Cervantes, or Homer, I feel the need to sit down and read something like "The Shining" Enjoying a little mind candy is fine. It doesn't mean you've betrayed the Western Canon.
I don't think that he believed that enjoying some "mind candy" was inherently bad. Bloom did have a real problem with the contemporary habit of placing lesser fictions in the same company of better fiction.
As a young man my nan started me off, simply enough, with Finnegans wake and Hamlet. I eventually discovered Harry Potter and the golden compass series. That's growth.
In my experience, the people who I study with at uni who like to read the classics (I study physics, so not all my fellow students love reading the classics) all adore Harry Potter, and say it was the book that got them into reading in the first place. We all have different tastes in books, I like War and Peace or Moby Dick a great deal more than Pride and Prejudice, but I don't go around insulting everyone reading Jane Austen for that reason. It's fine Harold Bloom didn't like Harry Potter, but I think he is quite wrong to say the children who read it will all grow up never reading the classics.
For those of you missing the point, Bloom is saying that Rowling and King represent the literary heights of the 21st century; so, if that's the case, humanity owes itself an explanation. As in, how is it at the turn of the 20th century the list of authors was phenomenally titanic - Hardy, Wells, Stevenson, Lovecraft, Woolf, Hemingway, Wilde, Joyce, Twain, Doyle, Tolstoy, and so on; but now, a century later, the list of authors is uttetly pathetic - King, Rowling, Meyer, Collins, James, Harris. 1. The only thing Harry Potter prepared you for was Twilight, which prepared you for Hunger Games, which prepared you for 50 Shades of Grey. 2. If you did put down Harry Potter to read something more literary, why was it for a book from over a half century ago; why is the literary landscape so bankrupt now when the fortunes have gone unspent?
It's partly because the publishing industry is promoting a certain kind of 'woke' literature. Books are no longer chosen for their quality, even in the so-called 'literary' world, but for their ideological correctness - they must promote 'diversity' and sympathise with victimised minorities, basically - and/or for the profiles of the authors, who need to be good-looking, ideally, young, and belong to cool minorities themselves. Some such authors (Zadie Smith, Chimamanda, for instance) are talented. But many not. I don't think we're seeing the best of what's being written.
@@ryanmckenzie1990 could you clarify if I should be crucifying tolkien for the hyperheroism found in the fantasy saga at the latter part of siglo XX and Murakami for the onanism that is Japanese isoliterature [isolation literature]??
I get that he means they srent yop quality literature and I agree with that. However hat doesnt mean they arent book you can enjoy. He acts likebifnits jot high srt than its pointless reading it when that's not true . I do think high art should be over looked for popular stuff but what it comes down to is you read what you want to read. Yes theres better stuff than potter and king jo question but no cunt is going to make me feel bad for what I'm reading.
“I am completely an elitist in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness.” Robert Huges
>a-at least the books were good though "No!" The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
Obviously I am a fan of the potter series. This criticism of Harold's is wholly justified. The kids who are reading the books now essentially have it engrained in their head what HP is supposed to be through the eyes of their parents. I believe this correlates more to what Bloom is saying here. Instead of children reading the books and continuing to higher reading they become simple fanatics of 1 book series.
Saying “don’t read Stephen King because it’s not high literature” is like saying “only read non fiction because if it’s fiction it’s just a waste of time”. Reading for pleasure is the point. Even Shakespeare was just a guy who wrote plays in his time. King has been around long enough by now to not be a fad.
Your analogy makes no sense. It's plain stupid. That being said, I agree with you. Reading shouldn't be intrinsically an intellectual endeavour. It's perfectly ok reading whatever you enjoy.
@@brunokubin It makes sense because there are people who say reading fiction is a waste of time. "If youre going to read you should be reading to better yourself or gain knowledge and apply it practically in real life" etc. The same way this dudes saying if youre going to read you should be reading high level novels that do more than simply entertain. Both are saying a certain type of reading is a waste of time and that a certain type of reading is valid.
@@uploadinstuff ok, let's say I agree with your premise. Reading in order to "better yourself and gain knowledge and apply it practically in real life" and reading more refined literature that do more than merely entertaining are both the only valid reasons to pickup a book according to a random pragmatic person or a literary snob as Bloom. However, the beauty of art and literature, if you ask me -and this is why I agree with Bloom to a certain extent-, is that it has no practical use. One reads to seek intellectual but mostly aesthetic fulfilment. Aesthetical appreciation in any of its multifaceted forms is arguably the most elevated and spiritual human experience, whereas reading for practical reasons is on the other side of the spectrum, since it serves a utterly mechanical and mundane purpose.
@@brunokubin Thats why I brought it up. Because to a person who says all fiction is a waste of time, Bloom is a fool who wastes his time with childish endeavors like pretending things that dont exist do. To Bloom its obviously not the case. And to a child who likes Harry Potter neither perspective is the case. ie. its silly for Bloom to say his approach is elevated over other approaches like its silly for a person who doesn't read fiction to say nonfiction is elevated over fiction.
Incredible how, even in this day and age, there still exists a lifelong dual between literary fiction and popular fiction. They fully complement one another, but the literary folks always tend to adopt a high-society air about them and remain critical as hell of the opposition. I studied English Literature and have read all points on the spectrum. I don't feel I will ever fully comprehend this collective hostility 🤦
don’t get me wrong, Ive been a fan of hp since childhood but I’ve recently become torn over it. The fact that it’s the perfect consumer product (it literally has a theme park) and also promotes hyper consumption (the first place Harry goes when going through the wardrobe so to speak is … shopping). On the other hand there are echos of odysseus’s and Aeneas’s journeys through hades going so far as to have the philosophers stone guarded by a literal Cerberus, All this while still being magical Conan Doyle.
Well it takes the Anglicisation of its appurtenances, towns, places and names of wizards so much that, with names such as ''Longbottom'', and ''Quidditch'', that seems in its literary effect in popular conception to please and be charming to the imagination of an idyllic English aura, but for Harold Bloom invokes a feeling of bitter displeasure at being gratuitously kitsch imitation of classic England's authors like Conan Doyle.
@Maurits Sure. It is not supposed to be something deep and there are lots of books that aren't deep but aren't criticized constantly. Its target are kids who are introducing themselves into literature and people looking for something enjoyable and easy. At least it motivates some people to read.
@@majestycrush Not really. The "Le wrong generation" crowd writes off just about every kind of music that isn't classic rock or grunge (and only the more popular bands, at that). Disliking one trendy book series doesn't mean that you dislike contemporary books.
Like, Andersen's and Grimm's tales are, well, good literature. Bloom collected an intire trilogy of poems and stories for kids. Rudyard Kipling wrote for kids and os canonical.
I read Harry Potter at twelve, then went onto Tolkien, then to King, Finally after hearing it was one of Stephen King’s favorites I read the masterpiece of modern fiction that is Blood Meridian
If anyone should say something like this, it should be Mr. Bloom. And he was a man who devoted his life to literature, criticism, love of reading and books. I do think he is wrong in a sense. Just like films have different genres and different directors, so does literature.
Here is a quote from his introduction to a book on Tolkien that he edited: "But there is still the burden of Tolkien's style: stiff, false archaic, overwrought, and finally a real hindrance in Volume III, The Return of the King, which I have had trouble rereading. At seventy-seven, I may just be too old, but here is The Return of the King, opened pretty random: [random quote from Tolkien's book] I am not able to understand how a skilled and mature reader can absorb about fifteen hundred pages of this quaint stuff. [...] Sometimes, reading Tolkien, I am reminded of the Book of Mormon. Tolkien met a need, particulary in the early days of the counterculture in the later 1960s. Whether he is an author for the duration of the twenty-first century seems to me open to some doubt"
I dont know what this is but do you think bloom likes him or not? He begins with saying ”but”. Does that indicate that he still like some Things of it? Interested in hearing.
He admires The Hobbit but questioned the popularity and quality of Lord of The Rings. Bloom thought LoTR possessed a style too old to be considered a modern book.
Stephen king was right. Literary critics can't write worth a shit. Nobody embodies that more than Bloom. That 90 year old who can't stop screaming "back in the old days" about 100 times a day, even when there is no one to listen. The man had brilliant takes on Shakespeare and classic literature. I love those myself. Always have. But the snobbery he shows everytime he talks about modern literature has always rubbed me the wrong way. So what? So what if people only enjoy the Potter books or Stephen king or even Danielle Steele? They enjoy reading don't they? What is wrong with reading for pleasure? Much as I hate using the word "elitist", Bloom is one of the biggest ones. A man made too bitter by his own inability to write a book worth reading.
I've always found Bloom to be an enjoyable writer. Whatever his faults I always have found his critiques engaging. You are deeply confused if you believing the pleasures of reading are relegated to pop culture. You are as confused in equating "modern literature" with popular culture fiction of King and Steele. In the end King is no Tom Stoppard, and, Steele no Jamaica Kincaid.
I been reading Cervantes , Homer and Russian Literature for years, all of which have brought me enormous pleasure. You have to apply more effort than genre fiction of course, but finally understanding their aesthetic value and distinguished merits brings enormous pleasure. You’re deeply confused if you think we only read literature because it tickles our intellectual ego. It’s not snobbery. You sound like a person who never matured their taste buds to bitter foods or drinks like coffee and has to pour sugar and cream on everything to make it palatable.
