Bloom's penis envy

I just read that Harold Bloom has edited a book about C.S. Lewis. I think he wrote the introduction. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Lewis-Blooms-Modern-Critical-Views/dp/0791093190

I can't find much comment on this book. If I go to google books, a preview isn't available. I really want to get a hold of this book because the last time I've read anything Bloom says about Lewis I find it ridiculous and annoying. For instance, in a book called "Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds", in a section on the poet John Milton, Bloom takes cheap shots at Lewis' interpretation of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost.

When Lewis wrote his book "A Preface to Paradise Lost", the popular interpretation of Satan was that he was a tragic hero, a symbol of the movement known as Romanticism, and that his rebellion against God was somehow a symbol for how Man has thrown off the shackles of Religion. Milton, they say, stealthily made Satan a symbol for himself, showing how Milton rebelled against God. Also, that Milton's Satan can shed light on the myth of Prometheus, a titan who stole fire from Zeus through trickery; as a punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock where an eagle ate his liver everyday, since his liver was made to grow back everyday. Don't worry, though: Hercules finally saved him.

Lewis, on the other hand, put Milton in his context. In context, Satan was a buffoon, as is all evil. In Christianity, God is the source of all joy, happiness, and blessedness. To step outside of this is to step into oblivion. What Romantic glory is there in such a foolish act? Bloom, however, takes a potshot at this, making Lewis look like a moron for even suggesting it. It's just propaganda. I'm not saying Bloom needs to go all-out and provide a thorough analysis of Lewis' whole book. I am saying that if Bloom feels the need to single out Lewis, he'd have a little more charity with the way he presents Lewis' view.

I came across this book (C. S. Lewis (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)) yesterday and I want to read it. I hope he is fair. I always get the sneaking suspicion that Bloom is jealous of Lewis' notoriety and that if Bloom can't win by pot-shots, then a whole book on Lewis might get him a little closer.

The I Ching

Fu Xi, an ancient Chinese ruler and hero, received 8 trigrams supernaturally. Now what is especially interesting are these trigrams. In Chinese, these 8 trigrams are called 'ba gua', which literally means '8 symbols'. Each of these trigrams represent the fundamental principles of reality; and all the symbols are interrelated. Here is what the trigrams look like:

Notice the Ying Yang at the center. Yin and Yang is used to describe how opposing forces in the cosmos are connected and related. Each of the symbols surrounding the Ying Yang has 3 lines, either broken (Yin) or unbroken (Yang) - that's why they're called 'trigrams'. The 'I Ching' is supposed to be all the possible pairs of these trigrams: each pair is called a hexagram. Qian is Heaven; Dui is Lake; Li is fire; Zhen is thunder; Xun is wind; Kan is water; Gen is mountain; Kun is earth. This Yin and Yang is produced by Taiji ("great ridgepole": ridgepoles are horizontal beams in which rafters are fastened, along the ridges of roofs), meaning The Absolute, which itself is produced by Wuji ("without ridgepole"), meaning Without Limit, Boundless. By analogy, these poles are supposed to describe either magnetic (like the North Pole), geographic (like the so-called 4 corners of the Earth), or celestial (Poles located at the outermost reaches of the universe). Yin and Yang then produce 'lesser yin, greater yin' (the moon) and 'lesser yang, greater yang' (the Sun). These 4 phenomena (lesser yin, greater yin, lesser yang, greater yang) all act on the 8 trigrams, which leads to the possible pairs of the trigrams (the hexagrams, since instead of 3 stacked lines, there are 6): the I Ching, meaning 'The Book of Changes'.

These hexagrams were recorded in Lian Shan (trans. "continuous mountains").

I'll give one example of a Hexagram as found in the I Ching. It is 6 stacked, unbroken (Yang) lines. It's name is 'qian', meaning Force, or possibly 'god'. Both the inner (lower) and the outer (higher) trigram mean Force, and that's why all the lines are unbroken (Yang).