"These resentniks have destroyed the canon."

James Wood takes on Harold Bloom. We can't imagine that, at this juncture, this is anything close to a fair fight, but who cares? Wood (very much as Kael did for movies) puts other literary critics to shame and Bloom remains ripe for a beating (especially if we are to believe that he consorted with Naomi Wolf. Yuck.).


Anyway, in light of Wood's piece it's worth revisiting Adam "Son of Louis" Begley's exceptional Bloom profile from more than a decade ago. Here's how it begins:


IN EARLY SUMMER, I PAID TWO VISITS TO Harold Bloom, the eminent literary critic famous for his prodigious intellectual energy. On both occasions, he seemed intent on staging a deathbed scene.


We dislike the phrase "read the whole thing" but it applies here.