Harold Bloom Has Died • Hacker News Board

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#11

Post by 0_gravitas » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:13 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #7

jchallis wrote: post #2

I used to tutor math and physics near Bloom's office in Timothy Dwight. My main association with the man is that he would come on strong to every female English graduate student he could reach. When #MeToo first came to national consciousness about men in arts and letters who completely abused their position to take advantage of women, I thought of Harold. How could these giants of arts and letters abuse so many? Bec…

You shouldn't speak ill of the dead like this. It is uncouth and crass for all sorts of reasons. It doesn't mean you need to forget or ignore it, it just means... today is not the day. More days will come.

Not OP but I've never liked the notion of "too soon" as a reason for not doing/saying things, it feels very arbitrary. And I don't know much about the person of subject but I will speak ill of anyone living or dead if they are someone worth speaking ill of.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#12

Post by jacques_chester » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:19 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #4

trianglem wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like coming on strongly to women is something desirable now, a drastic deviation from how I used to think less than half a decade ago.

Please don't do this here.

Or anywhere, really.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#13

Post by jeffdavis » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

The article confuses me. Bloom thought both that Shakespeare invented humanity, but also that literature was primarily about the aesthetic pleasure for the reader?

I am not an expert in literature or criticism, but it seems like there's something missing from the article to explain that gap.

(I'm sorry to hear of his passing, of course, and I don't mean this as disrespectful in any way.)

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#14

Post by jerf » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

0_gravitas wrote: post #11

jerf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't speak ill of the dead like this. It is uncouth and crass for all sorts of reasons. It doesn't mean you need to forget or ignore it, it just means... today is not the day. More days will come.

Not OP but I've never liked the notion of "too soon" as a reason for not doing/saying things, it feels very arbitrary. And I don't know much about the person of subject but I will speak ill of anyone living or dead if they are someone worth speaking ill of.

It is not for the deceased; it is for the family of the deceased and others left behind. They are grieving and don't need to also have to deal with rumors adding to their pain. They didn't do it.

It is also a simple application of the Golden Rule; you would not care for everyone around you to take your death as an opportunity to slag you, neither should you do it to you other fellow humans, all condemned to die one day as well.

There will be more days. It doesn't have to be done today.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#15

Post by coldtea » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

teflodollar wrote: post #10

It's too bad to read these reports about his lecherousness, because he was without question a giant in the US world of letters.

Well, hitting on women (for men), hitting on men (for women), drinking, taking drugs, being tightwad, being lavish, being easily angered, and tons of other things, never stopped anybody from being a giant of letters or the arts, a great politician, a good scientist, a great athlete, a great actor, a great humanitarian, a great businessperson or any other thing...

In fact it's probably more common in the great men and women, than in the puny average moralists who never achieved greatness, but also never dared go into any excess as people, and had far far less chances to indulge in such things...

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#16

Post by _edo » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:33 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #4

trianglem wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like coming on strongly to women is something desirable now, a drastic deviation from how I used to think less than half a decade ago.

Please don't do this here.

I understand why you don't like this comment.

I don't understand why this is worth your commenting on but you're silent on the airing of somebody's dirty laundry between their death and their funeral.

What this signals to the Hacker News community is disturbing to the extent that I'm not sure I want to spend any more time here.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#17

Post by Barrin92 » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #14

0_gravitas wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but I've never liked the notion of "too soon" as a reason for not doing/saying things, it feels very arbitrary. And I don't know much about the person of subject but I will speak ill of anyone living or dead if they are someone worth speaking ill of.

It is not for the deceased; it is for the family of the deceased and others left behind. They are grieving and don't need to also have to deal with rumors adding to their pain. They didn't do it. It is also a simple application of the Golden Rule; you would not care for everyone around you to take your death as an opportunity to slag you, neither should you do it to you other fellow humans, all condemned to die one d…

>It is also a simple application of the Golden Rule; you would not care for everyone around you to take your death as an opportunity to slag you

if I ever turn into someone who gets a reputation for molesting young college students drag me all you want, hell rent a billboard for all I care and chuck my remains into the trashcan.

If I ever figured out that one of my family members engaged in behaviour like this I would not mind it one single bit if their accusers spoke about it the day they died, the only thing I'd be sad about is that I didn't know sooner.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#18

Post by mellosouls » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:35 PM UTC

dlivingston wrote: post #6

jchallis wrote: post #2

I used to tutor math and physics near Bloom's office in Timothy Dwight. My main association with the man is that he would come on strong to every female English graduate student he could reach. When #MeToo first came to national consciousness about men in arts and letters who completely abused their position to take advantage of women, I thought of Harold. How could these giants of arts and letters abuse so many? Bec…

Regarding Bloom's accuser, > In 2004, Wolf wrote an article for New York magazine accusing literary scholar Harold Bloom of a "sexual encroachment" more than two decades earlier by touching her thigh. She said that what she alleged Bloom did was not harassment, either legally or emotionally, and she did not think herself a "victim", but that she had harbored this secret for 21 years. [0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org…

Comment removed.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#19

Post by vonnik » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:37 PM UTC

Strange side note: A friend of mine knew Bloom, and one of Bloom's favorite books was Little, Big, by John Crowley. Bloom said he saw parallels between the 2016 election and the second coming of Barbarossa.

Re: Harold Bloom Has Died

#20

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

carterschonwald wrote: post #8

jchallis wrote: post #2

I used to tutor math and physics near Bloom's office in Timothy Dwight. My main association with the man is that he would come on strong to every female English graduate student he could reach. When #MeToo first came to national consciousness about men in arts and letters who completely abused their position to take advantage of women, I thought of Harold. How could these giants of arts and letters abuse so many? Bec…

When I was an undergrad there 2006-2010, his perviness was well known across campus. Female dorm residents had lots of stories

[deleted]