From The Anxiety to The Anatomy of Influence: A Conversation with Harold Bloom

With Harold Bloom and Paul Holdengräber
On the closing day of the PEN World Voices Festival, Yale University's Sterling Professor of the Humanities Harold Bloom will join Paul Holdengräber for a discussion LIVE from the NYPL. Now in his eighth decade, Bloom will reflect back on his life-long love affair with literature and recite some of his favorite poems. In a far-ranging conversation, he will revisit his classic work of literary criticism, The Anxiety of Influence. Bloom will also discuss Till I End My Song, his recent collection of poems, and his career-spanning "critical self-portrait" The Anatomy of Influence.
For more, visit www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmM...

[@CantEatBabies]

I could honestly listen to Bloom talk all day.

[@BleakGreyHorizon]

I love the way that Bloom keeps giggling at the interviewer's inanities -- and the audience laughs along with him.

[@tariqsaeed9774]

To be frank, the interviewer is clearly annoying Prof Bloom by his childish remarks.

[@jamesroach8841]

I haven't laughed out loud so much in years! He is as hilarious in person as he is consoling in writing. And yet somehow more moving. I love and and admire this man.

[@ANTICHITASCIPPA]

.

[@dustyshackleford6772]

This is the only interview I have found where he is cracking jokes and this Kraut just sits there and gives him weird looks.

[@timholbrook7671]

Several of his former students mentioned that Harold was one of the very few professor's, who encouraged and enjoyed interaction with his class and sometimes, a bit of correction.

[@abooswalehmosafeer173]

old age is shipwreck but what a tower of intellect and cerebrality!charming old man.

[@pygmalioninvenus6057]

This man has had a profound and indelible impact on the face of Western art, education, and culture at large. A life well lived has brought him blessed and eternal sleep.

[@journeyisseperate]

Harold's mind is so wonderful that it is almost superfluous. I am so thankful that I managed to find his work and words, primarily through the internet (which he would probably be astonished by) whereby I have purchased and read most of his books. To put it mildly, he has changed the way that I perceive literature like few else. Thankfully his spirit and majesty has been recorded for all to witness, whether or not they should agree with his views. Thank you Harold, for your unwavering sublimity.

[@idicula1979]

I have to say he is a very engaging personality.

[@timholbrook7671]

Harold, Professor Bloom, is TRULY, one of a kind. Also, found the conversations with Charlie Rose, priceless, as the chemistry was incredible, the effect the two had on each other.

[@timholbrook7671]

@ journeyisseperate, A very hearty Amen to you and all your insightful and profound comments.

[@SamuelDaram]

Love the bit here where Harold Bloom talks of Burton, the "fear of over-reading" and the dangers of drowning out life 45:30

[@valpergalit]

I love how jovial Bloom is in this interview, perhaps because of his age.

[@aryehfinklestein9041]

Wonderful! thanks for posting. Bloom is now a veritable sage, and talks like one. Highlights for me: the Edmund Wilson and CS Lewis anecdotes - priceless! as well as the statement that he got into Poetry in the first place because of his "hatred for TS Eliot". And I love that in the end he came to accept the greatness of Eliot as a poet, but thinks that he was "a strange amalgam of Tennyson and Whitman."

[@abooswalehmosafeer173]

We meet again ,and again I keep and continue to learn from the questions the answers and comments..a rich and fertile soils for the seeds of my nourichments..Thanks again..

[@jakkblades]

How lovely this exists.

[@ricklynch5598]

This man was a real Mensch! I miss learning from him.

[@Aiden057]

Thank you for this and all the other offerings on this great channel.

[@vassal11]

Harold bloom may be the most well read literary critic who ever lives. I feel fortunate to be alive in his time.

[@roc7880]

I envy his students. they had the chance to ask him questions and learn from his wisdom

[@SamuelDaram]

What an absolute delight to find this Harold Bloom conversation here on KZbin. Thank you so much the PEN American Center for uploading it. You have made my day, my year! Harold Bloom is an incredible inspiration.

