Power Quote
Power Quote: Harold Bloom, Virginia Woolf Double Down
Yet who reads to bring about an end however desirable? Are there not some pursuits that we practice because they are good in themselves, and some pleasures that are final? And is not this among them? I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards–their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble–the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.”
— Virginia Woolf, from The Second Common Reader (quoted by Bloom in The Western Canon)
Those first three sentences have been my credo ever since I read them in my childhood, and I urge them now upon myself, and all who still can rally to them. They do not preclude reading to obtain power, over oneself or over others, but only through a pleasure that is final, a difficult and authentic pleasure.
— Harold Bloom, The Western Canon, “Woolf’s Orlando: Feminism as The Love of Reading”
Tags: Harold Bloom, The Western Canon, Virginia Woolf
these two chaps are quite proud of themselves, eh?
these two chaps are quite proud of themselves, eh?
something very sam-eagle-gone-to-seed about that man’s face.
something very sam-eagle-gone-to-seed about that man’s face.
haha
haha
One of the last lectures I heard at Warren Wilson was by the poet Jennifer Grotz. It was called:
The Anxiety of Influence for Girls.
It was awesome.
One of the last lectures I heard at Warren Wilson was by the poet Jennifer Grotz. It was called:
The Anxiety of Influence for Girls.
It was awesome.
That sounds cool. Though the apropriation of Woolf by Boom here makes me uncomfortable. There is something unethical.
…
Putting these wonderful quotes from actual writers in your site highlights through contrast just how dull and pointless the rest of the writing here is.
Putting these wonderful quotes from actual writers in your site highlights through contrast just how dull and pointless the rest of the writing here is.
Bloom’s too hyperbolical for me.
Bloom’s too hyperbolical for me.
I think he is melting as he ages.
I think he is melting as he ages.