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Possessed by Memory
In Praise of Harold Bloom’s Latest (and Last) Book
I pre-ordered Harold Bloom’s latest book,Possessed by Memory: The Inward Light of Criticism, months ago and had completely forgotten it was coming out today. Thanks to a quick email, I realized it was now waiting for me on my Kindle bookshelf. I can’t overstate how excited I am to finally read this.
Bloom is one of those special writers with whom I’ve found a deep affinity. In a very real way, literary criticism is indeed his religion, and the ground of his uniquely gnostic and Yahwistic spirituality, about which I’ve written here -and which I’ve also felt influence my own spirituality deeply. However, it’s his method of deep reading, I think, that has influenced me most deeply: his capacity to read a text without provincialism, instead seeking to mine what the text says about the author’s self, and, by extension, our own shared Self.
The book’s epigraph sums this up nicely:
“That is what the highest criticism really is, the record of one’s own soul. It is more fascinating than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilised form of autobiography, as it deals not with the events, but with the thoughts of one’s life; not…
