----- Original Message -----
From: "bj omanson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:13 AM
Subject: Bloom's apoliticism
> FP wrote: "... and both then and now I dislike his total apoliticism."
>
> I don't know much about Bloom apart from his early work on the Romantics.
> Do you think his apoliticism was an aspect of his attraction to
> nosticism? --- that one must disengage with the world in order to delve
> inward?
>
> It brings to mind Tolstoy's criticism of the Symbolists, or Kropotkin's
> criticism of the Parisian avant-garde -- that the cost of pursuing an
> internal artistic quest is to ignore the political and social struggles of
> the world you live in. It's a dilemma that keeps resurfacing. The
> writers
> and artists of the 1930s facing the rise of fascism, or Bob Dylan in the
> mid-60s suddenly turning personal.
>
> BJ
>
His apoliticism was, is, closely related to his Gnosticism. But not
primarily, I think, for the reason you cite. Rather, he believes this world
is radically fallen. "We live where motley is worn," he used to say. Blake
eventually distinguished between Orc, the spirit (or rather body) of
Revolution, and Los, the imagination, and to see Orc as mired in cyclicality
("The rebel lopped the Oppressor's head / And became a Tyrant in his
stead" - don't remember the exact quote), while Los can transcend it. B.
also had, however, a useful phrase, which he applied to Shelley - called him
"a member of the Permanent Left."
