monsters of selfishness and exploitation. To read in the service of any ideology is not, in my judgment, to read at all. The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure ourselves.
In "The Western Canon," Harold Bloom critiques the way certain ideologies can distort the appreciation and understanding of literature. He argues that reading should be an act of engagement with the aesthetic power of texts, rather than a means to serve any specific ideology. When literature is approached through a lens of selfishness or exploitation, it diminishes the true value of the work. Bloom emphasizes the importance of literature in helping...
