I knew Bloom was a good 'un when I learnt he'd included "Little, Big" (John Crowley) in his 20th C canon - one of my literary epiphanies as a teenager. Read it and weep.
And to think I felt frustration with the post-modern existentialism prevalent in my own formal liberal education of the 1970s! Now I feel blessed to have been born into that generation. For anyone interested in reading or re-reading Shakespeare, I highly recommend first turning to the appropriate play in Bloom's Shakespeare, Invention of the Human, for an illuminating introduction (warning: you might find yourself morphing into Bardist). When is deadline for your online Shakespeare and Magic class, and how difficult would it be, technically, for a mid-1970s English major luddite who has yet to successfully negotiate a Zoom call?
You can probably enroll up to the end of the month. All it takes to get on Zoom is to hit a link. If you can figure out how to post a comment on Substack, Zoom is easy peasy.
Four that immediately come to mind are John Keats (trained as a surgeon), John Clare (a farm laborer), Wallace Stevens (and insurance company executive), and William Carlos Williams (a physician). There are probably hundreds more. Another is Anthony Burgess, a self-taught novelist and composer.
I think of Le Carre (Mi6), Rothfuss (chemist), Dostoevsky (Eastern Orthodox theology + war camps), Mary Oliver (dead pigeon smuggler), and Tolkien (WWI survivor + Philologist).
For awhile now, I've been referring to universities as Maoist madrasas.
I remember that when I was in college—graduated in 2011—critical race theory and the sociology of gender and whatnot were still considered kind of esoteric and edgy. (Yes, Judith Butler was involved.) At the time, the fact that the ideas were manifestly psychotic was overshadowed by the way it was sold as being something akin to the base code of the Matrix. Fortunately, though, it didn't take me very long to snap out of it; I learned about the enemy and proceeded to run away. And then I knew what I was looking at right away after it leaked from the lab.
Also, do you have a favorite edition of the collected works of Shakespeare? I was eyeing this one by Pelican, since I've liked their individual volumes:
Well, you missed out George Steiner...
I knew Bloom was a good 'un when I learnt he'd included "Little, Big" (John Crowley) in his 20th C canon - one of my literary epiphanies as a teenager. Read it and weep.
I know! (As I mentioned elsewhere in the comments). Real Presences is one of my all-time favorites.
The lab leak to direct injection link is very interesting
Now I need to read Bloom!
And to think I felt frustration with the post-modern existentialism prevalent in my own formal liberal education of the 1970s! Now I feel blessed to have been born into that generation. For anyone interested in reading or re-reading Shakespeare, I highly recommend first turning to the appropriate play in Bloom's Shakespeare, Invention of the Human, for an illuminating introduction (warning: you might find yourself morphing into Bardist). When is deadline for your online Shakespeare and Magic class, and how difficult would it be, technically, for a mid-1970s English major luddite who has yet to successfully negotiate a Zoom call?
Invention of the Human is a great guide!
You can probably enroll up to the end of the month. All it takes to get on Zoom is to hit a link. If you can figure out how to post a comment on Substack, Zoom is easy peasy.
I find that rereading James Baldwin and/or Flann O’Brien an antidote to most prevalent cultural ailments 😺
What do you think of Vonnegut’s claim that the best authors come from other subjects and then embody their wisdom within English creative writing?
I wouldn't call it an absolute rule, but I think there's a lot of truth to it. Even more in the case of journalism.
Agreed. What examples would you point to for the creative writing (or even music) side of things?
Four that immediately come to mind are John Keats (trained as a surgeon), John Clare (a farm laborer), Wallace Stevens (and insurance company executive), and William Carlos Williams (a physician). There are probably hundreds more. Another is Anthony Burgess, a self-taught novelist and composer.
I think of Le Carre (Mi6), Rothfuss (chemist), Dostoevsky (Eastern Orthodox theology + war camps), Mary Oliver (dead pigeon smuggler), and Tolkien (WWI survivor + Philologist).
For awhile now, I've been referring to universities as Maoist madrasas.
I remember that when I was in college—graduated in 2011—critical race theory and the sociology of gender and whatnot were still considered kind of esoteric and edgy. (Yes, Judith Butler was involved.) At the time, the fact that the ideas were manifestly psychotic was overshadowed by the way it was sold as being something akin to the base code of the Matrix. Fortunately, though, it didn't take me very long to snap out of it; I learned about the enemy and proceeded to run away. And then I knew what I was looking at right away after it leaked from the lab.
Also, do you have a favorite edition of the collected works of Shakespeare? I was eyeing this one by Pelican, since I've liked their individual volumes:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/289647/the-complete-pelican-shakespeare-by-william-shakespeare/
I haven't used that one. I like the old Riverside if you can find it, as well as the Bevington. And you can always count on the Norton edition.
I suspect I would have been a Lit major if I had had you as a prof.
thanks!
Unless Jack the Ripper was Mary Pearcey, of course.
Henry IV, Part 1 is one of my favorite plays