Private epiphanies

Mikey quoted this but what the heck let's wheel it out a second time. It's a very interesting comment from Harold Bloom (literary critic) in the most excellent, most heartening Paris Review Interviews (II).

You also learn this from reviews and from things that are cited in other people's book and so on, or from what people say to you - what you pride yourself on, the things that you think are your insight and contribution . . . no one ever even notices them. It's as though they're just for you. What you say in passing or what you expound because you know it too well, because it really bores you, but you feel you have to get through this in order to make your grand point, that's what people pick up on. That's what they underline. That's what they quote. That's what they attack or cite favorably. That's what they can use. What you really think you're doing may or may not be what you're doing, but it cetainly isn't communicated to others . . . . It's a very strange phenomenon. It must have something to do with our capacity for not knowing ourselves. (p354)