@@Strong_Opinions Yes, it is just pure intellectual snobbery of the most disgusting kind!I read classics and genre books as well!All of them have good and bad books!Classics have Gulliver's Travels by that moron called Swift and Red and Black by Stendhal, a book with a plot worthy of a turkish soap opera!As for the genre books, we can mention most romantic novels that are indeed trash!Also, Cervantes is not that great an author!I understand that Don Quijote has its meaning, but we're still talking about a satire!
Harold Bloom was a great literary critic. What I've read of SHAKESPEARE: THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN, I really like. I need to read the whole thing someday. I have to admit it's fun to read HARRY POTTER and Stephen King. Yes, J.K. Rowling and Stephen King are not anywhere near the greatness of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Austin, or Dickens, but they are good at a certain level.
People like this sadly are no longer the shining light of society. Great works of art provide solace, healing and comfort for those trying to make it through the turbulent winds of life. They allow us to perceive and be understood better. They forever transform us. I have no problem with people reading Harry Potter, anymore than I have problem with people reading flyers strewn in a a subway. However, I hope that people come to understand that there are works of art that merit their exalted status. The purpose of Dostoevsky is not for you to name drop at a dinner party. The point is for you to engage with his works, which will likely forever change the way you see yourself and the world around you. The point is for you to engage with your conscience, which superficial works of creative endeavors don't get you to do. But as someone has once said, it is a losing battle. It is like getting a blind person to see colors.
@@serban8298 I don't like Dostoievski, but then again I rarely like books that are not science-fiction or fantasy. I love Harry Potter, but not JK Rowling. It's a beautiful world and a great story, but the prose itself isn't the best.
I adored Harry Potter, but I couldn’t stand Twilight. I saw the first movie and felt like I was physically assaulted by its awfulness. Of course, I’d actually read “Dracula” by that point, and read every book I could find in our library on vampire lore, so I knew to balk at the “sparkles.”
I’m glad that he criticized jk Rowling and Stephen king. To many people from my generation look at them as literary gods and that just simply isn’t true. There’s a difference between being a story teller and being literature, and there’s a difference between being a good story teller and great prose stylist and to many young readers confuse the two, king and Rowling being the perfect example.
nobody looks at them as literary gods but everyone looks at them as people who can write an entertaining story. I read a lot and don't care for literary style as much as character development and an engaging plot. Seriously, i read award winning books and think "no wonder nobody talks about these, they're boring"
@@ninjablack4347 literary gods was definitely an overstatement. But there are lots of critics out there who put king on the same pedestal as Edgar Allen Poe or jk Rowling with Jane Austen, which seems to early of a judgment call for anyone, especially since neither king or Rowling have any Serious scholars on their work. And I’m not belittling them, as much as it may seem. they’re good STORY TELLERS, which has given them a mark on contemporary literature, but that’s it. I guess maybe I was trying to say that many readers/critics nowadays don’t seem to know how to discern from contemporary vs literature. Contemporary litterature is good in itself because it speaks to people on a grand scale, without coming across as boring. Thats important, but that shouldn’t be the basis of judgment when it comes to recognizing something as ‘great’.
Please! I have been an avid reader since I was 12, very, very few people would consider Rowling and King as "literary gods". They are more like gateways to classic and what people like Bloom would consider "real literature". What they are, as they themselves have said are storytellers. Oh and for all of Bloom's diatribe, the man sucked at writing. Worshipping Shakespeare doesn't make you a great literary critic. I myself love Shakespeare. But Bloom is the type of one of those metal fan boys who consider anyone who listens to metallica "not a real fan". Pure ignoramus!
@@thugnomics123 do you think its unfair for people who read a lot of genre books to critique the classics like "It takes too long for the plot to get going."
People read Harry Potter because it is a fun story. People read King because they want to be thrilled. If someone wants to become a writer, than of course they should take those authors for what they are. HB seems to forget that most people are not bibliophiles obsessing about prose.
I have never felt such conflicting emotions towards another person as I do towards Bloom. He is elitist to the core, but he also held the line against revisionists and the "School of Resentment", which was/is important. And I also just gotta respect anybody who displays the level of savagery that he did with that parting line! XD
I don't think he was elitist, he was more a demanding man, not thinking people was too stupid to read classic but just lazy. He knew what was great, good or bad..and didn't think, like our era, that everything was relative. And he was crazy right about the school of resentement who took the media control...it pays well being a victim
On the contrary…..he was no elitist. Reading books like Harry Potter is like watching the same old sitcom with the same wooden characters and the same gags that are stretched to a point that even the plot that unfolds is formulaic. It does nothing to open your mind and make you think. Long story short, it’s pulpy escapism.
@@rishabhaniket1952 You are dead wrong too!Harry Potter has a lot of substance actually, but just like all snobby fools here, you will never understand!
@@cringyboring Yeah as a kid you think this is the best thing ever…..this whole world building et al. But if you are a 60 year old who has studied literature extensively you will feel like it’s a bit cliched and silly. Though I don’t agree about the thing that children should not be made to read it and it should be thrown.
I loved reading Twilight back to back with Blood Meridian and Gravity's Rainbow. It was almost as good as sitting on the toilet reading The Art of the Deal after devouring Fanged Noumena, Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, and The Book of Mormon. As the cherry on top of it all I enjoyed The Phenomenology of Spirit paired with The Lesser Key of Solomon the King and Eragon. (I also can't recommend more highly the Paw Patrol Phonics Box Set. It's actually decent, unlike that pretentious trash The Sound and the Fury!)
As a former Wattpad fangirl and a current classics and literary fiction enthusiast, I can say that some of us just need to be sold on the joy of reading and even silly fanfics can be the path to a life long committment to reading. I get where Harold is coming from but snobbery ain't gonna help anybody be a reader.
I've read Harry Potter and King, Harry Potter is the 1st English book I read back 1998 at the age of 7, I grew up French, and it's when I discovered I had a strength for reading. By the age of 8 to 11 I went on to read Black Beauty, Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, War of the Worlds... etc. I read a good chunk of the classics, still adding to my to read list, and also read a lot storytelling books like King, Rowling, Paolini and many others. Some classics I like more and vice versa, can't say I loved Frakenstein more then Harry Potter, in fact I'll never pick up Frakenstein again, such a dull book. I really do believe saying Harry Potter and King are classics is dumb because they really aren't, will they stand the test of time though I really think they will because they manage to tell a good tale, not because they're beautifully written. Arguing about what's good and what isnt in the world of books is 100% futile, what's good and what's bad is subjective and cant be quantified. Enjoy the books you love and leave it at that, no one is lesser for enjoying a story that resonates with them.
Agree. While i admit those books that Booktubers promote will be forgotten and put in the dust bin, Bloom is wrong in saying they have no value for children. I used to read YA all the time then as i got older moved to literature, and recognized why its so great and full of substance vs popcorn genre. But here's the thing, my tastes evolved because i was reading so much YA. It'd be like if you were only allowed to watch the Godfather and not The Avengers because the Godfather is cinema and MCU is not
If ever there were a shining example of literary snobbery, here it is. This has a very high rating of contempt and arrogance. Bang out of order if you ask me. Disappointing😞
Given the way the authoress has been going, it looks likely. She’s alienated her audience, and has essentially poisoned the IP to the point that WB is trying to buy her out.
Stephen King is a genius with plenty of literary success and has been so for over 4 decades now!You, on the other hand, are just a worthless snob and hater who's not gonna be known by anyone!No, Bloom didn't roast anyone, Stephen King surely doesn't care(if he even knows about it)and his fans don't care either!
@@serban8298 Ha ha ha ha! Ah you silly kid. King is far from a genius, he uses juvenile phrases half the time and has said himself that he's the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. Robert Jordan was a genius, Frank Herbert was a genius, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, these are the true greats of literature. King can't even remember the names of his characters in The Dark Tower due to immense drug and alcohol abuse, re-read them again and see if you can spot what I'm referring to. In The Stand he makes several errors, one which is particularly amusing was mistaking the hamstring muscles for being in the arm instead of the leg! He's quite the moron. Take the sentence "he was as noisy as a ninja" as a prime example here, that ridiculously embarrassing usage of words was from the absolutely dire novel The Tommyknockers and if you think that is good writing then I don't know whether to laugh at you or weep for you. King is an abhorrent author.
Savage! But sure, he is just being principled. However, I read some ACTUALLY terrible books as a child and I have still managed Wind in the Willows and Jane Austen since then, so he is being a bit dramatic.
Bad take. Harry Potter inspired children to read, and it led children, young adults, even full adults, to the classics. To the highbrow. Preconception is Mr. Bloom's downfall.
I don't think that JK Rowling deserves the vilification she's received over the last few years but I have to agree with Bloom about her writing. And Stephen King is the most overrated author of the last 50 years, with the possible exceptions of Jeffrey Archer and E.L James. I loved the GREEN MILE and SHAWSHANK movies so I read the books. It's a very rare thing when the film is superior to the book. Schindler's Ark/List & Children of Men are the only other examples I know.
