The Taming of the Jew

So, after yesterday's post's mention of Shakespeare cred, I have taken it upon myself to earn some more. Yes, I know, it may be trivial to anyone else, but it means a lot to me! There are many people (scholars and such, you know) out there who already have plenty of Shakespeare cred. I know I will never reach their level, but I can at least try to get up there a little. One thing that is common among people with "street cred" is to "bash" or "hate on" others street cred saying that it's not "hip" or "rad" enough. So on that note, I have decided to target someone with plenty of Shakespeare cred: Harold Bloom. If you don't know who he is, he's a Shakespeare scholar who has devoted his entire life to living in his mother's basement and writing about sexual innuendos (ooooooh, snap! This is an over-generalization, but nonetheless a good insult in my humble opinion). That being said, here it comes, my two part take-down of Mr. Yale:

One must be blind, deaf
And dumb not to deem Harold
Bloom as arrogant.


Ok, that may be a little mean, I'm sorry. But one has to be cruel to gain Shakespeare cred. Get used to it (well not really, since I probably won't be making too many efforts to take down Shakespeare scholars).

And yes, he used that exact phrase "one must be blind, dead and dumb" in an essay about Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," calling it anti-Semitic. So now here's my rebuttal to that (I am getting mad cred today):

Merchant of Venice
Is as anti-Semitic
As bagels with lox


That's right, I said it. Harold Bloom called Shakespeare anti-Semitic, and I refuted that statement (bagels with lox are not anti-Semitic, in case you didn't make that connection). On the other hand, "The Merchant of Venice" (also known as "The Taming of the Jew") is far from anti-Semitic, raising awareness for Jewish plight by leading the viewer/reader to sympathize with Shylock (and blah blah blah, if you want to hear about it I can send you my junior year Shakespeare essay).

I would say that this post alone got me 3 Shakespeare cred. Not only did I defend Shakespeare from Bloom, but I also countered him (each of those nets me 1 cred, and doing both at once makes it 3). This brings my Shakespeare cred to 5, for those counting. And if you have noticed, I have added a rating system at the bottom of each post. For each post you have the choice of giving me a "Shakespeare cred" rating or a "Marlowe cred." Contrary to what it may suggest, if you choose the "Shakespeare cred" option, it will not increase my actual cred, but it is meant to show that you reacted positively to the post. "Marlowe cred," on the other hand means that you are ready to be killed in a bar fight after reading the post. So I guess what I'm getting at is vote Shakespeare Cred if you liked the post and Marlowe Cred if you don't.