Matt
13.6K posts
@BigBlobApe @FrDylanSchrader Yeah that’s right. It doesn’t surprise me that Bloom would want to deny it but the idea that his vision of the world is not fundamentally Christian is just not sustainable on a serious analysis imo
English
@scriptumsent @FrDylanSchrader even in his most nihilistic moments he usually ultimately reinforces the idea of good and of structured (even Christian) order (whence the inclusion of St Edward the Confessor)
English
I’m not a Bloom hater and his hyperbole about Shakespeare is well known but calling him a “nihilist” and the father of nihilism is colossally stupid I’m afraid
Edmund@Kulambq
'I think Shakespeare is a nihilist, ultimately, and that he is the greatest nihilistic writer, you know, in the West, and that ultimately our literature is nihilistic because of Shakespeare.' Harold Bloom
English
@No5mallf3at Oh I don’t know, I’m just going by the drift of the paragraph above where he seems at least to imply it by association
English
@scriptumsent Does he actually think Kierkegaards a nihilist???
English
@No5mallf3at Oh yeah that was another howler. Seems almost silly to suggest of someone like Bloom but it’s perhaps the more charitable reading to think he just didn’t know what the word meant lol
English
@scriptumsent I’ll admit I haven’t read Lear (there’s lots of Shakespeare I haven’t read), but in the tragedies I have read, in the comedies, there’s always a strong moral content. It’s not 2dimensional tho. Also strange he mentions Kierkegaard, as though Kierkegaard was a nihilist.
English
@scriptumsent My father-in-law was a literate person before social media. He is insanely gifted. I asked him what it would take to have subtlety and nuance today. I will never forget his answer ...
"We can't. We don't know how to do it."
English
@No5mallf3at negative capability is not “nihilism.” The idea that a genuine nihilist could write so capaciously about the human experience and portray characters with the vitality, sensitivity, and sympathy that he does seems just completely impossible to me.
English
@No5mallf3at The tragedies can get pretty bleak (Lear is another one) but I don’t see how one can possibly identify the “real” Shakespeare in those moments more than in (say) the histories or the comedies. I don’t know exactly what Bloom was driving at but refraining from moralizing or
English
@FrDylanSchrader Will penning Macbeth and shaking his head so everyone knows he disagrees with him
English
@scriptumsent "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." -Shakespeare
(X disclaimer: This is a joke)
English
Embarrassing but important lesson that even the biggest idea can be thwarted by under-investment
Polymarket@Polymarket
JUST IN: Meta announces they'll be shutting down the Metaverse, after pouring $80,000,000,000.00 into the project.
English
RIP, though it does make you wonder if all those things they said about him were not really true
Pop Base@PopBase
Chuck Norris has died at the age of 86, TMZ reports. He was recently reported to have been transported to hospital for a medical emergency. (tmz.com/2026/03/20/chu…)
English
Matt retweetet
