How Bloom could include in his “Top 26” Virginia Woolf but not Mr. Dostoyevsky should trouble readers who still peek at such lists—albeit with one eye closed. But with regard to Bloom they might not bother at all after reading Joseph Epstein’s devastating put-down of the Yale celebrity more than twenty-years ago (at https://bit.ly/3EWbbDy, and appearing again in Epstein’s collection “In a Cardboard Box: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage” {2007]). If while “under the influence” I were to step back from my aversion to lists and rankings long enough to name my own “Starting Five” of America’s best literary critics of the past hundred years, Epstein would make the cut, but not Bloom. And if writing with great humor were given the weight it deserves, then Epstein would be the point guard on that squad.
An aside: have you read any of the books of your countryman the philosopher David Stove? A funny and incisive man who died before he got the attention and admiration he most assuredly deserved!
Next time you should address Bloom's list of the must read Ancient texts...
How Bloom could include in his “Top 26” Virginia Woolf but not Mr. Dostoyevsky should trouble readers who still peek at such lists—albeit with one eye closed. But with regard to Bloom they might not bother at all after reading Joseph Epstein’s devastating put-down of the Yale celebrity more than twenty-years ago (at https://bit.ly/3EWbbDy, and appearing again in Epstein’s collection “In a Cardboard Box: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage” {2007]). If while “under the influence” I were to step back from my aversion to lists and rankings long enough to name my own “Starting Five” of America’s best literary critics of the past hundred years, Epstein would make the cut, but not Bloom. And if writing with great humor were given the weight it deserves, then Epstein would be the point guard on that squad.
An aside: have you read any of the books of your countryman the philosopher David Stove? A funny and incisive man who died before he got the attention and admiration he most assuredly deserved!