Perhaps Bloom didn't fully grasp the emergent problem. It hasn't been that readers move from HP to fluff fiction for adults. Instead, people seem to have given up on drawing a line between children's literature and adult literature, and as a result they don't feel any embarrassment when what they read as adults is still fully infantile. The same phenomenon is obvious in the glut of superhero movies. Those are categorically stories for children, and still, to a one they are less sophisticated and demanding than Lewis Carroll's _Alice._ Bloom sounds like a jerk, no doubt. I will too: we need to bring back a degree of embarrassment in those whose tastes don't evolve or at least diversify. It's like eating nothing but ham and cheese wonderbread sandwiches with the crusts cut off in your 30s. Of course, it's fine to read something light now and then, especially if it's got an ingenious plot or some other kind of excellence. Fine to watch a marvel movie sometimes too, so long as you feel stultified by most of it.
Totally pompous. A reader can enjoy all types of writing whether it's fun escapism like Potter or King or the more challenging (and admittedly much, much better written) literary works like those by Austen and Shakespeare. I don't understand this either/or choice between the two that Bloom has set up in his mind.
I guess that is his point. I might be wrong here but this is what he seems to be conveying: after reading Harry Potter and other genre fiction novels, people tend to gravitate more towards the easy to digest (entertaining) books rather than picking up something based on it's literary merit. And once your reading tastes have been defined by these books, it's really hard to get around works of Shakespeare or Milton. Although I will say that it isn't applicable to everyone, once people fall in love with the act of reading (and not specific genres) they will eventually be exposed to all the best works of literature that he talks about.
@@nasar8480 I pretty much agree with your assessment if I'm understanding you correctly. I just flatly disagree with Bloom's theory that reading Harry Potter books or Stephen King books as a kid means you'll never read anything more challenging. His opinion seems to be pure conjecture from what I can tell. But Bloom had a very high opinion of his own opinions.
@@JoshPCohen Yeah I get what you're saying; he really does seem to hold himself and his opinions in high regard. And yes, the genaralizing nature of his statement that one can never read anything challenging if they have been exposed to Rowling's or King's books at an early age does invite criticism. But still, I believe in a softened form of his argument - it really is difficult for most people to dive deep in the great works of literature (and appreciate it) that demand heavy efforts from the reader's side if what they're used to is just 'reading for entertainment'. Whatever might be the case, one cannot deny that the mere act of reading has become a rarity nowadays (especially in South Asian part of the world where I live - India to be precise). So, as long as people are reading (however they might wanna exercise it) it is worth appreciation. Anyway, thank you for indulging Josh
@@nasar8480 I grew up on King, I’m 2/3 of the way through Shakespeare’s First Folio, and I’ve read Paradise Lost a few times. Stephen King is an all time elite author and Harold Bloom is a damned fool. I didn’t like Harry Potter though.
@@paulbernal6088 you had me until you said King is an “elite” writer and Harold Bloom a fool. If you’ve really read the books you claim, and understand their distinguished merits and aesthetic value, then you couldn’t possibly say King is an elite writer; could be possible that you’re just a bad reader. I mean the man spent his entire life studying literature and teaching at prestige’s schools and has been recognized by other esteemed minds as a great critic, and yet your common, trite, narrow minded opinion is some how more convincing?
ed95755 he absolutely HATED Harry Potter and said it was such a stupid idea that it would ever succeed and essentially said it would be a horrible book taught in writing schools to show what not to do etc etc I exaggerated a bit
Not really. He said Harry Potter would disappear within a generation and he was absolutely right. Gen Z doesn’t care about those books at all. They think millennials are lame for holding onto these books like holy texts when there is nothing in them worth holding onto other than nostalgia. No, Bloom was absolutely right in his assessment.
@@LollygaggingRabbit I'd beg to differ. I am a Gen Z person myself and know atleast 25 others who still worship those books. And yes, I've also read Steinbeck, Hemingway, Twain and Dickens. And yes, Harold bloom is a snob of epic proportions.
When I was a child, I read all of the HP books, multiple times. And yes, a couple of years later I was indeed reading one Stephen King's book after another, but this has never stopped me from reaching for high literature a couple of years later. When I read a SK's novel a year ago, I was surprises that I enjoyed that garbage, but well, my mind evolved and so did my literary taste.
You're just a weak reader if that's what you say about Stephen King after reading the classics!I did too, but King is still one of best writers of our time!
@@anthhhess3477 "Garbage detailing" is called character background and development, moron!King is no junk food, the only junk here are your superficial ideas because you can't accept that an old fool(now dead) with outdated beliefs got it wrong!Stephen King knows how to make use of psychology, he generates inner conflicts that are very actual for our days!Have you even read The Stand?It's an outstanding outlook on religion, human mind and human nature!
@@serban8298it only means that classical literature apparently is not for you. It doesn’t mean that sb is a weak reader. Everyone should read what’s close to one’s heart. Also, there’s a question of what one wants from literature…
@@scrutinizer8I do read a lot of classics.I actually study literature in college, but I also like authors like Stephen King and JK and it's really annoying when people like to give themselves a feeling of superiority for not reading mainstream books.
Here's the thing. I agree with most of what I've heard from Bloom. But he's dead wrong about HP. It doesn't have to be high literature. It sparked a love for reading that, for me, led to Lewis & Tolkien. And now? I'm an AP English teacher obsessed with Cormac McCarthy. Baby steps, my friends. 🙏🏼
I'm pretty sure he was talking about children in general and not you as a specific case. There are people growing up right now watching twerking Tik Tok's that will at some time in the future pick up a book and end up as an english teacher. I'm sure there are people growing up on The Fast and the Furious who will end up loving Stanley Kubrick. I'm sure there are people growing up listening to Justin Bieber who will end up loving Pink Floyd.. I could go on and on..Bloom is not dead wrong about Harry Potter. Harry Potter is not at blame neither is Tik Tok or Justin Bieber or anyone else... but it's a sure sign that the public zeitgeist has been steadily shifting over the years to a point were people in general dont care about the quality of art at all anymore and the lack of attention span wont even allow them to critically evaluate the quality of the art they are consuming. Again... not you in specific but people in general
Brett Robb Brett Robb thanks for the patronising tone Brett- could have done without that, but I digress. He actually says ‘in a generation or so’. Not centuries. I am about to become a mother and I was 8 when I first read Philospher’s Stone. I am now 30. The next generation of kids are already discovering and appreciating the Harry Potter books. The books are still just as popular today as they were when they first came out. Now shut up. Thanks.
@@karismilligan5700 he is being trite. Each of the author's he cites as being part of the Western Canon have endured for a century or more. It's hopeful at best to consider that Rowling will have the same literary life as Austen or Shakespeare. It's fine that you enjoy it. My comment was simply to add context to Blooms lifetime of literary criticism that, sadly, is not encapsulated in this short clip.
Books like Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy kid are great fun and used as a treat not as a foundation of the appreciationn of literaturee.. Much like comic books.
Let's get one thing straight I’m not a fan boy because I don’t like everything he does. But having said that I do know genius when I see it. Stephen King is the most influential writer of the past fifty years. Apparently he is one of the two authors to have influenced most modern day writers. Just take a look at his body of work and the number of movies, stage plays etc. derived from his novels. How can one author write Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Green Mile, The Body (Stand by Me), Misery, It, The Shawshank Redemption, Joyland, to name only a handful. It gobsmacks me that the literary community dismisses him when his genius is so obvious. I think it is snobbery for the most part and a reluctance to acknowledge how good he is because the masses love him. You can love Dickens, Twain, King, George RR Martin, Kafka. They are not mutually exclusive. He is the only author I have shed a tear reading his novels. How can you not call it genius to have a reader crying at the very last page of a 600 page novel when there were no tears before this? His effervescent style cannot be matched. I recently picked up a Booker Prize shortlisted novel (I shan’t name it because that would be rude and may put off potential readers who might enjoy it) and after a quarter of the way through I put it down. The author simply wasn't a genius like King and the storytelling was dull. He understands human nature and thus creates the most amazing characters and storylines. Some of his perceptions are mind-blowing. These literary and classical authors wish they had an imagination even a fraction of King's. Stephen King is a creative genius. A storytelling genius. And a writing genius. The whole point of his stories is that his words disappear (he’s even said that himself) and don't get in the way of the storytelling. I’ll tell you once he gets in his stride his novels are almost impossible to put down. By doing this he transports the reader into another world fully immersing him or her in the experience. He is all about the story. But I'll tell you something. Some of his prose is out of this world and has me gasping in wonder just like I do when reading some literary authors. I can understand why people enjoy literary books that are all about the words and I may do some day. I recently read The Trial by Kafka. I enjoyed it but it never reached the heights of most of the works I have read by Stephen King. But King isn’t ever going to get literary critical acclaim. I'll tell you this! If he really wanted, Stephen King could spend the next three or four years devoting his life to writing a literary classic that would win all of the major prizes if it wasn't for the snobbery in the industry not allowing this due to his name. The most underrated writer in history by the so-called experts yet other artistic people - artists, fellow writers, movie directors all revere him because of his amazing talent.
@@ercanpeker Harry Potter inspired people to read. Not every one of those people is a Reddit poster. I can say Harry Potter inspired a helluva lot more young readers to continue reading than say "Moby Dick," or "A Tale of Two Cities." Great books, but inspired readers in mass they did not. Dismissing books the way Bloom did is not an intellectually appropriate thing to do, surprising he could be so wrong.
