HaroldBloom - On The Auroras of Autumn by Wallace Stevens

[@freuddyful]

To watch Harold Bloom ca.1985 free associating on Wallace Stevens is to get some idea of what an amazing, inspiring teacher he must have been in his prime. Thanks for posting this.

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Documentaries mixed anxiety and music so well with the cinematography so well in the 80s.

[@theduder232]

Imagine looking up at the northern lights and feeling... competitive. Wow.

[@kevgh3869]

Yours is a good comment.

[@stephendethloff]

its the full development of his atheism. reminds me of caligula ordering his soldiers to attack the english channel.

[@iFigaro2u]

Bloom is just brilliant! Real worth here.

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

I still love this video!

[@charlespeterson3798]

I am not sure why Mister Bloom states that Hart Crane is his favorite poet, unless it is Steven"s politics. But I have never seen Stevens so powerfully declaimed.

[@jimnewcombe7584]

Your first sentence doesn't make complete sense. Bloom anyway would never judge a poem by a poet's politics. Shakespeare and Blake are presumably his favourites.

[@osuasheuatl]

RIP

[@ishinadish]

Blooms reveals the "act" of poetry...

[@martinezgerard]

He was a brilliant man

[@liammcooper]

It also calls back to "Dominantion in Black" (which also takes place during fall/autumn): "I saw how the night came, Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks I felt afraid. And I remembered the cry of the peacocks." This image of "effulgent" color appearing in the night and making one feel "afraid", really seems to be hinting at Steven's understanding of the Sublime -- which is when beauty meets terror. So it's sort of dabbling with Kantian aesthetics. It likely isn't the external appearance of the colors themselves which make the narrator feel afraid (as visible waves of light, they are physically harmless), but their essential quality and what they represent -- i.e., indomitable nature outperforming the artist of a "single candle"; so it's a dialectic between the narrator thinking they can capture the aurora, then the aurora reclaiming its preeminence; and the feeling of being dominated is what produced the terror. That's why it happens in "autumn", "the fall", possibly standing for -- as Bloom suggests -- an aging poet's fear of falling into impotency in the face of grandiose nature which remains indescribable in language.

[@Gregoryde]

Harold bloom

[@waleedrahman1539]

Your comments is insightful and I am grateful you appreciate this clip. It is a clip from Voices and Visions - Wallace Stevens. Google it to see the whole product and they have other poets in this series as well. Cheers!

[@mcnallyaar]

That nameless bit, of course, uniting the idea to a scene from The Eden tale in first Genesis.

[@mcnallyaar]

The serpent, too, of course.

[@newyardleysinclair9960]

That thumbnail though

[@Richardwestwood-dp5wr]

That was on shot 1:14 😅

[@syphonunfiltered]

Wow I didn't know Bloom used to be this intense. What is this from?

[@waleedrahman1539]

This is from a production called Voices and Visions, a series on American Poets. You will enjoy: it has feature videos on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and many more. www.learner.org/resources/series57.html

[@SkormFlinxingGlock]

+WaleedRahman What a great series. Thanksfor that.

[@LordLightheart]

Thank you!

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Available here: www.learner.org/series/voices-visions/wallace-stevens/

[@CalvinPoet]

@@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181 Thank you!

[@justinjones6213]

listen with eyes closed

[@trouble820]

I love Bloom and appreciate his passion. But he is definitely taking his passion 'far' in this clip.

[@zachwbc]

Well that's definitely not the most flattering thumbnail you could have chosen...

[@Milaheel]

Is there anything about Emily Dickinson on here?

[@lbk3434]

He left half a shoulder and half a head / To recognize him in after time. [In the best sense possible.]

[@thejamesbrothersband5491]

I thought that was Daniel Johnston for a minute lol

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

What is the strong music in the background?

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Do others know where we could access this entire PBS documentary? It seems it just from this clip alone that it was excellently put together

[@stevesears2425]

Charles, I think if you search for it under the title of "Voices and Visions," I think you might find it under there.

