I can't wait to read some poetry by walt whitman, once my book arrives...

I can't wait to read some poetry by walt whitman, once my book arrives. I read a review by harold bloom on the back of a book of one of my favorite poets; fernando pessoa. "The amazing Portugues Poet, Fernando Pessoa ... as a fantastic invention surpasses any creation by Borges ... Pessoa was neither mad nor a mere ironist; he is Whitman reborn, but a Whitman who gives separate names to 'my self,' 'the real me' or 'me myself,' and 'my soul,' and writes wonderful books of poetry for all of them." Harold Bloom, THE WESTERN CANON.

I also did some research and learned that Pessoa was heavily influenced by Walt Whitman. I bought myself an easton press edition of leaves of grass, as well as a very cheap copy of the complete poems and selected prose of walt whitman.

Harold Bloom is amazing. I've listened to a lot of interviews with him, I've been using his guide to poetry for some of the poetry books I've book reading. I'm going to be really sad when he passes away, he's a true literary scholar. He seems sort of omnipresent in the world of classic literature. I'm always seeing his short reviews on the backs of books, and I own a couple anthologies of poetry which he contributed to.

The qualm I have with Bloom is that often time he derails his talks with personal, irrelevant anecdotes.

For example, I was listening to a recording of him in a class talking about Moby Dick, and he couldn't resist shoving anecdote after anecdote of irrelevant, boring nonsense which derailed my immersion into talking about Moby Dick.

All he really did was draw Biblical and Shakespearean references from the book, all of which is easily footnoted in any critical edition of any work really.

Bloom's criticism to me, is more about him talking about his personal opinion of the book, and these personal opinions often turn into boring anecdotes.

I respect his vast knowledge of literature and his passion for retaining the "canon" as the hallmark of literature study, but I find him vain.

Good post.
t. An user, one of the cunts, a faggot

Pessoa was one of the world's biggest genius, second only to Camões in portuguese literature. The most beautiful poem i have ever read is by Pessoa's, "heteronimo", Alvaro de Campos, and it was"A tabacaria" which roughly translates to "the tobacco shop", i highly recommended you read it if you haven't already. I'm sorry i cant recommend any translations since I'm portuguese and, of course, read it in the original text.
The poem belongs to the third part of Campos' works, his nihilistic/existentialism phase which is also a recurrent theme on Pessoa's "ortonimo" works.

Hey svid, long time no see. It's been a while since the tinychat broke up, I miss that little book club. One of the most sophisticated, polite chat rooms I've ever been to. I will check out that poem.

I knew it had to be svid too but his username was escaping me. Hey guys.

One shouldn't read it in translation anyway. It just doesn't work.

i didnt read him because he's a FAGGOT

It's the only way I've read pessoa so far. If I've been deluded, then I like being deluded.

Is that svid thing a meme i don't know about?

No. He was a person who used to visit a lit connected chat room. He was always a pleasure to talk to, very polite, and he reads pessoa in the original Portuguese, because I believe he's from Portugal. The last time I went to that chat room, well, I was extremely goofy and I feel sort of embarrassed looking back on it. There was also some party crashing trolls, who sort of came in and lowed the level of discourse to a prehistoric level. I haven't seen the chat room since. We used to listen to classical music and discuss esteemed works of literature, I haven't experienced anything like it since.

Noob here

How do i into Pessoa? Seems like the right fuel for depressing lonely city nights.

The book of disquiet.

I think he's from Brazil. Are you the Finkelstein expert?

I'm not an expert in anything. I went by the name "butt" when I visited the chat room.

>he is Whitman reborn
The only Whitman reborn is Ginsberg.

>Harold Bloom is amazing
He's a hack to be fair. The Scaruffi of literature, who can only give ratings and numbers because he doesn't know how to enjoy art.

That said, nice blog faggot.

I enjoy Pessoa though

Well, it's okay as long as you keep in mind that you haven't been reading Pessoa. Just a translator trying to immitate Pessoa in a language that has a different rhythm, rhyme, metre and meaning

There's nothing I know to compare to what I've read. I'm aware that it's in a different rhyme though, it's crossed my mind while I'm reading. I trust the translator to have translated it in such a manner that it conveys the meaning it was meant to.

Pessoa actually used to write a lot in english too, he was from portuguese descent but was born and grew up in South Africa if i recall correctly, so if you really want to you can find stuff written by him in english

It's not about trusting the translator. It is simply impossible to completely translate poetry and maintain all the layers. It's not their fault, it's just the way language works. If you would read it in Spanish you'd probably be able to come close, English however is vastly different.

Fair enough, that would be a good way to go.

Thanks, user.

My Latin professor said it's worth learning Portuguese for Camoes and Pessoa alone.

That happens more when he talks than when he writes. At least in his "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" you may find some food-for-thought remarks, even if you disagree with what he says. But, of course, he inserts some anecdotes here and there that may or may not be related to the problem at hand.

His influences on Pessoa was heavily on Alvaro de Campos, actually. Always remember that Pessoa had three major heteronyms:

>Alberto Caeiro
He called himself the only real poet of nature. The easier to read and the most fun (to me) too.

>Ricardo Reis
A classic poet who used to write odes and elegies. Heavily influenced by the likes of Anacreontic, Ovid, Catullus and so on. There's a lot of fun here too.

>Álvaro de Campos
The most important (for the critics) one. He wrote the most beautiful and eternal poems of Pessoa.

Now Whitman had influence upon both Caeiro and Campos (I'm correcting myself). Pessoa read pretty much everything from the english poetry, and also french/greek/latin and son. He was a well-read guy who could read in more then 6 languages.

Remember also that those guys really "existed", meaning that Pessoa created biographies for them like if they were characters in a novel, but also they existed in real life. The only qt girl Pessoa liked in her lifetime, Ofélia Queiroz, was pushed away by a letter of fucking ALVARO DE CAMPOS running down on Pessoa.

He was really a trick pony.

(Sorry for my english mistakes).

>He's a hack to be fair. The Scaruffi of literature, who can only give ratings and numbers because he doesn't know how to enjoy art.

t. pleb who only knows Bloom as that dude who wrote the "stretched his legs" Harry Potter bashing pasta

Bloom loves reading and is always passionate talking about literature in any one of his books and interviews.