Towards the end of this rather bewildering book Harold Bloom explains that he doesn't really expect the year 2000 to be catastrophic; we shall experience neither 'rupture nor rapture'. The only danger he can see is that some people, maddened by the deferral of the end-time on which they had counted (or, in Bloomspeak, disappointed in their 'expectation of release from the burdens of a society that is weary with its sense of belatedness, or "aftering" ') might cut up rough when the year passes without apocalyptic incident. We know from previous studies of such sects that such an outcome is unlikely. Members of the sect either rework their calculations or just slip away. But the sceptical view - that the end always misses the appointment - is the one one would expect the learned Bloom to hold. He knows very well the long tradition of disappointed apocalypse, and he is aware that 2000 AD or CE is a date with no more intrinsic significance than any other.

LRB 31 October 1996 | PDF Download