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Steve Sears thanks Steve!

[@harmonium8198]

All thirteen episodes can be found here: www.learner.org/series/voices-visions/wallace-stevens/ They're all quite good.

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

Does anybody know where we could get the entirety of this recording? Or if we could find out what the name of the documentary is?

[@waleedrahman1539]

Respond to this video... Look for Voices and Visions on American poetry at your local library. You may buy them from amazon for about 15-25 dollars a feature. Also see the web dot learner dot org. They cover many excellent American poets in this series, including Eliot, Whitman, and Dickinson. Cheers, to ART!

[@Cameron.Robert]

Is there a recording of the poem being read aloud anywhere?

[@AbstractASMR1]

A plenitude of recordings by the poet himself can be found here...wonderful baritone voice he has: writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Stevens-Wallace.html

[@Cameron.Robert]

jesseboy303 Thank you for this link. Fantastic stuff.

[@AbstractASMR1]

Cameron Robert Most welcome. At this level culture is spread by intimate word of mouth, rather than advertising/commerce broadly-cast... - Some people who love Stevens have opined they dislike the recordings the poet made himself, that they are too slow, choppy and who knows what else...but I think his readings of Auroras and Ideas of Order and a few others are as dramatic and sublime as say a professional actor's. Listen to as many of his recordings as time permits you Cameron, and let me know what you think...Stevens is a poet who can, slowly but surely, dominate one's thinking and feeling about poetry...(it literally took me years for his poetry to 'click'...but once it did, wow there is no turning back!) regards-

[@natanmandala]

🌗

[@iFigaro2u]

What tv series does this come from?

[@charlesedwardandrewlincoln8181]

iFigaro2u www.learner.org/series/voices-visions/wallace-stevens/

[@floppykid]

He's always looking down, away from any sort of eye contact. Don't get me wrong though, I was just kidding around, trolling if you will. I have a tempered respect for Bloom.

[@tracksuitjim]

i know whenever i go on ridiculous outrageous monologues about shakespeare or whoever im into at the time, like when im drunk or somethin, i dont tend to look at who im talking to. yr not rly talking to someone when yr goin on like that hah yr rly involved in the forward momentum of yr logic or argument or point or whatever, not payin much attention to anything else, im usually rly focused on the right word and not getting distracted with unnecessary details or whatever. i mean, that's my take on it anyway

[@andrealiberta5298]

Mister Boom

[@nononouh]

2

[@davidmehnert6206]

If he has any idea whatsoever about what Wallace Stevens was really writing about, he does a wonderful job not showing it I could tell him about Auroras (Illinois, Missouri, Colorado) and just how and where ressentiment is nurtured, and to what purpose... he could read Wallace Stevens a thousand times without discovering its essential, such being the autumn of his patriarchy

[@777cody1]

What? Lol you’re saying non-sense

[@777cody1]

You think Stevens was alluding to three separate cities and not the northern lights?

[@777cody1]

I assume you mean the fearful state of mind living in lower working class conditions of those cities? If that’s what you mean by “ressentiment is nurtured.” But that’s a bit of a stretch considering Stevens himself says he writes about his relationship to weather and nature, which lends itself to the idea that he actually is just writing about his state of mind while observing the northern lights..

[@balderrising1]

HAROLD BLOOM IS GOD !!!! and WALT WHITMAN IS THE AMERICAN CHRIST !!!! THIS IS THE AMERICAN RELIGION !

[@osirissunra]

HAROLD BLOOM IS GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .. next to Whitman..(Whom is the American Christ.. Which was dictated by Harold Bloom Himself) .. Harold Bloom is my Brother in Spirit..

[@teflonmagnet]

osiris sunra pompous ass

[@Jessicaunarex]

Bloom sucks.

[@findbridge1790]

this man was out of his mind

[@Richardwestwood-dp5wr]

1:14 this is nothing 😅