More on Harry Bloom

Harold Bloom has also written--or probably edited or arranged is a better term for it--a book for children called Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages. The book is a collection of stories and poems Bloom thinks children should be reading.

Now, it's very noble that a guy of Bloom's stature and ivy towerishness should take the time to do a children's book. But it's hard for me to feel warmly toward him since, when the book came out, he was doing interviews in which he bashed contemporary kidlit. I have trouble seeing why it is necessary to tear down others in order to promote yourself.

I haven't read his book, (though I would like to at least dip into it some day assuming I'm extremely intelligent enough), but I've heard that there's little in it that was written after WWI. And since I have a thing for readers being able to see themselves in literature and literature being honest enough to reflect the culture that produces it...Well, I think you see where I'm going with this.