So who takes his place when he dies, /lit/? Who's the best? Who's next in line to be the preeminent American critic?
>>7397146
"best" is a spook
me
James Wood?
>>7397146
Oh boy family it's the Mac Daddy Bloom!
>>7397151
Do you have an opinion on anything? Replace the word best with, "your favorites," then. Just who are your favorite lit critics on their way up?
>>7397168
>Do you have an opinion on anything?
"on" is a spook
>>7397158
watched this guy do a presentation of dfw's brief interviews
good shit
>>7397189
I admit I sensibly chuckled.
>>7397146
well the harvard poetry guy who looks like John Green in crossdress is a total fraud and promotes the very very worst of contemporary poetry, so probably nobody for a few decades
>>7397197
Link? I thought he didn't like Wallace.
>>7397216
Lol who?
>>7397221
I heard he it wasn't that he didn't like him, it was that he didn't think he (or a bunch of others) deserved all the praise they were getting. That was then spun by crazy Wallace fans as, "wait, him being hard on Wallace means he thinks Wallace's work deserves to be scrutinized like the greats. Therefore, Wallace = great."
I haven't seen it, though.
>>7397223
> Lol who?
I like this response, the more to say it the better
but anyways, Stephen Burt
>>7397146
I can't believe the respect Bloom gets here. I'm a literary scholar, so I've had to read massive piles of his stuff. It really hasn't been good material since the Anxiety of Influence -- and that was forty years ago.
These days, there's no such thing as the preeminent American critic. There are journalists who publish plenty of books reviews. There are literary scholars, who are often amazing but tend to produce relatively specialized material. Just look at the young people who are getting the star positions in universities at the moment. A couple of my favorites are Daniel Heller-Roazen and Michael Warner. And seriously, /lit/, try to build your sophistication and information base a bit so that people don't describe this board as "very undergraduate" (one of the worst possible insults).
>>7397295
this is a board for people who like to read
not english majors (thank god)
>>7397295
>And seriously, /lit/, try to build your sophistication and information base a bit so that people don't describe this board as "very undergraduate" (one of the worst possible insults).
?? maybe to you
we're very aware we're undergrad-tier, we're fine with it
>>7397301
Fair justification. I've been reading through here in the past day and am frustrated at the name dropping without examples. If you're going to talk about Bloom, use examples!! Like the way he appropriates the image of the "clinamen" from Epicurus to try (unsuccessfully) to describe generation friction within literary history. It's an intriguing idea, but after that point, he turned populist conservative and published all these rambly books of reading impressions (I like Falstaff coz he's old and fat!).
But you're probably right that people like being a bit sloppy sometimes and this probably isn't a good board for me to be looking at anyway.
Bon voyage!
>>7397295
Where should we go, then? Oh wise, literary scholar? Where is this bastion of sophistication and information on the internet that looks down their noses at the plebs and bottom feeders of /lit/?
>>7397313
I've never wanted to kick a poster in the head more than I have after reading this post.
Looking for ubiquitous formality on 4chan, Jesus christ.
>>7397249
Says he works with poetry. Is there a prose equivalent of Mr. Burt the Sesame Street tier critic?
>>7397315
Go to events in person, especially if you're in a big city. Go hear interesting writers speak about their own work, and hear what smart (or not so smart) people might have to say in response in Q&A time. Go to university campuses (if you're not on one already) and attend public lectures and conference events (where discussion can often be very stimulating).
Use the internet properly. There is a huge amount of good quality audio material available for free. In the good old days of Pirate Bay, I downloaded all The Teaching Company lectures and I often listen to them. Yale and Berkeley put really good lecture series online (take John Rogers on Milton, for example), as do many other universities. Listen to smart lectures and readings through youtube (but try to go above the level of Ted Talks as often as you can). There are discussion boards like SHAKSPER that are moderated, but they involve filtering a lot of boring or irrelevant information.
Being devoted to literature can be a somewhat lonely and isolating life. It means that you have many detailed and extended conversations with yourself. But every now and then you meet someone who shares your passion and commitment, and a wonderfully meaningful connection can be formed.
>>7397321
Nope. I can't stand reddit. All those dads seeking upvotes. It's cringeworthy.
>>7397327
Please share this bountiful harvest of resources oh wise and powerful anon.
The implication that people don't already do this and more is hilarious.
Nice solution for "proper discourse" on the internet, we all appreciate your non-advice.
>>7397327
>In the good old days of Pirate Bay
It's still there, grandpa.
>>7397354
You can probably still find good stuff on the Pirate Bay. Or maybe on Library Genesis. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way and go to a college library and burn the audio CDs to your hard drive.
>>7397361
Ok so what stuff would you suggest looking for if I go bug my University librarians eventually? Our library is being remodelled basically just to make it normie friendly so I don't know when I can get to certain materials.
I was hoping you maybe had a zip file you could upload for us containing some of the stuff you had saved and built up.
>>7397406
Sorry, I can't upload. But if you want good discussion of literary material, there's a lot of stuff available online:
- download as much iTunes U material as you can, especially the series done by prominent scholars. Often these are just undergraduate lecture series that are very polished and very impressive.
- get audiobooks of popular literary critical works -- popular people like Stephen Greenblatt or Peter Ackroyd.
- get everything The Teaching Company has released. Some of it is dull, but some series are really nice (like Seth Lerer on Chaucer or Claire Kinney on Shakespeare or -- and this one is my favorite -- John Sutherland on English lit from the start to the 20th C).
- Hand pick good lectures from youtube that are uploaded by universities. Download these yourself so they're on a portable device.
- Get audio versions of poetry and drama. There's a lot of this available. The Arkangel Shakespeare series is very good. Caedmon is another name to follow. Everyone who cares about literature needs the 3-CD set of Poetry Speaks. It's author's reading their own work, from Tennyson through to Plath and beyond. And at the least, it will allow you to do good T.S. Eliot impersonations.
- go to your library and explore around the old audiovisual collection. This stuff is often neglected, but there's still great material available on record or cassette tape in most good libraries.
Listen to this stuff whenever you're commuting or traveling or just taking a bus somewhere. Your knowledge base will expand massively. And you'll end up memorizing a bunch of cool poetry without even trying.
>>7397146
>critics
Too banal
>>7397295
>I'm a literary scholar, so I've had to read massive piles of his stuff.
well that's really your problem and not mine. I prefer to actually read works of literature rather than homosexual studies perspectives.
Sorry, but the literary theory flavor of the day doesn't matter to anyone who cares about books in any non-academic way. Pretty sure Whitman and Shakespeare didn't care about the dominant critics, other than as a curiosity. That's what Bloom is, a curiosity. You're not, because you're not a fat jewish guy who reads and knows a lot, you're just a fat jewish guy. Go away, shoo.
>>7397323
not sure, poetry generally attracts the best and brightest so if poetry is facing a paucity, so is prose
>>7397652
That's it.
Officially the worst thread thread in /lit/ history.
>>7397654
sorry mr. "I'm a literary critic" but nobody cares about your theory here
critics aren't necessary
>>7397662
Critics are necessary, though. Without critics, nothing's ever considered actually good. We're all critics.
>>7397158
nah, he's too busy fighting space aliens on a far away planet
>>7397295
His criticism functions strictly to promote his theory. he is a great theoretician and knows that is where his legacy is. I don't really see anything wrong with that
in terms of /lit/ he is a meme because of the late career canonizing. folks want books to read + he has good soundbites
>>7397327
people on here are wannabe writers not wannabe scholars. no one wants to read like a little schoolboy, interpreting everything through the lens of some broke dick fuck
