Comments on: Whose Words These Are (15): Bloom’s Hart Crane

By: Potter

Potter — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:57:18 +0000

Took me awhile to get here;can’t believe it’s about a year and a half. I was looking for Bloom on “The Merchant of Venice” after reading Stephen Greenblatt’s book on the play; we experienced an outstanding truly wonderful Shylock, some say the best ever, by F. Murray Abraham here in Boston. So I needed Bloom to help sort me out about my crying and laughing. (I did find him in print on that. )

This Hart Crane conversation was formidable and will get at least another couple of go-arounds. My slim Crane volume was already out anyway. We are, the last couple of years visiting “the kids” always looking at the Brooklyn Bridge, that wind harp, and those shores and towers from the Brooklyn side. They are doing something to it now- repairing I suppose always. On the way down we marvel at the highway bridges art deco style, probably Works Progress administration. We invested in us then.

The Bud Powell “poco loco” was an absolutely perfect “coda” here.

Thank you so much Chris, Harold Bloom- your work is enduring~

By: Samuel Thewlis

Samuel Thewlis — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:37:59 +0000

I look forward to Bloom on this site more than any other. He is simply a living example of genius.

By: Malachiter

Malachiter — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:42:15 +0000

Taking Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare course at Yale was like being tazed by Lear, so I anticipate electrocution when I see him coming back to your microphone. Hearing his conversations with you over the years, Chris, I have been annoyed at his lack of consideration for your audience, cutting off the boots of your questions, showing either base contempt or irrational praise for a given caller’s attempt to share or understand. These are dismissable complaints when weighed against the value of his reading. But do I hear the Sage of New Haven becoming less dismissive? It’s almost as if his raging against death (on our behalf) has softened into something more … communal? Or was it just the prize you dangled of allowing Bud Powell into the conversation? That Poco Loco cowbell does hold something for Harold that he doesn’t have to hold.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:55:54 +0000

When I woke up this morning, my radio was playing songs by a piano trio that disturbed me. The pianist was hammering at his ideas and playing with very little touch. Yet, through the cacophony, the brilliance of the lines (the lines) was still present. I told my wife, “This is late Bud Powell….it’s too sad to listen to this.” When the set was through, the DJ confirmed my suspicions. It was recorded late in Powell’s life in Europe.

Listening to this podcast was a nice remedy to that experience. I’m looking forward to spending some time with Crane and Powell this weekend. Thank you Prof. Bloom, and to you Chris for opening up new avenues to listen to.

By: Eenusch

Eenusch — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:54:17 +0000

It’s always great to hear from Harold Bloom.

I hope Chris will have him back to discuss religion/spirituality.

By: Bryon

Bryon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:15:46 +0000

Magnificent Chris!!

Cornel West and Howard Bloom within a few weeks of one another. It just doesn’t get any better than that!!!

By: chris

chris — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:42:06 +0000

Our friend, soulful deejay Tom Reney, emails from Holyoke, Massachusetts: What better way to begin this dreary Saturday morning in which rain is dampening the "fiery parcels" of Holyoke (arson capitol of the Commonwealth) than with your conversation with Harold? I agree, Hart Crane is a little impenetrable, all that "impacted density," but this is illuminating both of the poetry and Bloom's connection with Bud Powell. When Harold spoke of this with me a few years ago, he described Bud as being conversant with Crane's poetry, which I found a bit dubious. But to hear him say here that he gave Bud a volume of the poems which he then read makes more sense. Harold also picked up on my passion for Prez, aka Lester Young, as he inscribed a copy of his then new book Hamlet: Poem Unlimited : "For Tom Reney, Another exalter of the Only true President." Professor Bloom's concluding remark with you that "Powell's gift was too great for Powell" seems applicable to so many, but how especially true of the black creative geniuses whose lives were hobbled by racism and the neglect their work suffered in the hierarchical standing of the fine arts, not to mention the occupational restrictions that were still in force during Bud's time and that made music virtually the only available outlet for his genius.