{"product_id":"ruin-the-sacred-truths-paperback-by-harold-bloom","title":"Ruin the Sacred Truths Paperback by Harold Bloom","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n                \n                    \n                        \u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n                        \u003cul\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cb\u003eHarvard University Press\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e(1991-09-03)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003eEnglish\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e214\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003epages\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e9780674780286\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem Weight\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e368.55\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003egrams\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                            \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003ecm\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                        \u003c\/ul\u003e\n                        \u003cbr\u003e\n                        \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“[Bloom] is the Satan of criticism...he is heroic even in those passages in which we are permitted to suspect that he may be a charlatan.”—Dennis Donoghue, \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe most prodigious literary mind of his generation on the transcendent acts of self-creation that define the Western canon, from the Torah to Samuel Beckett.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Milton’s contemporary Andrew Marvell once confessed that reading Paradise Lost troubled his faith. Milton’s lyrical prowess was beyond doubt, but precisely because of his poetic genius Marvell feared “That he would ruin (for I saw him strong) \/ The sacred Truths to Fable and old Song.” If heaven, hell, and rebelling angels were reduced to fodder for the poet’s imagination, how could they remain objects of sincere religious belief? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this fascinating series of lectures, delivered at Harvard in 1987–1988, Harold Bloom confirms Marvell’s worst fear: all serious poets, Bloom argues, must ruin the sacred truths, unraveling cherished beliefs and literary traditions to create a world in their own image. From the earliest source documents of the Torah, written by a hypothetical author called the Yahwist or simply “J,” to the heretical reinterpretations of Judaism in Freud, Kafka, and Gershom Scholem, Bloom shows us how great authors construct the new by destroying the old. In the process they wrest divinity from the hand of the deity: Milton’s Satan, infinitely more complex and compelling than his God, embodies the author’s pursuit of humanity and literary greatness against the strictures of received religion; Wordsworth, prophet of nature, “celebrates his own godhood”; and Shakespeare’s characters, as much as the Bible’s, establish a ubiquitous and inescapable framework for representing the human personality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrisk and impassioned, \u003ci\u003eRuin the Sacred Truths\u003c\/i\u003e gives us Bloom in all his dimensions. Jewish Gnostic, reverent Freudian, and relentless proselytizer of the sublime, he was convinced, above all, that if salvation could be found anywhere, it would be in poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n                        \u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n                        \u003cp\u003eHarold Bloom (1930–2019) was the author of dozens of books of literary criticism, including \u003ci\u003eThe Anxiety of Influence\u003c\/i\u003e, which has been translated into more than forty languages, and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eHow to Read and Why\u003c\/i\u003e. A two-time finalist for the National Book Award and the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, he was Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University.\u003c\/p\u003e\n                    \n                \n            \u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Best Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":46554362806433,"sku":"BBSNIJ9780674780286","price":45.9,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/2084\/5473\/files\/9780674780286.jpg?v=1781765886","url":"https:\/\/www.bestbookstore.ca\/products\/ruin-the-sacred-truths-paperback-by-harold-bloom","provider":"Best Book Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}