|
Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds
Binding: Paperback
Author: Harold Bloom
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Features:
Average Rating: 3.5
Total Customer Reviews: 39
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $13.57
Sales Rank: 135637
Product Description
America's most prominent and bestselling literary critic takes an enlightening look at the concept of genius through the ages in a celebration of the greatest creative writers of all time.A monumental achievement of scholarship, GENIUS examines 100 of the most creative and literary minds in history. From the Bible to Socrates, through the transcendent achievements of Shakespeare and Dante, down through the ages to Hemingway, Faulkner, and Ralph Ellison, Bloom discusses the numerous influences of his chosen geniuses and the kinships among them over the centuries. He also offers revealing excerpts from their works that continue to surprise, enchant, and move the reader time after time. Bloom's insightful analyses of the poetry of Milton, Shelley, and Whitman; the drama of Ibsen and Tennessee Williams; and the narratives of Melville and Tolstoy, among many others, will illuminate and expand readers' understanding and appreciation of these great works of art. A wide-ranging study that enriches as it informs, GENIUS is a book to treasure.
|
Users Product Reviews: |
Product Review Summary: i love this book i love this book, its as simple as that.
i'v never understood peoples negative feelings towards mr. bloom, this is the guy who got me into reading beyond my usual diet of histories and non fiction.
i read this book over and over again...he is funny, lucid and very enjoyable to listen to.
Product Review Summary: Excellent discoveries... Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002) - Harold Bloom
I will admit right now that I found this book to be rather difficult. There is no doubt that Mr. Bloom has a tremendous amount of learning, but what happens oftentimes, unfortunately, is that Mr. Bloom writes with the assumption that we have had the same amount of learning. This is especially true when it comes to speaking of particular beliefs and movements (such as Gnosticism, Post-Romanticism, etc.) However, I still enjoyed this book very much. The reviewer that stated that this book is not actually about the true genius of each individual is absolutely correct: Mr. Bloom oftentimes just throws out a general statement to describe the genius without ever truly elucidating the statement. For example, I believe one Genius was the "genius of nightmare", yet if I remember correctly, it was never explained exactly how he was the genius of nightmare, or what that really even means.
What this book is really about is Mr. Bloom's tremendous passion for literature because it really shows in his writing. And what's great is the huge amount of new material that lovers of literature (such as myself) can now search through to find more great works that they will love in te future. There are so many writers in here that I had never even heard of before that it is a little ridiculous. For example, I found the poetry of Gerard de Nerval to be amazing, yet this man did not even exist to me before Mr. Bloom pointed him out.
It is true that Mr. Bloom is arrogant, and that he goes on tangents, and that he often contradicts himself, and that he often makes no sense, and yes, this can get a little annoying, but really, all that does not matter when we truly look at the tiny drawbacks and compare them to Mr. Bloom's tremendous positives. Therefore, overall, I would highly recommend this piece of work. The love and passion put into it is clearly felt.
Product Review Summary: Has Bloom actually said anything? Before getting on good professor's case, let me say something upfront - as
a reference book, it is worth having. Bloom's taste is generally good; and
because of his wide erudition, he can suggest authors that dilettantes (speaking strictly for myself) would not have heard otherwise. Now, Blooms explanations as to why this or other book is great are mostly vacuous. He has a couple of fixed concepts - gnosticism, agon, etc (not too much of etc) which he almost arbitrarily pattern-matches to a given author. One could probably write an artificial intelligence program which
would churn out Bloom-like reviews - and possibly pass Turing test (assuming the human on the other end is Professor Bloom).
In addition, Bloom's pretentiousness is not even funny. Most people at least pick up the tone when they write about things (or people) they do not like. Bloom does not even do that - his barbs have very dull teeth. As for Kabbalah - let's not even get started...
To summarize - the reader can mostly trust Bloom's instincts in picking good writers, but his justifications can be largely ignored - or the time is better spent to read the books themselves.
Product Review Summary: YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER This is a good book (with some caveats), and Prof. Bloom is a fair to good literary critic--but, in my opinion, not a great one. I'll explain.
The title, "Genius, A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds" is a book on writers to the exclusion of those in other arts or sciences. Bloom acknowledges that but still retains the misleadingly general title. It would more properly be entitled "One Hundred of Some of History's Best Writers"--more to the point. And lets get out from under the genius part of it.
An additional come-on is the jacket art, a detail of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I suppose God reaching to touch Adam's finger bespeaks of the genius aspect of this, (not just giving life as the original intention was). Doubtless that influences impulse shoppers who might believe this book would include the visual arts. Also the jacket blurbs on Bloom are a little overwrought, "flashes of lightning", "A colossus among critics...", etc.