[@Thirthankar]

Thanks a ton for sharing this! :)

[@felixholt7570]

After an age, every man starts looking like my grandfather who passed away 12 years ago this day at the solid age of 88. He carried a walking stick and had those same soft drooping wrinkled cheeks which I used to tweak from time to time. He always looked tired but once he started talking he would go on and on, from literature to football to politics to freedom movements to swimming in abandoned ponds in winter to climbing the ancestral mango tree in his village, he would go on. He had a panoramic knowledge of his times. He told me with enough conviction that old age is the great unfurling of the wings of wisdom, you get the eyes of an eagle! Damn, I miss my grandfather's generation. Madly missing my old man today. Hope to meet him someday in the alternate dimension of fiction where I will be his grandfather, and he, my grandson!

[@efleishermedia]

"The child, the father of the man." That's the old process my good dude. Love this because I feel the same way. My granddad is an epic and prolific storyteller but never precocious. He was a blue collar, hard working man his whole life but he read obsessively. He read Westerns so much that it literally became difficult to find books of that genre he hadn't read already. When I was little he would tell us grandkids these long, highly structured bedtime stories that he would make up off the top of his head, and I still remember them. He's not doing well right now and because of Covid restrictions I can't see him at the hospital and I'm not sure if I ever will. I love that old man so damn much and seeing Bloom at this age definitely warms my heart. Grandparents are one of the greatest gifts of life, hands down

[@felixholt7570]

@@efleishermedia true dear, i hope you are doing well! That was a great generation, our grandparents, they had enough time to read 4 different daily newspapers entirely and keep their grandkids entertained! Alas we will never be as great as them! ☹️

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

Marvelous ending

[@jay733]

I'm glad for this interview, there is only one full interview available online, all the rests they took down.

[@SamuelDaram]

Love the bit at the end where Harold Bloom talks of Kafka.

[@Northcountry1926]

My Respect to the Interviewer - not an easy role

[@eggymayo3271]

Kept talking about boring anecdotes about his own life, should just let bloom go where he wants

[@mahboubehmohajer3609]

Wow l am so desperate translating his "anxiety of influence" into Farsi , in Iran. His death was such a great loss to the literature world, world over

[@joegaskins7950]

Good luck with your translation :)

[@marccohen1335]

I hope you're able to put in your introduction that he was Jewish and that his first language was Yiddish.

[@marccohen1335]

​@BK BK Just as there was excision of gay ideas in Western literature, there's an absence of objective information about Jews in large parts of the world. Bloom spoke openly about his Jewish and Yiddish upbringing. It would do him an injustice to willfully eliminate those important parts of his experience. And just in case you're not aware (maybe your "other" half?), the government of Iran has recently been threatening genocide against millions of Jews. It might help if the Iranian people were exposed to the reality of the achievements of Jews and Jewish culture.

[@Austria88586]

I love this man.

[@rodrigopessoa1795]

he is so analysing him

[@jak1428]

bloom's contempt for the interviewer is hilarious!

[@eggymayo3271]

And warranted

[@dublo7]

"Old age is a shipwreck". Beautiful!

[@lawsonj39]

A beautiful encapsulation of an ugly situation. Wait till you get there!

[@sattarabus]

Kudos to Paul Holdengraber! Interviewer as mediator, facilitator, and artlessly artful provocateur!

[@ChristianCalson]

Thank you.

[@spiritualpolitics8205]

Bloom is fabulous; the interlocutor was awfully long-winded. But it's not easy interviewing Harold Bloom, as someone says below, but rather like interviewing Hamlet... I had an email exchange with Bloom in his final year over Hamlet. I asked him how Hamlet's declaration of love for Ophelia at her grave squared with Bloom's contention that Hamlet was incapable of love. And he answered: "I think it is the last moment of Hamlet’s theatricality. After that he turns inward." Interesting take on one of the least discussed but most important scenes in the play.

[@ninjablack4347]

That's not a good thing. I bought his book The Western Canon since I agreed with him about literature being diluted by cheap works for diversity's sake and the book was such a sore to read. I asked, "What's the point of this book?" It was certainly not to get the average layman to get interested in literature

[@spiritualpolitics8205]

@@ninjablack4347 He is difficult I will admit in his style and ideas; I was an English major. You might still find his list of recommended classics at the end of The Western Canon a fine list. He was very well read in 26 languages, and had a phenomenal mind, so it's at least useful to have a sense of which books he regarded as the greatest over the many thousands he had read in a lifetime...

