person
also known as Harold Bloom
American literary critic Bob invokes as the modern champion of the Western canon. In the argument over which minds ever escaped the cul-de-sac, Bob grants Bloom's defense of "the greats" but turns it: the canon that was once the core of the curriculum "is not a service anymore," because reciting the greats no longer restates the problem they were built to face.
Across the dialogues
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Invoked as the last defender of the canon — Bob uses him to concede that "the greats are the greats" while insisting the canon can no longer do the anti-environmental work of returning us to the problem
Bob reads Bloom as the late defender of the Western canon, aligning the "greats" Cameron means with Bloom's list — while pressing that the greats "are not a service anymore."
"I think you're saying that the great are what Harold Bloom did in his later books. Remember, he wrote about the canon. He defended the canon, the Western canon."