Harold Bloom, Introduction: A Meditation on Misreading

(In A Map of Misreading)

I'm not going to read much more of this book, as it emphasizes poetry as its object, but Bloom's idea that there is no such thing as a text, but only relationships between texts is a delightful paradox that offers much to my own work, so I thought I would check out some of his writing. His idea of "misreading" is an interesting one - I would have used a different word - but it essentially says that creators (and one could easily extrapolate, readers/viewers) use earlier works to establish their own voice or style, but in order to distinguish themselves must invariably impose an alternative "misreading" on that which influences them. When divested of older literary notions of authorship which, though suited to poetry are ineffective when dealing with film, and from the highly structured map which Bloom devises, his ideas can certainly be seen as a theoretical jumping point for my work. If all the various users engaged with a franchise are "misreading" in different ways, then this diverse network will define that franchise and direct franchise in many different directions.