[@ninjablack4347]

@@spiritualpolitics8205 his recommended books are great, but i am more criticizing his aim of showing great literature. A film critic of him would be equal to "The Godfather is cinema. Star wars? A waste of time. Alien? Junk food for the soul"

[@ponceperales1041]

32:14 I am listening to this not so recent interview in my Ipad where I read for free the classics. I look up every word I don’t know; I look up new words, names, dates, etc. Google eases it, enhances my experience. Google it! we heard. Is that retrieval? I love it.

[@science212]

Harold Bloom was a great Yale professor.

[@louloudaki1981]

When you interview people like Bloom, you'd better get prepared in advance.

[@ponceperales1041]

50:00 “ Don’t bother to learn how to die... “ Michel de Montaigne. 1533-1592 Brilliant! Actually the hard part is living without those untimely gone.

[@m.w.3335]

It's a consolation that even this great mind is (in his nightly thoughts) not free from minor slips: Kafka's hunter Gracchus talks to the Mayor of Riva, a port of Lago di Garda in Italy, not Riga of the Baltic Sea (15:30 on).

[@ponceperales1041]

43:40 “You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”

[@BenjamminClark]

The person interviewing him is very outclassed, when approaching someone of that wisdom and intelligence maybe show a bit of a student's humility next time.

[@inocentmi]

Paul Holdengraber is amazing. Bloom is obviously in pain, doesn't want to be there for the conversation and insists on having the conversation on his terms. Yet Paul wrings out of 'the old man' juices of the genius near the end of life. The crotchety Bloom is masterfully and persuasively led by a master interviewer in his own right. Wonderful and inspiring.

[@chingper199]

i dunno where you went to school

[@simoncairns6398]

I agree, the interiewer brings out a great version of Bloom.

[@polymath7]

@ 16:43 Oh mercy, this is just riotous.

[@AAwildeone]

What don't we want to listen to our venerable HB just go on about. I want the religious crit; I want the early lit crit; I want the later opinions since Mosaic; WE need it all. If there's a student in Dr.Blooms class, you are doing a service to society by passing it on!

[@TheRealSmacker]

I want the transcript

[@ponceperales1041]

23:30 Funny! This morning I read Lori Gottlieb popular article in The Atlantic about parenting. She mentions Donald Winnicott’s idea that a “good enough mother” will do to raise a healthy child. Today I run into the same name, Donald Winnicott, in a talk about books with no other than Harold Bloom!

[@alexlitill2315]

What is the status of the student's that could be every day close to the mind of H.Bloom? I am envious.

[@stoogefest16]

Harold sounds a lot friendlier than he sounds in writing, and his new york accent really surprised me too. He sounds just slightly like christopher walken.

[@ponceperales1041]

23:00 “...there is nothing better for you to be doing than solitary reading.”

[@ponceperales1041]

1:18:00 How much poetry did he keep in his memory? “... I heard an old religious man / But yesternight declare/ That he had found a text to prove/ That only God, my dear, / Could love you for yourself alone/And not your yellow hair.” -- For Anne Gregory. William Butler Yeats

[@allen5455]

Is that "stirling silver"? That recording is a space alien caught in low earth orbit.

[@roidrage420]

Also: Bloom's burn on The New York Times re: syntax, etc. The fact that they don't use the Oxford comma. Are they worried they're wasting ink on their online articles?

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

"A series of way stations and we shall never reach the destination "

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

You are not required to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it

[@meddmawamm]

Love his reaction to "America", the pinnacle of Levi's commercials. It's abominable.

[@lucianopavarotti2843]

It would have been better just to do an audience q and a with Harold Bloom. Would have spared us the ramblings of the host

[@ponceperales1041]

1:05:00 “You are most amiable. Most amiable.”

[@dreamingWisdom]

What does he say between 1:03:35 - 1:03:43 "quite certainly as the best French literary critics since ______ ______ and Paul Valéry, whose spirit..."?

