July 9, 2007
He compared Jewish American culture to what?
I’d never peg Harold Bloom to be an optimist when it comes to American culture, especially after he bemoaned the “dumbing down” of American readers when the National Book Foundation gave its annual award for “distinguished contribution” to Stephen King in 2003.
But, he appears to have high hopes for Jewish American culture.
Last month in The New York Review of Books, Bloom wrote about “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain,” by Peter Cole. And, Bloom not only liked what he read but also stated, “Any reader who wonders, as I have throughout my life, what are the cultural prospects for American Jewry, will find an immense store of analogues in Cole's superb book.”
Bloom does not say specifically what it is about present-day life in the golden medina that reminds him of the Golden Age of Jewish culture on the Iberian Peninsula. But, with Bloom currently holding the keys to the Western canon, you’ve got to sit up and take notice when he makes such a statement.
Sure, there are similarities between the American Diaspora and the Jewish community in medieval Spain. Both were well-educated, prosperous communities. But, one produced Maimonides. The other didn’t.
So, I’m a little uncomfortable drawing any comparisons between the two, especially with regards to cultural achievement. Then again, if anyone could convince me of the similarities, it would be Harold Bloom. Say what you want about him, he does not give out praise easily. I only wish he would have gone that much further in his essay and spelled out those ‘analogues.’
Speaking of praise, Bloom certainly sings for this book. He writes: “The seven great poets of Cole's Dream provoke love in any reader of Hebrew literature; and by another miracle of Cole's own creation, in any reader of little or no Hebrew who directly confronts the work of this major poet-translator.”
Among the better-known Hebrew poets Cole writes about, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi would stand out to modern readers who would otherwise know him as the author of the Kuzari, perhaps the most famous intellectual defense of Judaism on record.
If for no other reason, you should click through to Bloom’s review just to scroll to the bottom of the page and read the ditty written by Todros Abulafia, one of the lesser-known poets in Cole’s book. I won’t reprint it here because it’s R-rated but it’s certainly worth a chuckle.
I’ll leave it up to someone else to say whether or not it’s true. Click here to read Bloom's review.
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