Iron John : A Book About Men - Softcover

Robert Bly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712610707 ISBN 13: 9780712610704

Publisher: Random House, 2001

Synopsis

Robert Bly writes that it is clear to men that the images of adult manhood given by popular culture are worn out, that a man can no longer depend on them. Iron John searches for a new vision of what a man is or could be, drawing on psychology, anthropology, mythology, folklore and legend. Robert Bly looks at the importance of the Wild Man (reminiscent of the Wild Woman in Women Who Run With the Wolves), who he compares to a Zen priest, a shaman or a woodman. 'This book needs to be read, I believe, not as a dry work of scholarship to be judged coolly by the mind, but as the work of a poet struggling to convey an emotional experience and lead us to what he has found within himself' Guardian. 'Eclectic and unclassifiable. Iron John is a work whose mentors are the prophetic poets and crazies, William Blake and Walt Whitman' Sydney Morning Herald. 'Important.timely.and powerful' New York Times

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

long-awaited work of renowned poet and storyteller Robert Bly that explores and challenges the male psyche. In it, Bly brings to light a burgeoning "underground" of men seeking to find a lost heritage of emotional connection -- to their fathers, their children, their wives, themselves. Using the Grimm fairy tale as a vehicle, Bly takes us back to a model of masculinity which is neither Rambo nor "wimp," but rather more like Odysseus. He examines the myths and cultural underpinnings of this classic male model -- a combination of fierceness and tenderness long since sacrificed to the demands of the industrial revolution. Such a sacrifice, says Bly, has given rise to a male sense of loss and unacknowledged pain.

Iron John works to heal this pain and to define a new era in the relations between the sexes -- it is the definitive book about men -- for men and for women.

About the Author:

Robert Bly is a poet, storyteller, translator and worldwide lecturer. His poetry has won many awards, including the National Book Award. This is his first full-length book of prose. He lives with his wife in Madison, Minnesota.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0712610707
• ISBN 13: 9780712610704
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 287