Bloom organizes his book by headings from the Jewish Kabbala using generally unknown words. I find this pretentious, and distracting. Wanting to employ a seldom used typology to organize his material is understandable, but his choice here seems to me wrong-headed. Say an East Indian music expert did an anthology of composers under headings of the chakras--crown chakra, base chakra, etc., and in their Sanscrit names. What would that really have to do with music, and why force it down our throats? So, by any ordinary stretch, what does the Kabbala have to do with bright authors, and why force that down our throats?
He writes that his choices are "grandly arbitrary". Arbitrary yes, but with "grandly" he makes a virtue out of necessity. Where is Aeschylus? Where is Horace? Where is Solzhenitsyn? Where is Conrad? I would have hoped for leaving space for more of the manly writers.
Alas, the oracular Freud, whom I'd thought we'd benificently heard the last of, gets big space here. While he put together interesting typologies and the marginally effective psychotherapy, he is now passe. Freud had smart people fooled and bullied for way too long. (Bloom puts in Freud and leaves out Solzhenitsyn--crazy!)
But Bloom has the good taste to most favor, Sir. Henry Neville--attributed all these centuries, notwithstanding some good argument to the contrary, to the actor/manager, Shakespeare. And this may never change; how can you deny a name like "Shakespeare"? "Neville" simply wouldn't start to compete in the name department.
Bloom writes glowingly about the Yahwist, an author of the Pentateuch known as "J", and touches on the anthropomorphic god of that era. In a neat reversal, he notes that man has more rightly been called theomorphic--(very telling for Sumeria at that time).
But in his Sumerian translations, Orientalist and biblilcal scholar Zecharia Sitchin (a Jew) has shown that the gods of that period, who before had created (gene spliced) Homo Sapien in their image and influenced human events for some time thereafter, were small "g" gods who had traveled here from elsewhere in the cosmos. So J's god, Yahweh, while powerful, then, turns out to be an advanced humanoid and not the actual big "G" God (who was there all along), or Allah, or Brahma, or Self that Jesus, Muhammed, and the Upanishads presented.
In the section on Saint Paul, the author notes the lack of authenticatible information on the historic Jesus and John the Baptiser, something most Christians do not want to hear. This, of course, casts a penumbra of doubt over the whole Christian religious enterprise.
By the same token, as Sitchin's scholarship, which is absent in this volume, becomes more mainstream, just the fact of it would call for a new revised version of the Pentateuch. Unfortunately, this realization will be uncomfortable for some, such as the True Torah Jews who are so right and righteous in several utterly admirable ways.
For God, however immanent, that does not and did not manifest a physical presence,
the question remains for Christians as to His presence in the Trinity. My hunch and logic would have me side with the pre-Nicean Arians who said not.
Bloom then presents Muhammed; and, comparatively speaking, Islam looks very good indeed.
Finally, the practice of buggery, brought up in the D. H. Lawrence section, whether it be hetero or homo, is unnatural, unaesthetic and immoral--and it can be fatal. But I don't see Bloom stating a principled view here--just noting it and moving right along. (He doesn't connect the dots with the story on Sodom by his so admired Biblical writer, the Yahwist.) He thereby passes a chance to be a critic of some moral relevance. More than once in the book Bloom tiresomely notes his age, (seventy-one at the time of writing); still a youngster, but sadly, perhaps, too late to find a moral compass.
And, if not too late, I would urge the Professor, allowing that he might see these critiques some day, to consider inviting the writings of the Stoics into his forebrain--especially Seneca, and even more especially Epictitus: sublime and powerful normative moral philosophy that rivals the best one might find in any other ethical thought systems, secular or religious.
For me, that would be critical writing of a high order.
Product Review Summary: thought-provoking, passionate, brilliant your view on this book will track with your appetite for erudition, academia and intellectual challenge. the criticisms that this book is "ivory tower" & arrogant are right!
Having said that, I enjoy the challenge, entertainment and new ideas Bloom always brings to the table. Some of his more esoteric trappings -- such as the Kabbalah-based framework for the book -- I simply ignore. But I think his love of the classics and belief in deep reading as a source of humanity are thought-provoking and much needed.
if you love literature and are willing to work a little, this is great book to read slowly and savor.
|
Similar Products with reviews:
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
How to Read and Why
Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Robert Frost
Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages
|
Wireless Products Store
Disclaimer: All product data on this page belongs to Amazon.com. No
guarantees are made as to accuracy of prices and information.
|