@@richardravenclaw318 And you can say the same thing about the great literature forced upon young readers in school. In most cases, those readers ended up hating to read.
I think a lot of folks miss the point... the best part of this little interview isn't the elitist snobbery or slams against specific popular writers or the fact that he can hardly hold a coffee cup... The best part is that he wipes his nose with a snot rag on C-SPAN Book TV... :) :)
The Harry Potter series are my favourite books. I haven't read them in over ten years but they left an impression stronger than any other book I've read. And that's what counts. What they did after with the movies and selling out is what ruined the mystique of the books for me.I remember to feel disgusted and embarrassed after watching the first movie.
How many other books have you actually read though?!Other Harry Potter inspired YA stuff doesn’t really count As someone who grew up reading them too, they’re pish. I’m so glad people have started critiquing them heavily ever since Rowling became reviled by her own fanbase. I knew they were pretty garbage at least a decade ago They don’t contain any consistent themes, allegories or big ideas. The setting itself is just a derivative generic hodge podge of western mythology. There’s really not much there to write home about.
He relegates Rowling's work to the dustbin, but refers to an anthology of his nobody knows about. I don't see fourth graders reading his books; however, the Potter series will always be in school libraries, and will take its place in its genre. Bloom is empty, snotty, self-serving intellect at work.
This is what I ask myself as a writer; would i want to win a nobel prize for great and amazing literary prose and style but have my only critics read my work or have the everyday person read my books about a western fantasy setting. I choose the latter. Even Roger Ebert said that a great film should be able to be understood by the layman, not just by snobs
@@elhistoriero1227 funny how Harold Bloom criticizes so many novels and writes books about novels. And essays. But I literally just heard about him a day ago and has he ever wrote he's own novel? He Sounds like a boring old fuck who complains about things that aren't necessary.
@@anime.lover10123 Bloom was mostly a critic, not an artist or a novelist, and was understandably worried about taste and standards. What shouldn't be necessary is for someone to mount such an aggressive defense of today's reigning mediocrity.
If classics were written with new translations kind of like the KJV was translated to English Standard Version, more people would read them. But they don’t teach classics in school anymore so no one knows how to interpret that shit. I had to teach myself.
@@ripkhanna First I am tired of that whinny ass potter. Who isn't even grateful some one is adopting his whiny ass. I think all the books except Book 5 suck ass. it is repetitive as hell. The series as whole is purely overrated. Most importantly I fucking hate Rowling. After finishing the series she reveals that hermione is black, while one of the book clearly mentions she is white. "her pale white face" And Rowling just to show that she supports The gay community (which everyone should) Throws of her characters like Dumbeldore under the bus saying he is gay.
He even drinks coffee with contempt.
With contempt, perhaps, but never with an ounce of resentment.
@@dububro catch my thumbsup.
I just like to listen to this man for ages
As do I.
Nah it's just ol'age. My professors, grandparents, and neighbour, drink their coffee like that!
They get shaky at that age. Think their muscles; don't connect with da brain sonwell
I’d love to see what Bloom would have to say about these adult “booktubers” whose “top ten of the decade!!!” Lists are comprised almost entirely of young adult novels whose prose doesn’t exceed double syllables.
Always amazes me when I see that kind of thing.
You're right. I absolutely feel embarrassed yet baffled seeing people in their late 20s naming Harry Potter as their favorite book when they have an entire bookcase behind them to choose from. God only knows what the other books are 🙂!
I love your name
He passed awag, but I'm pretty sure he'll be highly dismissive towards them. I won't blame him though, most of them are really *bad* in book recommendations and reviews.
@@kamlaahmad3529 Harry Potter is among my favourite novel despite reading Dostoievski, Tolstoi, Dickens etc.
You're just worthless snob who doesn't understand the evolution of literature!
I grew up with a strict Nanna who took back my Harry Potter book because it said witchcraft on the back. Instead, I was allowed to get a Goosebumps book. I don't know how Goosebumps is any more Christian? However, I enjoyed those Goosebump stories as you got to choose which path to take in the story. I didn't get help reading much as a kid.
However, when I was a teenager I began to read the Bible myself quite religiously. Because I only really had read the Bible I started to write like that also. Only later in life did I begin to read some classics and now I love them. After reading Nietzsche I also picked up some of his style when I write sometimes. I think although Harold Bloom was a bit of a snob, he still has a valid point deep down - reading the best that history has to offer creates in the reader an edifice to produce a similar quality of mind and works.
Your Nanna literally saved your brain from a huge waste of time and energy.
Your Nana though ultimately right was a bit silly to think a pulpy children’s escapism could have anything to do with immoral codes and real witchcraft. JK Rowling is no Alaistar Crawley. On the contrary the arc and structure of HP borrows heavily from the Bible.
@@rishabhaniket1952 This one of the dumbest and old fashioned comments I've ever read!Her granny was right to gatekeep a book?What is wrong with you, people?
@@serban8298 I don’t think you can comprehend English or you have taken some drugs. Clearly failing to understand what seems to be written and then projecting your cheap opinions on it. Wipe your tears and get a reality check, Harry Potter was a book loaded with unexecuted philosophical ideas meant to tantalise people of a certain age and build a fan base. It clearly worked, as adults like you are still wandering around feeling nostalgic and sacred about a piece of work by mixing your own childhood experiences with a piece of young adult fiction. Grow up, there are other things to read and watch. Whining little child. And change your diapers you silly sod.
@@rishabhaniket1952 You don't even know who you're talking to!I've read and I'm reading plenty of books both classic and contemporary, both acadamemic and for entertainment and Harry Potter is definetly worthy of all its praise and you will never understand why if you don't open your mind for more!
OMG that last sentence was savage. 😂
?
@@ripkhanna I think he means SK fails to understand the implication of his own estimation of himself in relation to Rowling, if that makes sense?
@@antonandraslindamoodwhite5407 I don’t agree.
Yeah, I got a nice chuckle out of that. "Graduate to reading Steven King." Lol
The whole build up and execution of that burn was really beautiful.
I think in this day and age, if a person reads at all, that itself is a miracle. A Harry Potter or a Stephen King book might be just what someone needs right now.
I have three bookshelves dedicated to Harold Bloom. His works, his Canon, his commentary, his works as editor.
I also read and enjoyed Harry Potter.
Even when he shames me I adore him and his literary brass balls
You enjoyed Harry Potter. Bloom detests everything about you.
It's that simple.
This is a threat. Wait till my father hears about this
If he does, then I'll be takin a leaf outta Professor Moody's book. I hear you make a good ferret, Utsab.
I actually moved on from Harry Potter to Alice in the wonderland, then Nabokov, Mishima...
I also went from HP to Alice in wonderland. I felt like Alice in wonderland was the equivalent of taking heaps of acid then writing book about your experience.
No you didn't
Exactly! I don't mind Bloom as a character, his women hating tendencies aside, but his prognostications on things that he knew nothing about like children's development show him to be a fool in many respects. I mean honestly, did he want children to read so that they would wind up as potential sexual abuse victims in his seminars at Yale?
Ah you moved from Harry Potter to being a pedophile. That tracks.
@@royalmitchell4905I did but there’s a gap of around ten years between those two things. Harry Potter isn’t a springboard to anything great, it’s just the process of growing up that will allow you to move on to better books.
The Harry Potter to Stephen King pipeline 🤣
I graduated from Harry Potter to Sir Terry Pratchett, so I guess that’s a plus.
Can't stand literary snobs.
Who does?
i like how this means harold bloom has actually read harry potter though
Nope
He read HP and the Philosopher's Stone
@@s.bakyhnh1756 Interesting
What the fuck does the mean
He has to read a text in order to critique it asshole
I love Harold Bloom for his ability to piss people off for reading shitty books
You're all dumbasses that haven't even read the books you're criticising!
Which of King's novels did he actually read though? His snarky comment about King is based on a statement from him that I couldn't even find. Also, he criticized the Potter books for using "cliches" like "stretched his legs" multiple times, but it turns out that phrase was only used in the first book literally one time.
Who's Harold Bloom again? O that's right the guy who will be forgotten 8).
@@windandcloudshadow158 I won’t forget him and so will many ppl all over the world both in serious literary academic circles and passionate individuals who love literature like myself. Jk Rowling and Stephen King are only talked about today out of shallow nostalgia and movie reboots; they were merely penny novelist who got lucky. True culture always out last pop culture or as Nabokov called it: Poshlust.
@@Strong_Opinions What? Bloom won't be remembered lol he bashes things yet will be forgotten, King will always be remembered perks of being the king of horror 8) even if I don't believe that he's not even my favorite writer ask anyone who he is they will know. Ill give you JK Rowling because she's had only one successful book series while King has multiple best selling novels and numerus awards, Bloom is smart but let's not act like anyone knows his name as much as King's intellectual or not.
This man is a man - that’s what makes him great - says what he thinks and could care less what people thought about him - RIP brother Bloom.
I love Harold Bloom, but once in a while, after a healthy dose of Dostoevsky or Cervantes, or Homer, I feel the need to sit down and read something like "The Shining" Enjoying a little mind candy is fine. It doesn't mean you've betrayed the Western Canon.
