I'm so happy to have read this - thanks yet again to Ron Silliman. The essay is from Sulfur in 1981. Bloom has left his mark on Henry Corbin's legacy, through his introduction to the new edition of Corbin's Creative Imagination (renamed Alone with the Alone, I suspect at Bloom's suggestion) and through his own book Omens of Millennium. I have long had a hearty dislike for Bloom's work and I bristle at his readings of Corbin. Rothenberg's fine essay helps explain why I find Bloom's attitude so inimical to Corbin's entire project.
Jerome Rothenberg: Photo by Charles Bernstein.
Thanks for sharing this. I wasn't aware that Bloom had been allowed to pen an introduction to Corbin's "Creative Imagination" -- ugh. Every time Bloom's name comes up in my reading, its almost always mangling the meaning and import of writers I've come to admire. (For example, his introduction to a re-issue of Conrad Aiken's Selected Poetry was so damningly critical (and narrow-minded, even blind-sighted) of Aiken's brilliance that I'm sure quite a few potential readers never got past Bloom's intro.) Its a shame publishers allow publications to be tarnished with his blather. Again-- ugh!
ReplyDeleteGood to see that Rothenberg was on top of this years ago. Rothenberg's vast encyclopedic work truly shall "live," whether Bloom can see it or not. ;]
Keep up the good work!