Harold Bloom is The lucky fellows are Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and Don DeLillo. (I Meantime, isn’t he taking the National Book Foundation more seriously Harold Bloom is still fuming over the National Book Foundation’s decision to bestow an award on horrormeister Stephen King for his “distinguished contribution” to letters. By that measure, Bloom harrumphs, J.K. Rowling ought to get the Nobel Prize. As far as he’s concerned, “there are four living American novelists” — and only four — “who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-6c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nover the National Book Foundation’s decision to bestow an award on horrormeister Stephen King
\nfor his “distinguished contribution” to letters. By that measure, Bloom harrumphs, J.K. Rowling
\nought to get the Nobel Prize. As far as he’s concerned, “there are four living American novelists”
\n— and only four — “who are still at work and who deserve our praise.” <\/P>
\n
\nsuppose Saul Bellow isn’t working any more, not that I’m such a fan.) To dispute the
\ndistinguised professor would be foolish, given his academic credentials and his way with
\nwomen. But if DeLillo makes his list, I have to wonder whether Bloom’s
\njudgment hasn’t cracked in his old age. And let’s face it, if you want to intimidate someone, just
\nsay “Gravity’s Rainbow.” That is the<\/EM> Pynchon novel. Has anybody besides Bloom
\nfinished it?<\/P>
\n
\nthan it deserves? Nelson Algren, who won the first National Book Award for “The Man With the
\nGolden Arm,” once told me he tried to hock the medal it came with and couldn’t get
\nfive bucks for it.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"