[@dreamingWisdom]

Sainte-Beuve?

[@YoungNubb]

Why the fuck do you people hate the interviewer?

[@polymath7]

@Strattonus I think just perhaps his phenomenal memory is starting to go a bit. @ 15:30 The correct quote from Johnson is "No man but a blockhead ever writ, except for money."

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

Bronx public library how cool

[@bbravo2]

There's nothing the interviewer could've done. Bloom doesn't let him finish a single question or thought. And there's no telling what word he'll latch onto before delivering an outburst. The interviewer extracts some fascinating anecdotes like the psychoanalytic stuff and his relationship with C.S. Lewis.

[@tattoofthesun]

bbravo2 indeed, his interjection questioning Lewis made for a wonderful story

[@ponceperales1041]

52:40 - Why Shakespeare above everybody?

[@AllendeEtAl]

The french guy, Mr. X, is most probably Derrida.

[@SamuelDaram]

@thafons I agree with you. Harold Bloom is wonderful here, despite his failing health. But Bloom deserved a patient and respectful interviewer. This interviewer irritates me with his contstant interruptions and rude behaviour.

[@polymath7]

@stoogefest16 *guffaw* Christopher Walken indeed! I can't believe I never noticed before. Fucking hilarious. "And now, young man, I give the watch to you." XD

[@polymath7]

I'm quite surprised Bloom didn't recognize the famous Whitman recording. The reading is indeed terrible, but I imagine the halting, seemingly didactic tone is simply Whitman's attempt to ensure that his voice can be clearly heard on the wax cylinder.

[@eggymayo3271]

I enjoyed the snippets of Bloom between the inane and boring anecdotes of the german

[@3000_Year_Old_Man]

Pretty sure it's Derrida.

[@dublo7]

Who is the French theorist they were talking about at ~1:03?

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

saint-beauve

[@AllendeEtAl]

Derrida I think

[@AllendeEtAl]

@@dloyfwaymeather977 How in the world is it gonna be Saint-Beuve when he died in 1869!? Harold was old but not that much!

[@TheRealSmacker]

love kafkas letter from 1904

[@SamuelDaram]

@Forehead2Brick I second your advice to the rude interviewer of Harold Bloom. This conversation is a small miracle, spoilt by a big error by the organisers to have that nobody interviewing Dr Johnson's heir.

[@publicme]

Paul Holdengräber... Is there a better example of a complete bore? Bloom shows immense patients here. He's remarkable.

[@johndavid4007]

TobiasPublicme ...or "patience," as we would say in English.

[@eggymayo3271]

No he's very interesting. He met some professors from France and he has two kids!!

[@theicyridge]

@clockworkscott Yes I think the speaker is actually quite good. He had a plan for the evening that Bloom deviates from, which is always difficult. But he's very agreeable and kind.

[@tattoofthesun]

The interviewer is so anxious man, he should’ve meditated before this.

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

LoL he almost threw hands with C.S. Lewis

[@Cameron.Robert]

31:44... that face.

[@VentraleStar]

Cameron Robert lol

[@gkissel1]

Put the Whitman recording thru a decent filter!

[@chingper199]

44:26 more oops by paul

[@JCSuperstar777]

World-renowned? Perhaps. But imagine the precise percentage of people who have actually heard of Bloom, or any Humanities academic for that matter, relative to the entire world population.

[@chingper199]

Paul's bio: "Has heard of __ book, has re-shelved __ book, will name-drop __ book, has never read __ book

[@dammitpeterable]

[@pratishtha1437]

34:00 , 1:06:30

[@chingper199]

1:11:11 H *starts answering boring question.* Paul *redundant intejection* wHAt dO yOU MeaAN?

[@Jonmad17]

The applause at 1:16:30 was actually quite insulting. Bloom (rightfully) looked pretty offended and confused

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

right

[@1872959]

I don't think that was the reason, I think the audience was moved to applause by the brilliant reciting and by the greatness of Kafka.

[@KolkhozWoman]

he is so cute! is he still alive?

