There’s not a great deal new about Shakespeare in this piece from the Examiner detailing examples of classic authors bashing other classic authors. We’ve got George Bernard Shaw who despises nothing as much as he despises Shakespeare, and Samuel Pepys who found Dream to be the most insipid ridiculous thing he’d ever seen. What I found fun, though, was seeing how long I could trace through the list. For instance: William Faulkner bashes Mark Twain (#25) Hemingway bashes Faulkner (#27) Nabokov bashes Hemingway (#1). Bells, bulls and balls! And so on. Can anybody find a longer connection? Who gets bashed the most, who does the most bashing? BONUS for Shakespeare Geeks! For every time we’ve spotted “Harry Potter” on a list of most influential/popular/blahblahblah books, beating out something by Shakespeare, here’s the illustrious Harold Bloom giving JK Rowling a good swift kick (#9):
How to read ‘Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone’? Why, very quickly, to begin with, and perhaps also to make an end. Why read it? Presumably, if you cannot be persuaded to read anything better, Rowling will have to do.
Just more evidence of how pompous Bloom is. Rowling my not be high art, but she certainly can write an engrossing story. I am not surprised Bloom cannot see past his nose to appreciate her imaginative talent. I would rather read a Harry Potter book ten times over before reading a single paragraph of bloated Harold Bloom prose!
How about this author vs. author comment:
"When I reread I blush, for I see quite enough
Fit to erase,though it was I who wrote the stuff."
(Ovid)
What about Robert Greene calling Shakespeare an "upstart crow?"