How is the list going anon?
>>23618201As a mass-market work published through a commercial press, Bloom’s “The Western Canon” is an embarrassing display of middlebrow intellectualism. By posing as a Promethean figure, bringing enlightenment to the masses, all Bloom only manages to produce is an overwrought listicle. He reduces literary tradition to a grocery list of pre-approved and sanctioned authors who, if read, will bring about the desired measure of bourgeois sophistication and cultural caché. “The Western Canon” is more in firmly in line with consumer culture than a drug store romance novel. As a credible arbiter of taste, Bloom strips readers of the potential for their own development of a literary sensibility.It’s truly sickening that he wrote the thing, believing as I do that he’s largely correct about the so-called school of resentment in academia. His own petty, stupid resentments shine through in the book, and he grants himself here the moral license to damn the whole scholarly project just because feminism is le bad.
>>23618245Filtered
I am reading French authors onlyI don't really care about English authors anymore
>>23618453for some fucking reason my retard brain decided to spent 1000 hours learning mandarin chinese to read their literature. i am now doing french as the chinese have a severe lack of great works. the french are where it's at. next i will be doing russian.
>>23618201Of people I want to kill? Splendid. And just because you asked you’ve been moved to the top it. Congratulations.
>>23618201its goin nowher
>>23618766I have good news for you, anon: Classical Chinese is the most well-preserved classical tradition in the world, and Mandarin gives you a considerable advantage with it. Go read some Li Bai, and not just the cliched ones.
>>23618245Nice copypasta faggot
The hokage will pay at the summit
>>23618245Canon isn't supposed to be an expression of how "original" you are. Canonical texts are supposed to give wisdom to the reader, regardless who he is. This leads to obvious choices like Homer and Shakespeare.
>>23620980If canonical texts were self-evidently beneficial to readership then critics and educators would not need to cultivate an established canon, nor would they need to defend the merits of such texts against others. The issue isn’t with the notion of canonization, but instead with Bloom’s reduction of canonical works to mere articles of consumption. His motivations for doing so are political (even if they’re pointed at the political motives of others), all the while claiming that he’s only acting in the defence of judgement and good taste. Presenting a mass audience with such a static view of the literary field works, in practice, to prevent such a readership from forming either judgement or taste.
>>23621073> If canonical texts were self-evidently beneficial to readership then critics and educators would not need to cultivate an established canonGood point. I only really know of Bloom through this board. I have never felt a need to actually read about Canon. I think Canon is very real though.
>23621073>nooooo you have to wander into useless derivative literature first nooooo you need to waste your time reading garbage instead of using this "suggested" roadmap ahhhhhhh
>>23622048Pretty much everyone will end up reading some measure of garbage one way or another. Keep in mind that people aren’t born into a vacuum, parents, peers, teachers, librarians, and so on will steer tastes of the young reader in a few different directions. The culture surrounding you will tell you what is prestigious to read and what is shameful. I’m not against people being told what to read, so long as it’s a social engagement. If someone only becomes a reader as an adult, then they’d be better served by joining a book club or talking to a librarian than “The Western Canon.”
>>23622226The “western canon” are the most influential books, that’s all it is
>>23622237I’m talking about the book by Harold Bloom, not the concept itself. Keep up, retard
>>23622247Well then he elaborates on them. It’s criticism, not a roadmap
>>23622257Why are you pretending to have read it suddenly
>>23622265I’ve read most of it
>>23622270Which are you referring to now, Bloom’s book or the western canon? Because you were confused before
>>23622275I’m not the poster you were originally talking to. I’ve read most of Bloom’s book and it depends on how wide you consider the western canon as far as that goes
