Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom, author of the 1987 bestseller "The Closing of the American Mind," a scathing critique of America's colleges and universities, died Wednesday at the age of 62. Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, died of peptic-ulcer bleeding complicated by liver failure. His book, subtitled "How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students," challenged universities to return to a more traditional curricula.

Eroticism in 1993 is passionless and approximate. So says Allan Bloom in "Love and Friendship." The most vulgar four-letter word has become an overused comma. Worse yet, contemporary sexual "interfacing" cannot empower art. ("Did Romeo and Juliet have a relationship?" Bloom asks.) Adultery, for Jane Austen, held terrific human resonance. Adultery today is . . . oh, self-expression.

If Allan Bloom appears an unlikely best-selling author, it is because his book "The Closing of the American Mind"--with the less than catchy subtitle "How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students"--seems an unlikely candidate to crack any national best-seller list.

Although it appeared a few weeks ago, a remark by reviewer Chris Goodrich to the effect that the late Allan Bloom had a "crabbed, elitist view of higher education" still grieves me ("An Aristocracy for Everyone," Jan. 24). If Mr. Goodrich ever met or spoke to Professor Bloom, I'll eat my hat. No one-- no one --who ever met Allan Bloom would ever make such a remark. And his former students could entertain Mr. Goodrich for hours about Bloom's wit, genuine concern for their lives and minds, and his willingness to talk about the very substance (or lack of it)

Eroticism in 1993 is passionless and approximate. So says Allan Bloom in "Love and Friendship." The most vulgar four-letter word has become an overused comma. Worse yet, contemporary sexual "interfacing" cannot empower art. ("Did Romeo and Juliet have a relationship?" Bloom asks.) Adultery, for Jane Austen, held terrific human resonance. Adultery today is . . . oh, self-expression.

Your essay on Allan Bloom in The Book Review was the most reflective, informed discussion I have found there in the dozen or so years since coming to Los Angeles. PETER MANNING Los Angeles

Although it appeared a few weeks ago, a remark by reviewer Chris Goodrich to the effect that the late Allan Bloom had a "crabbed, elitist view of higher education" still grieves me ("An Aristocracy for Everyone," Jan. 24). If Mr. Goodrich ever met or spoke to Professor Bloom, I'll eat my hat. No one-- no one --who ever met Allan Bloom would ever make such a remark. And his former students could entertain Mr. Goodrich for hours about Bloom's wit, genuine concern for their lives and minds, and his willingness to talk about the very substance (or lack of it)

There he goes again ("What's (Teen) Age Got to Do With It?" by Robert Hilburn, July 31). First we get Springsteen-as-God, then a refutation of professor Allan Bloom's argument against rock music as an art form, and now this. Does Hilburn actually mean to tell us that Tiffany and her barely post-pubescent colleagues aren't contributing anything to the music scene? Only difference between this last essay and his others is that this time he did it right. As much as it surprises me to admit it, there's at least one person out here who agrees with Hilburn.

Two quick Calendar observations: 1--After finishing reading Lalo Schifrin's stuffy, stilted response (Sept. 20) to David Green's response to Robert Hilburn's article, responding to Allan Bloom's book's response to the cultural changes wrought by rock 'n' roll, I took pen in hand preparing my own response, when suddenly I was struck by a terrifying thought . . . Lalo Schifrin just might be serious. 2--Does anybody else object to the abhorrent overuse of the noun party as a verb, or do I stand alone?

Although what you say about the influence of British philosophy ("Allan Bloom As Best Seller," Book Review, August 30) may offer a useful corrective to the view of the role of German philosophy that Allan Bloom sets forth in his book, the account you give of it is not really accurate. By far the greatest influence on American philosophy over the last several decades has been neither specifically British nor German but an international movement that is most commonly referred to as "analytical" or "linguistic" philosophy.