[@dloyfwaymeather977]

I was just thinking how he might go soon (years) but Yeah he is alive

[@rae-annhendershot508]

32:32

[@nononouh]

14 19 30

[@chingper199]

somebody please put paul out of his misery while hb is losing it 1:17:21

[@bereldovlerner5557]

Not too good at quoting Jewish sources (that final maxim was not from Hillel, but rather he have a botched version of the maxim of the "Men of Great Assembly"}

[@coolhandphilip]

Harold Bloom: gone. The Dantist Robert Hollander, gone as well. Very soon, the lights shall have all gone out. Only the books shall remain. And you, and I.

[@jimnewcombe7584]

And how long shall you and I and the books remain....

[@coolhandphilip]

@@jimnewcombe7584 That all depends on what happens to the chickens and the wheelbarrow.

[@AngryScissor]

Holdengräber has an austrian accent, not a lisp.

[@gkissel1]

He was born the same year as the Apollo 11 astronauts.

[@TheCrusaderRabbits]

bad audio.

[@bullettoothburrows]

That Interviewer is terrible, yet oddly enough he sounds like a bond villian.

[@timholbrook7671]

This is perhaps the worst chemistry I have ever seen or heard in an interview. Paul, Just doesn't 'gel' with Bloom. The interviewer should watch more of Charlie Rose, and how he handles Harold. I respect Bloom so much, I had to watch this, but, very disappointed I did. RIP HB

[@pattisapu]

Solar Anus

[@roidrage420]

I feel like the interviewer is too concerned with reminding the audience he's wearing horn-rimmed glasses and can use them like an intellectual

[@kushkagirl]

PH is not a great interviewer--talks more than he should and is too reverential. With his passion for background and deep detail, he'd make a better biographer. This particular interview was like watching paint dry at times. Doesn't help that I never liked Bloom much as a critic. Prefer reading Axel's Castle on a rainy day...now HE was a critic. But some good nuggets here, if one can sit through all of it.

[@waltpaynter2413]

I will avoid Holdengraber interviews. I tuned in to listen to Harold not to Holdengraber's interjections and I disliked his unwillingness to wait for Harold to finish his thoughts/comments.

[@matthewlawton3727]

He is really quite obnoxious.

[@FingersKungfu]

As much as I admire Bloom for his effort to lead so many generations back to the classics, I think he is over-rated as a critic. The more I read his critical writings, the more I think that he is just someone who is addicted to reading. Poetry-wise, he has read much but never had an ambition to write his own, despite claiming to be a lover of poetry. To understand poetry, you need to study many poetical traditions. Greek, Latin as well as Sanskrit and Pali poetry is qualitative. English is stressed. If you just read English poetry, you aesthetic judgment is probably not very profound. Bloom's understanding of poetry is probably less that Ezra Pound who could read poetry in 6-7 languages, including Greek. Bloom is extremely well-read and has an amazing memory. But I start to doubt his aesthetic judgment. You don't learn much about how to evaluate poetry by reading Bloom. He just idolizes and routinely performs usual adoration on some of the poets. His criticism sometimes read like a religious text. It keeps repeating on certain points like catechism and confirmation of faith -- without providing accessible analysis or improving the reader's knowledge of the beautiful.

[@MsThisisusername]

You take your memes seriously.

[@kushkagirl]

I couldn't agree with Neo more. Wilson was better.

[@harisgarouniatis8444]

Edmund Wilson?

[@kushkagirl]

but of course. who else?!! Axel's Castle is as fine as they come.

[@harisgarouniatis8444]

I haven't read any of his works yet, but I will. Thank you.

[@MrRealitycheque]

I am going into journalism for the sole purpose of asking the right questions. This interviewer has no idea what that means. He also has zero sense of humor.

[@tripp8833]

He’s a total weirdo

[@marccohen1335]

I think Holdengraber is very witty and charming. His seemingly casual questions evoke some candid and revealing responses from Bloom. Holdengraber's quite intelligent interview allows us to see a different side of Bloom.

[@roc7880]

I wonder if smart people are not going into journalism aymore or if the selection and hiring is not based on competence. When you see what questions are asked by CNN or Fox News you wonder who are these people and where did they learn their trade?

[@chingper199]

yo i dont think paul can read

[@076663837]

the interviewer sucks. praises himself too much