Harold Bloom: Contemporary Books Are "Not Worth Paying Attention To"

 For those not familiar with the phenomenon of Bloom, here is a brief summary:

 

 Bloom's dedication to the study of literature is legendary, and perhaps without precedent. He says (modestly) that he inherited a "freak gene from his Talmudic ancestors", http://www.c-spanvideo.org/haroldbloom  which has enabled him to read what is estimated to be 1000 pages per hour (or about three, 300-page books). He has been spotted at the Yale University library simply turning pages as fast as one can imagine, as he reads. This is not speed reading or skimming, mind you. Because when Prof. Bloom finishes a book, whether it is "War and Peace " or the  Bible, he will proceed to write a  masterful, and on occasion definitive, critique of the text. He has, in fact, edited more than 400 critical works on more than 400 major authors. This of course requires that he be not only familiar with the subject to the point of an acknowledged authority, but, in addition, well-versed in the critical studies done of the author by other critics. Otherwise he would not be able to select the appropriate critics for each volume of criticism. 

 

 And reading is pretty much all that Mr. Bloom has been doing all day, for the past 75 years or so (I believe he is now in is mid-80s) when he isn't writing or teaching.

 

 Another interesting personal fact regarding Mr. Bloom is that he had exhausted the entire library in his elementary school, so they sent him to the venerable Bronx High School of Science, where he proceeded to exhaust their entire library as well. But, he now says it's a good thing he ended up at Yale, because no one could possibly exhaust their library (whose volumes I believe is in the millions.)

 Among Mr. Bloom's many books and accomplishments is perhaps the singular "Western Canon" http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html , which he apparently, singlehandedly, brought into being. This is nothing less than everything he believes is worth reading, that has ever been published in the Western Hemisphere. And he seems to have read just about all of the contenders...

 Prof. Bloom has been teaching Shakespeare at Yale University for nearly have a century. When he once threatened to quit due to what he believed was a rising tide of "political correctness" not only at Yale but in academia in general, Yale allowed him to be "a department of one" just to keep him. His stated belief is that universities are now obsolete after commencing a "slow suicide" back in the late 60s.
 

 He is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation grant (popularly known as the "genius" award), among many other honors.

 I know this will seem like just more idol worship on my part. But I really just wanted to establish the credentials of the person who made the above incredible statement (as well as introduce him to those who may not be familiar with the gentleman).

 So... are modern books not worth any serious minded person's time? I'm in the middle now of William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom" (part of Bloom's "Western Canon" and included in his book "Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds") and, sure enough, what relatively little I'm aware of in the last 10 to 15 years is bound to seem as not worth one's time, in relation, (But what could be?).

 Of course people will go on about Philip Roth and a couple of others. But their major works are about 20 to 30 years old now, and I don't believe that quite cracks the lines of demarcation of "contemporary."

 Don't even begin to offer examples from what Bloom calls the "dark satanic mills of the media." Let's try and keep this serious.

 So, where do we go from here?
 Food for thought...

Links: 

 Here is the entire interview with Prof. Bloom at the  PEN World Voices Festival in 2011:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWi0AMyniYc

 Here's a short video of an interview made by the New York Times recently: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/05/20/books/review/100000000828027/harold-blooms-influence.html?scp=1&sq=harold%20bloom&st=cse