Democracy for the Middle East
May 27, 2003Influence
Harold Bloom may yet turn out to be of seminal importance in explaining the affairs of mankind. For example, we've long felt that anti-Zionism can be traced to a competition between the secularist and Judaic world views, and we recently posted a piece that documents the preoccupation of the French enlightenment philosophers with (borrowing Bloom's language) Judaism's prior poem. Thus the delight when we came across Ian Buruma's article in the Times of London that makes a similar observation about the present French-American rift (although he doesn't mention Bloom):
According to Buruma, the disagreement is mostly about the proper role of government, with Americans generally seeking to minimize it. Adopting Bloom's analytical framework (his field is Literary Criticism), we'd suggest that the two revolutions also differ in the revisionary ratio with which each misreads the prior religious poem. (For Bloom, it is axiomatic that any true encounter with a strong prior poem is a misreading to the extent that one brings one's whole and unique being to another's creation. Think of it as the subjective analog of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal.)
Thus, in contrast to the weak and easily overwhelmed French secular poem which found need to overthrow the Bible, the American creation almost swaggers off the page, steeped in and unthreatened by the same strong predecessor. By swerving rather than overthrowing the same redemptive tropes the more confident (and humble) American poet is able to appropriate what he desires more than his own priority: a Thou relationship with the Eternal. Any anxiety he may have about the creative influence of the ancient verses of religious Zionism is thoroughly diluted in the strength he derives from the Creator's transforming nearness. Unlike the Secularist, the author of the American poem isn't haunted by imaginary Jewish cabals. The awesome Predecessor lurks neither in his midst or deep within his soul. To borrow Emily Dickinson, he has -
No start in Apprehension's Ear
No Bankruptcy -- no Doom --
But Certainties of Sun
Midsummer -- in the Mind --
and nothing but a trusting embrace for the redemptive centrality of Israel. How does one know the strength of the American poem? By the self-engendered quickening produced by misreading it. Go ahead ..
To those who dare to try --
Beyond my limit to conceive --
My lip -- to testify --
I think the Heart I former wore
Could widen -- till to me
The Other, like the little Bank
Appear -- unto the Sea --
I think the Days -- could every one
In Ordination stand --
And Majesty -- be easier --
Than an inferior kind --
No numb alarm -- lest Difference come --
No Goblin -- on the Bloom --
No start in Apprehension's Ear,
No Bankruptcy -- no Doom --
But Certainties of Sun --
Midsummer -- in the Mind --
A steadfast South -- upon the Soul --
Her Polar time -- behind --
The Vision -- pondered long --
So plausible becomes
That I esteem the fiction -- real --
The Real -- fictitious seems --
How bountiful the Dream --
What Plenty -- it would be --
Had all my Life but been Mistake
Just rectified -- in Thee
Now what Frenchman could have written that?
Home . Posted by Editor at May 27, 2003 02:43 AM . DFME's new internet address is www.dfme.org
Comments on this post:
wow - DFME goes all post structuralist on us.
Who'd a thunk it?
this is searingly interesting.
bravo!
Posted by: Zeinab Badawi at May 27, 2003 05:18 PM
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