“Our society and our literature and our culture are being dumbed down.” At least that is what 77 year old former Yale University Professor Harold Bloom believes. In what one might call a passionate, expressive and opinionated column in the Los Angeles Times, Professor Bloom explains his firm position when it comes to today’s literature, writers, and readers. Fueled by the belief that most of the world’s not only greatest, but tolerable writers are dead, Bloom goes on to what some may say disrespect and dishonor modern day writers such as J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), claiming that her “writing was dreadful”, and her “book was terrible”. Bloom even went as far as discrediting the National Book Foundation’s Annual Award Winner for “Distinguished Contribution” Stephen King, calling him “an immensely inadequate writer”. Bloom seems to believe that good writing is writing that provokes readers to better themselves for the sake of Humanity, and that anything else is simply poor, and due to the poor condition of today’s literature, America is being dumbing down.
40 year old Steve Almond of Syracuse University believes that Harold Bloom “should be excoriating the true opponents of creative enlightenment.”, “Rather than attacking writers, or those who bestow accolades onto them “. In a blog entry seemingly just as long as Bloom’s Newspaper column, and just as cruel (to Bloom), Almond suggests that Bloom is “off the mark”. Almond agrees with many of Blooms beliefs, but he also believes the way to help is not to trash other writers, but by attacking bigger entities such as “the deification of consumerism, the decline in funding for public education, the economic inequality that has become the hallmark of late–model capitalism.”
I am led to believe that Professor Bloom thinks that American readers choose to read what they read because they are too ignorant to see what “good” writing really is. I tend to believe that just as sure as those who lived in Shakespeare’s time did not see the value in his writing, there will be those who don’t see the quality in many of today’s writers until years after they are gone. I believe this simply because there are times when we as human beings get stuck into a specific setting of what is “good” and what is “bad”, instead of realizing that there are many different ways to get to quality, and many different attributes that qualify a piece of work to be deemed “good”. I am not saying that every writer is a good writer, or vice-versa, (that would be a lie)but I am saying that it is unfair to deem one person’s work “bad” because it isn’t relatively equal to what was considered past greatness. I do agree that there should be more substance in today’s books that push readers to better themselves, but attacking writers isn’t the way to help the situation. (If in fact your purpose is to help solve the problem and not just identify it.) All in all I do believe that America’s culture, literature and society is being dumbed down, but not due to the lack of “quality” in literature, but due to a whole community of issues. The most important issue in my opinion is the fact that America has allowed reading to become less important, while making money and reality TV shows more important.
Bloom, Harold. “Dumbing down the American Reader”. LA Times. 2003. <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers/>Almond, Steve. “The Bloom is Off The Mark”. MobyLives.com. 29 September 2003. <http://www.mobylives.com/Almond_Bloom.html>