AN ARISTOCRACY FOR EVERYONE: The Politics of Education and the Future of America by Benjamin R. Barber (Ballantine Books: $20; 307 pp.). One of the great wisecracks of recent decades, usually attributed to Henry Kissinger, claims that academic arguments are so virulent because the stakes are so low.

Allan Bloom, author of the 1987 bestseller "The Closing of the American Mind," a scathing critique of America's colleges and universities, died Wednesday at the age of 62. Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, died of peptic-ulcer bleeding complicated by liver failure. His book, subtitled "How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students," challenged universities to return to a more traditional curricula.

In the ongoing battle over the future of American academia, the conservative movement is about to launch new weapons: guidebooks to help prospective college students choose a school. Both William F. Buckley's National Review magazine and the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, whose founders include former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and conservative scholar Allan Bloom, are publishing books that purport to lead students to solid, traditional educations.

Don't believe James Atlas when he professes neutrality: These wars are chronicled from the unmistakable perspective of Allan Bloom, the man who started them with "The Closing of the American Mind," an assault on '60s liberals who stormed the Ivory Tower in the '70s and '80s, concocting "socially relevant" courses that are said to distract students from the classics and other traditionally "civilizing" humanities curricula. Atlas mentions Bloom again and again.

There he goes again ("What's (Teen) Age Got to Do With It?" by Robert Hilburn, July 31). First we get Springsteen-as-God, then a refutation of professor Allan Bloom's argument against rock music as an art form, and now this. Does Hilburn actually mean to tell us that Tiffany and her barely post-pubescent colleagues aren't contributing anything to the music scene? Only difference between this last essay and his others is that this time he did it right. As much as it surprises me to admit it, there's at least one person out here who agrees with Hilburn.

In a piece on higher education ("A College Degree Is Many Things," Op-Ed Page, April 11), Robert Oliphant takes the academic world to task for the quality of education it produces today, and seems to side with Secretary of Education William Bennett in pushing for standardized achievement testing. On what would this testing be based? Though Oliphant is a bit vague on the specifics, his basic curriculum would, except in certain subjects ("mathematics, foreign languages and the physical sciences")

AN ARISTOCRACY FOR EVERYONE: The Politics of Education and the Future of America by Benjamin R. Barber (Ballantine Books: $20; 307 pp.). One of the great wisecracks of recent decades, usually attributed to Henry Kissinger, claims that academic arguments are so virulent because the stakes are so low.

I suspect the chief letter-generator's heady critique of Allan Bloom has given the post office a brief respite, so here's my 22-cents worth. Bloom's best-selling diatribe successfully recycles some old misconceptions at a very opportune time. After all, chastity is chic in the '80s, even if nobody really practices it. Bloom's obsessive fear of sensuality, and in particular, onanism, has obviously manifested itself as the most insipid type of mental masturbation. Nothing Bloom says compares in esoteric quality to Hilburn's spirited defense of rock music as art. In his words, "the heart of the music is the same passionate and inspiring search for understanding and insight that characterizes every art form."

Rodriguez presents precisely the anti-cultural attitudes which Allan Bloom so riddles in his influential book, "The Closing of the American Mind." Rodriguez decries the recent public elevation of Asian-American students as cultural models for other American minorities not enjoying such success in the classroom. "Education is not about culture," Rodriguez writes, "nor is it about class but about the individual reach for experience, about Eliza Doolittle, Holden Caulfield." Both Eliza and Holden were fictional characters who had quite unique cultural experiences and as such they can hardly be held up as the foundations for any sort of philosophy of education.

Two quick Calendar observations: 1--After finishing reading Lalo Schifrin's stuffy, stilted response (Sept. 20) to David Green's response to Robert Hilburn's article, responding to Allan Bloom's book's response to the cultural changes wrought by rock 'n' roll, I took pen in hand preparing my own response, when suddenly I was struck by a terrifying thought . . . Lalo Schifrin just might be serious. 2--Does anybody else object to the abhorrent overuse of the noun party as a verb, or do I stand alone?