Yeah there’s no harm in pop or genre lit if it’s consumed in moderation and doesn’t represent the entirety of a persons reading achivements.
True, as long as you don't read the Harry Potter books.
I don't think that he believed that enjoying some "mind candy" was inherently bad. Bloom did have a real problem with the contemporary habit of placing lesser fictions in the same company of better fiction.
True but Cervantes and Dosto shouldn't really take much effort to read though.
Being a literary elitist, now thats a mind candy.
As a young man my nan started me off, simply enough, with Finnegans wake and Hamlet. I eventually discovered Harry Potter and the golden compass series. That's growth.
Giving a child Finnegan's Wake is a form of psychological warfare in some societies
In my experience, the people who I study with at uni who like to read the classics (I study physics, so not all my fellow students love reading the classics) all adore Harry Potter, and say it was the book that got them into reading in the first place. We all have different tastes in books, I like War and Peace or Moby Dick a great deal more than Pride and Prejudice, but I don't go around insulting everyone reading Jane Austen for that reason. It's fine Harold Bloom didn't like Harry Potter, but I think he is quite wrong to say the children who read it will all grow up never reading the classics.
He is wrong!I started with Harry Potter too!Now I read books from all genres, classics and contemporary alike!
For those of you missing the point,
Bloom is saying that Rowling and King represent the literary heights of the 21st century; so, if that's the case, humanity owes itself an explanation. As in, how is it at the turn of the 20th century the list of authors was phenomenally titanic - Hardy, Wells, Stevenson, Lovecraft, Woolf, Hemingway, Wilde, Joyce, Twain, Doyle, Tolstoy, and so on; but now, a century later, the list of authors is uttetly pathetic - King, Rowling, Meyer, Collins, James, Harris.
1. The only thing Harry Potter prepared you for was Twilight, which prepared you for Hunger Games, which prepared you for 50 Shades of Grey.
2. If you did put down Harry Potter to read something more literary, why was it for a book from over a half century ago; why is the literary landscape so bankrupt now when the fortunes have gone unspent?
It's partly because the publishing industry is promoting a certain kind of 'woke' literature. Books are no longer chosen for their quality, even in the so-called 'literary' world, but for their ideological correctness - they must promote 'diversity' and sympathise with victimised minorities, basically - and/or for the profiles of the authors, who need to be good-looking, ideally, young, and belong to cool minorities themselves. Some such authors (Zadie Smith, Chimamanda, for instance) are talented. But many not. I don't think we're seeing the best of what's being written.
@@ryanmckenzie1990 could you clarify if I should be crucifying tolkien for the hyperheroism found in the fantasy saga at the latter part of siglo XX and Murakami for the onanism that is Japanese isoliterature [isolation literature]??
That's why today successful book called as best selling books bcuz it sells not that how you & I or academic sees it how aesthetic it is .
This was filmed in 2003...
I get that he means they srent yop quality literature and I agree with that. However hat doesnt mean they arent book you can enjoy. He acts likebifnits jot high srt than its pointless reading it when that's not true . I do think high art should be over looked for popular stuff but what it comes down to is you read what you want to read. Yes theres better stuff than potter and king jo question but no cunt is going to make me feel bad for what I'm reading.
Brutal parting quip.
“I am completely an elitist in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness.” Robert Huges
I went on to Blood Meridian big guy, not long after...
Sure you did.
@@Walter-Anderson I like that name, WALTER!
th-cam.com/video/SY-HbsYkTt8/w-d-xo.html
That would have made Bloom happy.
Very good, I couldn't agree more! Bravo!
>a-at least the books were good though
"No!"
The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
Tf.
No. STFU
Its a copypasta you dumb fuck
Im so confused, what just happened
And there is nothing wrong with that!Stephen King is a genius!
It took the equivalent of a popcorn movie in book form to get me into reading.
Obviously I am a fan of the potter series. This criticism of Harold's is wholly justified. The kids who are reading the books now essentially have it engrained in their head what HP is supposed to be through the eyes of their parents. I believe this correlates more to what Bloom is saying here. Instead of children reading the books and continuing to higher reading they become simple fanatics of 1 book series.
Thank you. Thought I was the only one who was willing to express such sentiment regarding Harry Port-a-potty.
Bloom , it appears, is very partial to Shakespeare.
And rightly so.
As should we all
Saying “don’t read Stephen King because it’s not high literature” is like saying “only read non fiction because if it’s fiction it’s just a waste of time”. Reading for pleasure is the point.
Even Shakespeare was just a guy who wrote plays in his time. King has been around long enough by now to not be a fad.
Your analogy makes no sense. It's plain stupid. That being said, I agree with you. Reading shouldn't be intrinsically an intellectual endeavour. It's perfectly ok reading whatever you enjoy.
@@brunokubin It makes sense because there are people who say reading fiction is a waste of time. "If youre going to read you should be reading to better yourself or gain knowledge and apply it practically in real life" etc.
The same way this dudes saying if youre going to read you should be reading high level novels that do more than simply entertain.
Both are saying a certain type of reading is a waste of time and that a certain type of reading is valid.
@@uploadinstuff ok, let's say I agree with your premise. Reading in order to "better yourself and gain knowledge and apply it practically in real life" and reading more refined literature that do more than merely entertaining are both the only valid reasons to pickup a book according to a random pragmatic person or a literary snob as Bloom. However, the beauty of art and literature, if you ask me -and this is why I agree with Bloom to a certain extent-, is that it has no practical use. One reads to seek intellectual but mostly aesthetic fulfilment. Aesthetical appreciation in any of its multifaceted forms is arguably the most elevated and spiritual human experience, whereas reading for practical reasons is on the other side of the spectrum, since it serves a utterly mechanical and mundane purpose.
@@brunokubin Thats why I brought it up. Because to a person who says all fiction is a waste of time, Bloom is a fool who wastes his time with childish endeavors like pretending things that dont exist do.
To Bloom its obviously not the case.
And to a child who likes Harry Potter neither perspective is the case.
ie. its silly for Bloom to say his approach is elevated over other approaches like its silly for a person who doesn't read fiction to say nonfiction is elevated over fiction.
@@uploadinstuff I think we've reached an impasse 😅
What do native English speakers say? "Agree to disagree"?
Incredible how, even in this day and age, there still exists a lifelong dual between literary fiction and popular fiction. They fully complement one another, but the literary folks always tend to adopt a high-society air about them and remain critical as hell of the opposition. I studied English Literature and have read all points on the spectrum. I don't feel I will ever fully comprehend this collective hostility 🤦
don’t get me wrong, Ive been a fan of hp since childhood but I’ve recently become torn over it. The fact that it’s the perfect consumer product (it literally has a theme park) and also promotes hyper consumption (the first place Harry goes when going through the wardrobe so to speak is … shopping). On the other hand there are echos of odysseus’s and Aeneas’s journeys through hades going so far as to have the philosophers stone guarded by a literal Cerberus, All this while still being magical Conan Doyle.
Well it takes the Anglicisation of its appurtenances, towns, places and names of wizards so much that, with names such as ''Longbottom'', and ''Quidditch'', that seems in its literary effect in popular conception to please and be charming to the imagination of an idyllic English aura, but for Harold Bloom invokes a feeling of bitter displeasure at being gratuitously kitsch imitation of classic England's authors like Conan Doyle.
Hating Harry Potter is a sad trend among the literary snobs. It is as sad as those spoiled teenagers who hate the classic novels
@Maurits Sure. It is not supposed to be something deep and there are lots of books that aren't deep but aren't criticized constantly. Its target are kids who are introducing themselves into literature and people looking for something enjoyable and easy. At least it motivates some people to read.
@Maurits Idiot
Yup. It's the literary version of "I live in le wrong generation!"
@@majestycrush Not really. The "Le wrong generation" crowd writes off just about every kind of music that isn't classic rock or grunge (and only the more popular bands, at that). Disliking one trendy book series doesn't mean that you dislike contemporary books.
Like, Andersen's and Grimm's tales are, well, good literature.
Bloom collected an intire trilogy of poems and stories for kids. Rudyard Kipling wrote for kids and os canonical.
Cold Blooded
I read Harry Potter at twelve, then went onto Tolkien, then to King, Finally after hearing it was one of Stephen King’s favorites I read the masterpiece of modern fiction that is Blood Meridian
Make Bloom proud and now start with Pynchon 👍
If anyone should say something like this, it should be Mr. Bloom. And he was a man who devoted his life to literature, criticism, love of reading and books. I do think he is wrong in a sense. Just like films have different genres and different directors, so does literature.
Does anyone know what bloom thought of Tolkien?
Here is a quote from his introduction to a book on Tolkien that he edited: "But there is still the burden of Tolkien's style: stiff, false archaic, overwrought, and finally a real hindrance in Volume III, The Return of the King, which I have had trouble rereading. At seventy-seven, I may just be too old, but here is The Return of the King, opened pretty random: [random quote from Tolkien's book] I am not able to understand how a skilled and mature reader can absorb about fifteen hundred pages of this quaint stuff. [...] Sometimes, reading Tolkien, I am reminded of the Book of Mormon. Tolkien met a need, particulary in the early days of the counterculture in the later 1960s. Whether he is an author for the duration of the twenty-first century seems to me open to some doubt"
I dont know what this is but do you think bloom likes him or not? He begins with saying ”but”. Does that indicate that he still like some Things of it? Interested in hearing.
