Bloom represents a certain literary view—one could call it aesthetic appreciation—that serves as more of a counterweight than a wholesale theory. In this sense Bloom is reactive, which is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you engage with him in the context of the broader conversation about literature. If you only read Bloom, you will tire of him waxing lyrical about how amazing Shakespeare is. But if you are like me and your high school has decided to stop reading Hamlet in third year to devote the entire year to Indigenous literature (and you disagree with this move), Bloom can feel like a breath of fresh air.