On Jun 1, 2011, at 10:07 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
> On the contrary: all that dreary ranking and canonizing
> and winnowing -- Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, and 24 of them
> are masterpieces -- seem quite Philistine and reactionary
> to me.
I just discovered that HB was interviewed by Vice magazine, of all things. He says:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n12/htdocs/harold-bloom-431.php
Vice: I was hoping to talk first about The Western Canon.
> Harold Bloom: Do you mean the whole category, or what I wrote about it?
>
> I mean your book.
>
> But can we make an agreement? Let’s forget that damned list.
>
> Ha. Do you mean the appendix in the back of the book that lists all the canonical works?
>
> The list was not my idea. It was the idea of the publisher, the editor, and my agents. I fought it. I finally gave up. I hated it. I did it off the top of my head. I left out a lot of things that should be there and I probably put in a couple of things that I now would like to kick out. I kept it out of the Italian and the Swedish translations, but it’s in all the other translations—about 15 or 18 of them. I’m sick of the whole thing. All over the world, including here, people reviewed and attacked the list and didn’t read the book. So let’s agree right now, my dear. We will not mention the list.