@@kasianfranmitja5298 dumbass
He admires The Hobbit but questioned the popularity and quality of Lord of The Rings. Bloom thought LoTR possessed a style too old to be considered a modern book.
@@fabiancalderon6729 excuse me? What have i Said to receive this?
Stephen king was right. Literary critics can't write worth a shit. Nobody embodies that more than Bloom. That 90 year old who can't stop screaming "back in the old days" about 100 times a day, even when there is no one to listen.
The man had brilliant takes on Shakespeare and classic literature. I love those myself. Always have. But the snobbery he shows everytime he talks about modern literature has always rubbed me the wrong way. So what? So what if people only enjoy the Potter books or Stephen king or even Danielle Steele? They enjoy reading don't they? What is wrong with reading for pleasure? Much as I hate using the word "elitist", Bloom is one of the biggest ones. A man made too bitter by his own inability to write a book worth reading.
I've always found Bloom to be an enjoyable writer. Whatever his faults I always have found his critiques engaging. You are deeply confused if you believing the pleasures of reading are relegated to pop culture. You are as confused in equating "modern literature" with popular culture fiction of King and Steele. In the end King is no Tom Stoppard, and, Steele no Jamaica Kincaid.
He thinks something has to be long winded and overly dramatic to be considered true literature, which is absurd.
@@Walter-Anderson No, he is Stephen King and he is amazing!
I been reading Cervantes , Homer and Russian Literature for years, all of which have brought me enormous pleasure. You have to apply more effort than genre fiction of course, but finally understanding their aesthetic value and distinguished merits brings enormous pleasure. You’re deeply confused if you think we only read literature because it tickles our intellectual ego. It’s not snobbery. You sound like a person who never matured their taste buds to bitter foods or drinks like coffee and has to pour sugar and cream on everything to make it palatable.
@@Strong_Opinions Yes, it is just pure intellectual snobbery of the most disgusting kind!I read classics and genre books as well!All of them have good and bad books!Classics have Gulliver's Travels by that moron called Swift and Red and Black by Stendhal, a book with a plot worthy of a turkish soap opera!As for the genre books, we can mention most romantic novels that are indeed trash!Also, Cervantes is not that great an author!I understand that Don Quijote has its meaning, but we're still talking about a satire!
I love Harold Bloom.
Harold Bloom was a great literary critic. What I've read of SHAKESPEARE: THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN, I really like. I need to read the whole thing someday. I have to admit it's fun to read HARRY POTTER and Stephen King. Yes, J.K. Rowling and Stephen King are not anywhere near the greatness of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Austin, or Dickens, but they are good at a certain level.
Dickens or Hemingway are nowhere near good writers
@@alejandroalvarez9971 They are not good, they are great.
Read his Western Canon when I was 20 or 21, it was a great solace that validated my own solitary reading.
/lit/
(2012-2016)
The shade tho
People like this sadly are no longer the shining light of society. Great works of art provide solace, healing and comfort for those trying to make it through the turbulent winds of life. They allow us to perceive and be understood better. They forever transform us. I have no problem with people reading Harry Potter, anymore than I have problem with people reading flyers strewn in a a subway. However, I hope that people come to understand that there are works of art that merit their exalted status. The purpose of Dostoevsky is not for you to name drop at a dinner party. The point is for you to engage with his works, which will likely forever change the way you see yourself and the world around you. The point is for you to engage with your conscience, which superficial works of creative endeavors don't get you to do. But as someone has once said, it is a losing battle. It is like getting a blind person to see colors.
By saying this, you assume that people who like J.K. Rowling don't like Dostoiesvki!I love both!
@@serban8298 I don't like Dostoievski, but then again I rarely like books that are not science-fiction or fantasy. I love Harry Potter, but not JK Rowling. It's a beautiful world and a great story, but the prose itself isn't the best.
READ. A. DIFFERENT. BOOK.
No
@@ripkhanna Oh you are here as well asshole.
@@parthk5513 Dumbass
As if he didn't read any books. Lol.
He. Read. Literally. Thousands. Of books. And taught literature. At Yale. For sixty. Years.
Nope. They go on to Stephenie Meyers and Susan Collins. And E. L. James. And they stay on YA literature eternally.
I adored Harry Potter, but I couldn’t stand Twilight. I saw the first movie and felt like I was physically assaulted by its awfulness. Of course, I’d actually read “Dracula” by that point, and read every book I could find in our library on vampire lore, so I knew to balk at the “sparkles.”
True lovers of the written word like reading anything even text messages and the comments section on TH-cam!
I’m glad that he criticized jk Rowling and Stephen king. To many people from my generation look at them as literary gods and that just simply isn’t true. There’s a difference between being a story teller and being literature, and there’s a difference between being a good story teller and great prose stylist and to many young readers confuse the two, king and Rowling being the perfect example.
nobody looks at them as literary gods but everyone looks at them as people who can write an entertaining story. I read a lot and don't care for literary style as much as character development and an engaging plot. Seriously, i read award winning books and think "no wonder nobody talks about these, they're boring"
@@ninjablack4347 literary gods was definitely an overstatement. But there are lots of critics out there who put king on the same pedestal as Edgar Allen Poe or jk Rowling with Jane Austen, which seems to early of a judgment call for anyone, especially since neither king or Rowling have any Serious scholars on their work. And I’m not belittling them, as much as it may seem. they’re good STORY TELLERS, which has given them a mark on contemporary literature, but that’s it. I guess maybe I was trying to say that many readers/critics nowadays don’t seem to know how to discern from contemporary vs literature. Contemporary litterature is good in itself because it speaks to people on a grand scale, without coming across as boring. Thats important, but that shouldn’t be the basis of judgment when it comes to recognizing something as ‘great’.
@@chrisd8760 you will find no disagreements with me on saying most literary critics today are hacks just as much as journalists
Please! I have been an avid reader since I was 12, very, very few people would consider Rowling and King as "literary gods". They are more like gateways to classic and what people like Bloom would consider "real literature". What they are, as they themselves have said are storytellers.
Oh and for all of Bloom's diatribe, the man sucked at writing. Worshipping Shakespeare doesn't make you a great literary critic. I myself love Shakespeare. But Bloom is the type of one of those metal fan boys who consider anyone who listens to metallica "not a real fan". Pure ignoramus!
@@thugnomics123 do you think its unfair for people who read a lot of genre books to critique the classics like "It takes too long for the plot to get going."
I prefer Harry Potter over depressing "high literature".
Because u braindead
People read Harry Potter because it is a fun story. People read King because they want to be thrilled. If someone wants to become a writer, than of course they should take those authors for what they are. HB seems to forget that most people are not bibliophiles obsessing about prose.
This guy was way out of touch. It’s evident he didn’t like Harry Potter personally. 😂
Harry's adventures are a a list of events. 😵💫
There are a lot of things in the world to be angry about, this isn’t it.
Harry Potter is good
I have never felt such conflicting emotions towards another person as I do towards Bloom. He is elitist to the core, but he also held the line against revisionists and the "School of Resentment", which was/is important. And I also just gotta respect anybody who displays the level of savagery that he did with that parting line! XD
I don't think he was elitist, he was more a demanding man, not thinking people was too stupid to read classic but just lazy. He knew what was great, good or bad..and didn't think, like our era, that everything was relative. And he was crazy right about the school of resentement who took the media control...it pays well being a victim
On the contrary…..he was no elitist. Reading books like Harry Potter is like watching the same old sitcom with the same wooden characters and the same gags that are stretched to a point that even the plot that unfolds is formulaic. It does nothing to open your mind and make you think. Long story short, it’s pulpy escapism.
@@rishabhaniket1952 You are dead wrong too!Harry Potter has a lot of substance actually, but just like all snobby fools here, you will never understand!
@@rishabhaniket1952 "he was no elitist."
>Goes onto say what elitists have always said about Harry Potter.
@@cringyboring Yeah as a kid you think this is the best thing ever…..this whole world building et al. But if you are a 60 year old who has studied literature extensively you will feel like it’s a bit cliched and silly. Though I don’t agree about the thing that children should not be made to read it and it should be thrown.
I loved reading Twilight back to back with Blood Meridian and Gravity's Rainbow. It was almost as good as sitting on the toilet reading The Art of the Deal after devouring Fanged Noumena, Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, and The Book of Mormon. As the cherry on top of it all I enjoyed The Phenomenology of Spirit paired with The Lesser Key of Solomon the King and Eragon. (I also can't recommend more highly the Paw Patrol Phonics Box Set. It's actually decent, unlike that pretentious trash The Sound and the Fury!)
As a former Wattpad fangirl and a current classics and literary fiction enthusiast, I can say that some of us just need to be sold on the joy of reading and even silly fanfics can be the path to a life long committment to reading. I get where Harold is coming from but snobbery ain't gonna help anybody be a reader.
I will overlook the Harry Potter remark for the Stephen King remark.
