One of the more astute takes on James I've ever read. It's really interesting that he takes on belatedness as a theme as it is a major theme in Bloom's theory of influence. Mr Ohi's interpretation of belatedness fits in with Bloom in a very cool way: belatedness as the springboard toward the sublime.
Before we can even begin to zoom in on Henry James's homo-eroticism in his fiction and correspondence, we must find out whether the mysterious accident actually castrated him and whether burning his passionate letters to young men was inspired by feelings of guilt or fear of suffering the same fate as Oscar Wilde. Professor Ohi must have been immersed in the New York edition of the Master's novels, for he practically reformulates every single sentence he utters. If this is intended as a witty ode to the Jamesian style, I'll say chapeau...
Ohi says that "queer criticism" is about more than labeling people as gay. But if there was a single other coherent thought in this talk, I was unable to detect it. Ohi has no interest in what James was trying to say in his vast body of work -- he just wants to sniff his crotch. Even if Mr. Ohi is right, and James was secretly gay, Ohi is doing James an extreme disservice.
@@stevenyourke7901 What's so ludicrous about that? How about feminist? Post-colonial? Psychoanalytic? Marxist? Mythic? What do you think literary studies should be about other than interpretation?
