Friday, February 15, 2013
MY NEW TOY
Emboldened by my success in locating my Marx article and uploading it to box.net, I went looking for my 1987 review of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, which achieved a certain cult fame in some circles [the late Christopher Hitchens was a fan.] It is, I think, the funniest thing I have ever written, an absolutely perfect send-up. It is now on box.net, and is worth a read. It is only two printed pages long.
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11 comments:
BRAVO!
Thank you for taking this gem from the drawer and placing it in the light to share once again.
A delightful, funny, and annihilating review of a fatuous constipated book about which so much silly nonsense was written and said. The only review I can think of that so completely undermines the argument of the book reviewed is Chomsky review of B. F.
Skinner's Verbal Behavior, which makes the case that on Skinner's assumptions we would all be ever mute and analphabetic. Chomsky's review, however, doesn't have the virtue of brevity or the pleasures of humor. Thanks for posting this.
I should have written, "the only 'other' review" Chomsky's long review is available here: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1967----.htm
Many thanks for the comment. I remember Noam's review, of course. It caused quite a stir. Noam is marvelous.
Professor Wolff,
It's a phenomenal review, and even funnier are the dyspeptic replies from straussians. It's available on JSTOR in a separate file entitled "Will the Real Allan Bloom Please Stand Up"
Professor Wolff,
It's a phenomenal review, and even funnier are the dyspeptic replies from straussians. It's available on JSTOR in a separate file entitled "Will the Real Allan Bloom Please Stand Up"
Paraphrasing Oscar Wilde: "Life imitates Literature more than Literature imitates Life".
Yes, and Bellow went on the write Ravelstein!
Marvelous!
Oh, man. It fell to me a bit over a decade ago to write an essay on the French equivalent of Bloom's book, Finkelkraut's La Defaite de la Pensee. I concluded, "Voila la defaite de Finkelkraut." My instructor informed me that he did find mirth in this.
Good grief, I thought the French were the past masters of the witty put down. They have come down in the world.
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