I've read Harry Potter and King, Harry Potter is the 1st English book I read back 1998 at the age of 7, I grew up French, and it's when I discovered I had a strength for reading. By the age of 8 to 11 I went on to read Black Beauty, Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, War of the Worlds... etc. I read a good chunk of the classics, still adding to my to read list, and also read a lot storytelling books like King, Rowling, Paolini and many others. Some classics I like more and vice versa, can't say I loved Frakenstein more then Harry Potter, in fact I'll never pick up Frakenstein again, such a dull book. I really do believe saying Harry Potter and King are classics is dumb because they really aren't, will they stand the test of time though I really think they will because they manage to tell a good tale, not because they're beautifully written. Arguing about what's good and what isnt in the world of books is 100% futile, what's good and what's bad is subjective and cant be quantified. Enjoy the books you love and leave it at that, no one is lesser for enjoying a story that resonates with them.
Agree. While i admit those books that Booktubers promote will be forgotten and put in the dust bin, Bloom is wrong in saying they have no value for children. I used to read YA all the time then as i got older moved to literature, and recognized why its so great and full of substance vs popcorn genre. But here's the thing, my tastes evolved because i was reading so much YA. It'd be like if you were only allowed to watch the Godfather and not The Avengers because the Godfather is cinema and MCU is not
If ever there were a shining example of literary snobbery, here it is. This has a very high rating of contempt and arrogance. Bang out of order if you ask me. Disappointing😞
I would like to know how many here think HP books will end up being obscure in the years to come.
Given the way the authoress has been going, it looks likely. She’s alienated her audience, and has essentially poisoned the IP to the point that WB is trying to buy her out.
@@magicaltour1How has Rowling alienated her audience?
Harold Bloom is a savage when he criticizes authors he isn't very fond of.
'The Shining'!!! It's genuinely scary, dude!
Roasted King's ass.
Stephen King is a genius with plenty of literary success and has been so for over 4 decades now!You, on the other hand, are just a worthless snob and hater who's not gonna be known by anyone!No, Bloom didn't roast anyone, Stephen King surely doesn't care(if he even knows about it)and his fans don't care either!
@@serban8298 Ha ha ha ha! Ah you silly kid. King is far from a genius, he uses juvenile phrases half the time and has said himself that he's the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. Robert Jordan was a genius, Frank Herbert was a genius, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, these are the true greats of literature. King can't even remember the names of his characters in The Dark Tower due to immense drug and alcohol abuse, re-read them again and see if you can spot what I'm referring to. In The Stand he makes several errors, one which is particularly amusing was mistaking the hamstring muscles for being in the arm instead of the leg! He's quite the moron. Take the sentence "he was as noisy as a ninja" as a prime example here, that ridiculously embarrassing usage of words was from the absolutely dire novel The Tommyknockers and if you think that is good writing then I don't know whether to laugh at you or weep for you. King is an abhorrent author.
Kek!
I do agree that Harry Potter is very overhyped and not as great as everyone makes it out to be. Steven king likes to show off his good looks too much.
The OG edgelord
Savage! But sure, he is just being principled. However, I read some ACTUALLY terrible books as a child and I have still managed Wind in the Willows and Jane Austen since then, so he is being a bit dramatic.
Bad take. Harry Potter inspired children to read, and it led children, young adults, even full adults, to the classics. To the highbrow. Preconception is Mr. Bloom's downfall.
I am a reader of Bloom’s kind of books and I cut my teeth on Mad Magazine!
He is not wrong, although it will hurt people’s feelings….
Read the recommendations of Mortimer Adler from U of Chicago and Harold Bloom and you will truly be a super educated person.
I don't think that JK Rowling deserves the vilification she's received over the last few years but I have to agree with Bloom about her writing.
And Stephen King is the most overrated author of the last 50 years, with the possible exceptions of Jeffrey Archer and E.L James.
I loved the GREEN MILE and SHAWSHANK movies so I read the books.
It's a very rare thing when the film is superior to the book. Schindler's Ark/List & Children of Men are the only other examples I know.
Perhaps Bloom didn't fully grasp the emergent problem. It hasn't been that readers move from HP to fluff fiction for adults. Instead, people seem to have given up on drawing a line between children's literature and adult literature, and as a result they don't feel any embarrassment when what they read as adults is still fully infantile. The same phenomenon is obvious in the glut of superhero movies. Those are categorically stories for children, and still, to a one they are less sophisticated and demanding than Lewis Carroll's _Alice._ Bloom sounds like a jerk, no doubt. I will too: we need to bring back a degree of embarrassment in those whose tastes don't evolve or at least diversify. It's like eating nothing but ham and cheese wonderbread sandwiches with the crusts cut off in your 30s. Of course, it's fine to read something light now and then, especially if it's got an ingenious plot or some other kind of excellence. Fine to watch a marvel movie sometimes too, so long as you feel stultified by most of it.
Totally pompous. A reader can enjoy all types of writing whether it's fun escapism like Potter or King or the more challenging (and admittedly much, much better written) literary works like those by Austen and Shakespeare. I don't understand this either/or choice between the two that Bloom has set up in his mind.
I guess that is his point. I might be wrong here but this is what he seems to be conveying: after reading Harry Potter and other genre fiction novels, people tend to gravitate more towards the easy to digest (entertaining) books rather than picking up something based on it's literary merit. And once your reading tastes have been defined by these books, it's really hard to get around works of Shakespeare or Milton.
Although I will say that it isn't applicable to everyone, once people fall in love with the act of reading (and not specific genres) they will eventually be exposed to all the best works of literature that he talks about.
@@nasar8480 I pretty much agree with your assessment if I'm understanding you correctly. I just flatly disagree with Bloom's theory that reading Harry Potter books or Stephen King books as a kid means you'll never read anything more challenging. His opinion seems to be pure conjecture from what I can tell. But Bloom had a very high opinion of his own opinions.
@@JoshPCohen Yeah I get what you're saying; he really does seem to hold himself and his opinions in high regard. And yes, the genaralizing nature of his statement that one can never read anything challenging if they have been exposed to Rowling's or King's books at an early age does invite criticism. But still, I believe in a softened form of his argument - it really is difficult for most people to dive deep in the great works of literature (and appreciate it) that demand heavy efforts from the reader's side if what they're used to is just 'reading for entertainment'.
Whatever might be the case, one cannot deny that the mere act of reading has become a rarity nowadays (especially in South Asian part of the world where I live - India to be precise). So, as long as people are reading (however they might wanna exercise it) it is worth appreciation.
Anyway, thank you for indulging Josh
@@nasar8480 I grew up on King, I’m 2/3 of the way through Shakespeare’s First Folio, and I’ve read Paradise Lost a few times. Stephen King is an all time elite author and Harold Bloom is a damned fool. I didn’t like Harry Potter though.
@@paulbernal6088 you had me until you said King is an “elite” writer and Harold Bloom a fool. If you’ve really read the books you claim, and understand their distinguished merits and aesthetic value, then you couldn’t possibly say King is an elite writer; could be possible that you’re just a bad reader. I mean the man spent his entire life studying literature and teaching at prestige’s schools and has been recognized by other esteemed minds as a great critic, and yet your common, trite, narrow minded opinion is some how more convincing?
Savage.
Wow his throat must really hurt from swallowing his words
When did he swallow his words?
ed95755 he absolutely HATED Harry Potter and said it was such a stupid idea that it would ever succeed and essentially said it would be a horrible book taught in writing schools to show what not to do etc etc I exaggerated a bit
@@oscarhf7569 that's precisely all it's good for. Prepping would be writers on what to avoid
Not really. He said Harry Potter would disappear within a generation and he was absolutely right. Gen Z doesn’t care about those books at all. They think millennials are lame for holding onto these books like holy texts when there is nothing in them worth holding onto other than nostalgia. No, Bloom was absolutely right in his assessment.
@@LollygaggingRabbit I'd beg to differ. I am a Gen Z person myself and know atleast 25 others who still worship those books. And yes, I've also read Steinbeck, Hemingway, Twain and Dickens. And yes, Harold bloom is a snob of epic proportions.
sick memes
NO
t. Harry Potter fan
He was kinda right about harry potter
No one gives af anymore its just not part of the cultural conversation
When I was a child, I read all of the HP books, multiple times. And yes, a couple of years later I was indeed reading one Stephen King's book after another, but this has never stopped me from reaching for high literature a couple of years later. When I read a SK's novel a year ago, I was surprises that I enjoyed that garbage, but well, my mind evolved and so did my literary taste.
You're just a weak reader if that's what you say about Stephen King after reading the classics!I did too, but King is still one of best writers of our time!
@@anthhhess3477 "Garbage detailing" is called character background and development, moron!King is no junk food, the only junk here are your superficial ideas because you can't accept that an old fool(now dead) with outdated beliefs got it wrong!Stephen King knows how to make use of psychology, he generates inner conflicts that are very actual for our days!Have you even read The Stand?It's an outstanding outlook on religion, human mind and human nature!
That's the spirit!
@@serban8298it only means that classical literature apparently is not for you. It doesn’t mean that sb is a weak reader. Everyone should read what’s close to one’s heart. Also, there’s a question of what one wants from literature…
@@scrutinizer8I do read a lot of classics.I actually study literature in college, but I also like authors like Stephen King and JK and it's really annoying when people like to give themselves a feeling of superiority for not reading mainstream books.
