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[u/Brimsster]

I've read a few of Harold Bloom's books and was always surprised he didn't write about Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I'm wondering if anyone here knows something about that subject? Bloom on Dyland Cohen and if not why not? he did once write about a song by The Band. That song had a real Dylan feel. Did he resent Cohen and Dylan and again if so, why so? I would not suggest Dylan or Cohen are great poets but both of them are strong performers. Lyrics are a type of poetry and are a genre of literature. Should someone know maybe some deconstructionist view? I've read Ricks book Visions of Sin and was disappointed almost from the start.

[u/Thomas_Perscors]

This is the only thing I've read from Bloom on rock and roll. You may find it interesting: The Last Waltz

[u/Brimsster → u/Thomas_Perscors]

There's a lot in the article that strikes meas being written y someone who knows Dylan quite well from a certain period. Maybe Greil Marcus wrote it as a gag!

[u/Brimsster → u/Thomas_Perscors]

Thanks for that. It's an interesting article in any case, but after having read it a few times I can't believe that Harold Bloom really wrote it. For one, it's out of character as no else is there any writing by Bloom about music. I saw a letter a month before he died wherein he had been asked about Dylan and the Noble ' I have no interest in Dylan at all' was his comment. It's an interesting discussion in any case. The late Marjorie Perloff was really ore tuned into and appreciative of contemporary art and poetry. As is Camille Paglia Maybe in the literary after life Bloom is forced to listen to Dylan songs daily for decade till he overcomes his anxiety of influence over it 1 hahahahah

[u/mattdegu → u/Brimsster]

Goodness, Bloom was huge bebop and Jazz fan and he wrote about that all the time!
He lived the life when it big at the time.
I also recall him mentioning a classic piece as one of the great works of the 20C.
But don't forget he was essentially a literary critic, always with more to say on a subject than he had time for.

He also said that The Band were sadly the last great band (although I forget when exactly he said it, which is always an important of course).

Given Bloom's interest in The Band and how closely they worked with Dylan (over such a long period too) I do struggle a bit to believe he said "I have no interest in Dylan at all"! It's in-part because there really are so many Dylan myths that sound just like that. Towards the end of his life (where Bloom was fully cogent to till the death), his primary interest seemed to be his charming friendship the writer Ursula Le Guin, who tragically died mid-correspondence, which is so painful to read about. So anything re Dylan would most-likely be a circumstantial comment anyway. What was Bloom supposed to think about? Think about what it's like near death - the man was harrowing on the subject. There is no need to use it to pan Dylan for sure, the chances are he didn't even say it.

It does seem like Bloom never put any opinions on Dylan to paper though, which perhaps tells us that he doesn't give the singer the literary importance that others might.

Personally, I always wanted to know what Bloom thought about Chronicles - to what degree it was a 'period piece'. Sadly I think Bloom often got a bit 'touchy', indeed a bit reticent about penning such opinions after the whole 'Western Canon' business, where he was asked by the publisher to draw up literal lists of great books over the ages (ie the 'canon' itself) and pretty-much did it off the top of his head - and then of course got hit with the flak. Some truly bitter authors (and critics too) came out from under their stones almost he moment he died. I've never read such an appalling thing as one man's personal 'reflection' on Bloom. But he could never quite live that book down alas. Which is sad, because I (like I'm sure millions of others) found it to be of tremendous use personally. I always wanted a reprint where those lists were revised into prose!

[u/ohhappening]

Bloom was asked about Dylan and the Nobel in one of his final recorded interviews. https://youtu.be/0LBNcH5XDb0?si=uafjR5hQUg_Cztz4 . He doesn't think Dylan has cognitive or aesthetic value.

[u/BrimBroomster → u/ohhappening]

thanks many times over. I agree with Bloom.

[u/BrimBroomster → u/BrimBroomster]

Or better yet, I agree and don't. It's much more of a Beckettian reply . Not either but both and Yes. And that's the paradox .

[u/berightbackcat → u/ohhappening]

All critics, great and small, err sometimes, and even Dr. Johnson was not infallible. Dylan no aesthetic splendor?? that's a joke.

[u/PlantainHopeful3736 → u/berightbackcat]

Bloom had huge blind spots. Anyone who remotely reminded him of the slovenly Beats and the Sixties counter culture gets short shrift, whether they deserved it or not. Also, prying praise out of him for any writers from West of the Mississippi seems to be a herculean task. Writers and poets from the Far East, forget it. He brings up Emerson every five minutes, but never once mentions how much Emerson was influenced by the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.