A few thoughts by Harold Bloom to contemplate:
"I accept only three criteria for greatness in imaginative literature: aesthetic splendor, cognitive power, wisdom."
"Shakespeare may well stand here for the largest benign effect of the highest literature: properly appreciated, it can heal part of the violence that is built into every society whatsoever."
That reminds me of Fred's essay, "The Meaning of Value," the levels of which were tropic, economic, rational, moral and aesthetic.
ReplyDeleteHe couldn't be more right about Shakespeare.