September 23, 2003
Must I be further deflated?
Just when I'm getting used to the idea that I'm not as smart as I think I am, I learn from Harold Bloom's Hamlet: Poem Unlimited that I'm also less intelligent than a fictional character:
- "Vastly intelligent, far beyond us--if we are not, say, Freud or Wittgenstein--Hamlet cannot believe that the proper use of his capability and godlike reason is to perform a revenge killing." (p. 70)
- "Don't condescend to the Prince of Denmark: he is more intelligent than you are, whoever you are." (p. 86)
- "If Hamlet perishes of the truth, such truth is barely external. Hamlet is the truth, insofar as any hero of consciousness can be." (p. 94)
Posted by rdhyee at September 23, 2003 10:59 PM
Oh, bah. Harold Bloom is too full of himself. Bet he's not as smart as Hamlet, either...