Book Stoop
Just as pot doesnít really lead to heroin, Harry Potter doesnít lead to Rudyard Kipling, writes Harold Bloom in the LA Times. Bloomís sputtering mad about the National Book Foundationís ìdistinguished contributionî award to Stephen King:
"...another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer, on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis.The publishing industry has stooped terribly low to bestow on King a lifetime award that has previously gone to the novelists Saul Bellow and Philip Roth and to playwright Arthur Miller. By awarding it to King, they recognize nothing but the commercial value of his books, which sell in the millions but do little more for humanity than keep the publishing world afloat. If this is going to be the criterion in the future, then perhaps next year the committee should give its award for distinguished contribution to Danielle Steel, and surely the Nobel Prize for literature should go to J.K. Rowling."
Is Bloom right or his he just "such a bitch"? Check out the sample pages from "The Stand," and see for yourself.
The person who called Bloom a bitch also acknowledged his strength as a critic. Bloom's indignant tone in that editorial is delicious, and he's set you up to represent everything that's wretched and base about modern life if you disagree with his argument. As for the great embarrassment of Stephen King getting the National Book Foundation award? Well, these things happen. I'd hardly say the sky is falling.
If you think of artistic culture as a type of nutrition, then cheap novels and Britney Spears are like beer and potato chips. They're not sustenance by any means -- but when you're in the mood, they're very, very tasty. And if you've ever seen Harold Bloom's rather portly figure, you know that he is ALL ABOUT tasting. (Now who's the bitch?)
Lena Cuisina at September 24, 2003 8:28 AM
Okay, you win. No one's as bitchy as you. That said, you make excellent points.
I'm inclined to think that there is some jealousy operating as well. I remember once someone likened critics to eunuchs in a sultan's palace. They know how it's done and they watch it done, but they can't do it themselves.
So Stephen King is the "junk food" of novelists. So, what? Some people like junk food. King satisfies my craving for junk. True, he presents almost nothing to uplift in this mortal coil, and my prudishness sometimes has trouble getting around the fact that his characters often do not have moral reservations about adultery (Bill Denborough and Beverly Marsh-Rogan in "IT," for instance) and other vices, but as a story-teller, he is unsurpassed. He paints a truly good picture. If Harold Bloom has problems with it, he's free to draw upon his most eloquent phrasings and try to find something that needs to be said in story form.
By the way, Lena. Britney Spears is not "beer and potato chips." She's more like "arsenic," thank you. Terminal to good taste.
Patrick at September 25, 2003 5:43 AM
Britney isn't beer, or potato chips, or arsenic. She's a strawberry smoothie. Check her out on the recent cover of Rolling Stone in her tighty whities. Girls like her make this world an extra-beautiful place to be. And Justin is the boy version.
Lena Cuisina at September 25, 2003 8:58 AM