Here's the thing. I agree with most of what I've heard from Bloom. But he's dead wrong about HP. It doesn't have to be high literature. It sparked a love for reading that, for me, led to Lewis & Tolkien. And now? I'm an AP English teacher obsessed with Cormac McCarthy. Baby steps, my friends. 🙏🏼
I'm pretty sure he was talking about children in general and not you as a specific case. There are people growing up right now watching twerking Tik Tok's that will at some time in the future pick up a book and end up as an english teacher. I'm sure there are people growing up on The Fast and the Furious who will end up loving Stanley Kubrick. I'm sure there are people growing up listening to Justin Bieber who will end up loving Pink Floyd.. I could go on and on..Bloom is not dead wrong about Harry Potter. Harry Potter is not at blame neither is Tik Tok or Justin Bieber or anyone else... but it's a sure sign that the public zeitgeist has been steadily shifting over the years to a point were people in general dont care about the quality of art at all anymore and the lack of attention span wont even allow them to critically evaluate the quality of the art they are consuming. Again... not you in specific but people in general
Thank you you are a god thank you thank you i want your youtube channel to grow very big
pompous
And I’ve just finished reading my 20th Anniversary Ravenclaw edition of Prisoner of Azkaban.
You realise Bloom perceives the longevity of literature in centuries, not decades. Yes?
Brett Robb Brett Robb thanks for the patronising tone Brett- could have done without that, but I digress.
He actually says ‘in a generation or so’. Not centuries. I am about to become a mother and I was 8 when I first read Philospher’s Stone. I am now 30. The next generation of kids are already discovering and appreciating the Harry Potter books. The books are still just as popular today as they were when they first came out.
Now shut up. Thanks.
@@karismilligan5700 he is being trite. Each of the author's he cites as being part of the Western Canon have endured for a century or more. It's hopeful at best to consider that Rowling will have the same literary life as Austen or Shakespeare. It's fine that you enjoy it. My comment was simply to add context to Blooms lifetime of literary criticism that, sadly, is not encapsulated in this short clip.
My condolences
I hope you read other books though. Classics. Many people have only read Harry Potter and that is pretty sad.
Books like Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy kid are great fun and used as a treat not as a foundation of the appreciationn of literaturee.. Much like comic books.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Let's get one thing straight I’m not a fan boy because I don’t like everything he does. But having said that I do know genius when I see it. Stephen King is the most influential writer of the past fifty years. Apparently he is one of the two authors to have influenced most modern day writers. Just take a look at his body of work and the number of movies, stage plays etc. derived from his novels.
How can one author write Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Green Mile, The Body (Stand by Me), Misery, It, The Shawshank Redemption, Joyland, to name only a handful. It gobsmacks me that the literary community dismisses him when his genius is so obvious. I think it is snobbery for the most part and a reluctance to acknowledge how good he is because the masses love him.
You can love Dickens, Twain, King, George RR Martin, Kafka. They are not mutually exclusive.
He is the only author I have shed a tear reading his novels. How can you not call it genius to have a reader crying at the very last page of a 600 page novel when there were no tears before this? His effervescent style cannot be matched. I recently picked up a Booker Prize shortlisted novel (I shan’t name it because that would be rude and may put off potential readers who might enjoy it) and after a quarter of the way through I put it down. The author simply wasn't a genius like King and the storytelling was dull. He understands human nature and thus creates the most amazing characters and storylines. Some of his perceptions are mind-blowing.
These literary and classical authors wish they had an imagination even a fraction of King's. Stephen King is a creative genius. A storytelling genius. And a writing genius. The whole point of his stories is that his words disappear (he’s even said that himself) and don't get in the way of the storytelling. I’ll tell you once he gets in his stride his novels are almost impossible to put down. By doing this he transports the reader into another world fully immersing him or her in the experience. He is all about the story. But I'll tell you something. Some of his prose is out of this world and has me gasping in wonder just like I do when reading some literary authors.
I can understand why people enjoy literary books that are all about the words and I may do some day. I recently read The Trial by Kafka. I enjoyed it but it never reached the heights of most of the works I have read by Stephen King. But King isn’t ever going to get literary critical acclaim.
I'll tell you this! If he really wanted, Stephen King could spend the next three or four years devoting his life to writing a literary classic that would win all of the major prizes if it wasn't for the snobbery in the industry not allowing this due to his name. The most underrated writer in history by the so-called experts yet other artistic people - artists, fellow writers, movie directors all revere him because of his amazing talent.
If you think the Stand is a good book, I encourage you to read actual literature.
@@boldnessofsouls3502 I've read a lot of great literature and yes, The Stand is a masterpiece!
@@serban8298 Alot of these people simply want to read poetry more than they do actual stories and when they admit that there would be less fighting
savage
i do not remember lerning to read.
post more please!
Definition of bs- the comments support him which is surprising given the longevity of potter
Harry Potter generated an entire new generation of readers. He wrongfully dismisses it.
it generated a reddit generation, and that's nothing to be proud of.
@@ercanpeker Harry Potter inspired people to read. Not every one of those people is a Reddit poster. I can say Harry Potter inspired a helluva lot more young readers to continue reading than say "Moby Dick," or "A Tale of Two Cities." Great books, but inspired readers in mass they did not. Dismissing books the way Bloom did is not an intellectually appropriate thing to do, surprising he could be so wrong.
i think his point is what did the potter readers go on to read next. in my limited experience, mostly nothing.
@@richardravenclaw318 And you can say the same thing about the great literature forced upon young readers in school. In most cases, those readers ended up hating to read.
@@Klopp619 Sometimes I think these intellectuals aren't that clever. Otherwise why would they be so ignorant?
He'd have been MAGA. And a book banner.
I think a lot of folks miss the point... the best part of this little interview isn't the elitist snobbery or slams against specific popular writers or the fact that he can hardly hold a coffee cup... The best part is that he wipes his nose with a snot rag on C-SPAN Book TV... :) :)
You're all wrong, the best part is an American using the very English words "Rubbish" and "Dustbin".
The Harry Potter series are my favourite books. I haven't read them in over ten years but they left an impression stronger than any other book I've read. And that's what counts. What they did after with the movies and selling out is what ruined the mystique of the books for me.I remember to feel disgusted and embarrassed after watching the first movie.
How many other books have you actually read though?!Other Harry Potter inspired YA stuff doesn’t really count
As someone who grew up reading them too, they’re pish. I’m so glad people have started critiquing them heavily ever since Rowling became reviled by her own fanbase. I knew they were pretty garbage at least a decade ago
They don’t contain any consistent themes, allegories or big ideas. The setting itself is just a derivative generic hodge podge of western mythology. There’s really not much there to write home about.
He relegates Rowling's work to the dustbin, but refers to an anthology of his nobody knows about. I don't see fourth graders reading his books; however, the Potter series will always be in school libraries, and will take its place in its genre. Bloom is empty, snotty, self-serving intellect at work.
This is what I ask myself as a writer; would i want to win a nobel prize for great and amazing literary prose and style but have my only critics read my work or have the everyday person read my books about a western fantasy setting. I choose the latter. Even Roger Ebert said that a great film should be able to be understood by the layman, not just by snobs
But his anthology is a collection of other writers :P
Sounds like a grumpy old man. I know he is a big deal in academic circles but he needs to lighten up.
*was a big deal
@@_Conzo_ Right. RIP
lighten up = succumb to mediocrity
@@antonandraslindamoodwhite5407 Harry Potter isn't mediocre. Nor is Stephen King.
@@sbnwnc they are totally unoriginal
what a very sad man
"end up in the dust bin" *me 22 years after the first book came out literally part of the biggest fandom in the world*
Which says a lot about the state of the culture in the western world.
@@elhistoriero1227 funny how Harold Bloom criticizes so many novels and writes books about novels. And essays. But I literally just heard about him a day ago and has he ever wrote he's own novel? He Sounds like a boring old fuck who complains about things that aren't necessary.
@John Manton F Scott fitzgerald couldn't spell. And look how far he made. Lol
@John Manton and just because someones a yale professor doesn't mean he or she is right.
@@anime.lover10123 Bloom was mostly a critic, not an artist or a novelist, and was understandably worried about taste and standards.
What shouldn't be necessary is for someone to mount such an aggressive defense of today's reigning mediocrity.
He can’t even make eye contact with her.
lol
If classics were written with new translations kind of like the KJV was translated to English Standard Version, more people would read them. But they don’t teach classics in school anymore so no one knows how to interpret that shit. I had to teach myself.
What????? Classics are still forced down students throats lol
I disliked this video and I am glad he criticized Jk Rowling and Stephen King .... Literally I didn't liked this man at all
I read Harold Bloom when I was a kid and now I read the great books. Bloom is speaking out of his arse
Harry potter actually actually sucks.
King is a way better author than Rowling.
You suck
@@ripkhanna Prove it asshole.
@@parthk5513 Prove that Harry Potter sucks, asshole
@@ripkhanna First I am tired of that whinny ass potter.
Who isn't even grateful some one is adopting his whiny ass.
I think all the books except Book 5 suck ass. it is repetitive as hell. The series as whole is purely overrated. Most importantly I fucking hate Rowling. After finishing the series she reveals that hermione is black, while one of the book clearly mentions she is white. "her pale white face"
And Rowling just to show that she supports The gay community (which everyone should) Throws of her characters like Dumbeldore under the bus saying he is gay.
why are you quiet?
Asshole