vice interviews harold bloom

JESSE PEARSON: It’s disappointing because the internet could have been such a good thing. It could have been like an indestructible Library of Alexandria, but with porn.

HAROLD BLOOM: This goes back to what I said about the saving remnant. You’re part of that saving remnant. As I’ve been saying for years: If, in fact, you have an impulse to become and maintain yourself as a deep reader, then the internet is very good for you. It gives you an endless resource. But if, in fact, you don’t have standards and you don’t know how to read, then the internet is a disaster for you because it’s a great gray ocean of text in which you simply drown.”

(From the Fiction issue. See also new Kenneth Gangemi & Amie Barrodale.)