unfamiliarity

The one book by Harold Bloom that I've never been inclined to read is his book about Shakespeare, which is interesting because for Bloom, Shakespeare is literally the best writer ever - absolutely without question and without qualification. I suppose...I don't really know, but I suppose...the reason why I don't like reading Bloom on Shakespeare is that there's no surprise or tension involved. It's like, there's nothing new here...it's kind of like that, anyway. I know the way Bloom writes about Shakespeare and I don't want to read a whole book like that.

what I like about Bloom is the way that he synthesises, alludes to and processes so many voices - so many writers and books of all kinds. 

I love the series of books Bloom wrote to introduce his central theory, about the 'anxiety of influence' to the world, especially the first one (and shortest one) called The Anxiety of Influence. After that series, he broadened out and began writing about literature more generally, with some exceptions, where he focused on particular writers or books, including the one about Shakespeare: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. 

One of the great things about The Anxiety of Influence is how unorthodox it is || interestingly, according to Bloom, the defining characteristic of literary genius is strangeness. maybe that's why I'm not keen on Bloom's book about Shakespeare // I have a sense of what to expect. In other words it's not strange. 

Another defining characteristic of great literature, according to Bloom, is that it bears re-reading. I think that's definitely true, although there are limits to it. Like, if you're writing a thesis about a particular book or author, and you read the same literary work over and over for your thesis, you begin to lose the desire to read the work again for pleasure. But, aside from that, really good literature does sustain re-reading...it's like you experience the book anew each time.