Iron John: A Book About Men [Paperback]

Robert Bly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2004

In this deeply learned book, poet and translator Robert Bly offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man.Bly's vision is based on his ongoing work with men and reflections on his own life. He addresses the devastating effects of remote fathers and mourns the disappearance of male initiation rites in our culture. Finding rich meaning in ancient stories and legends, Bly uses the Grimm fairy tale "Iron John," in which the narrator, or "Wild Man," guides a young man through eight stages of male growth, to remind us of archetypes long forgotten-images of vigorous masculinity, both protective and emotionally centered.Simultaneously poetic and down-to-earth, combining the grandeur of myth with the practical and often painful lessons of our own histories, Iron John is a rare work that will continue to guide and inspire men-and women-for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bly redefines masculinity in a groundbreaking book that went to
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Bly, a major American poet who won a National Book Award in 1968, appears regularly at workshops for men. The book's title refers to a mentor-like figure in a Grimms fairy tale who serves as Wild Man, initiator, and source of divine energy for a young man. This marvelous folktale of resonant, many-layered meanings is an apt choice for demonstrating the need for men to learn from other men how to honor and reimagine the positive image of their masculinity. Bly has always responded to Blakean and Yeatsian intensities, preferring to travel the path lit by mythic road signs. His intent here is to restore a lost heritage of emotional connection and expose the paltriness of a provisional life. For many men capable of responding imaginatively to allegory and myth this will be an instructive and ultimately exculpating book. Others may regard it as an inscrutable attempt, intuitive at best, to find merit in male developmental anxieties. For all collections emphasizing family or gender studies.
- William Abrams, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306813769
• ISBN-13: 978-0306813764
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

153 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ten years later it still strikes the mark, July 30, 2000

By 

krishna sherchan (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron John: A Book About Men (Paperback)

I am fascinated by some of the other reviews for this book. Some criticize it for being too liberal and kowtowing to feminists. Others claim it's reactionary and a threat to women everywhere. Still others say that they hate books about mythology and so they hate this one,too (this is really weird - it would be like me giving, say, a romance novel a bad review because I don't like the genre).

This leads me to the conclusion that, since the book is obviously evoking massive projection and ad hominem attacks, it really does have some incredibly important things to say. Perhaps those on the right are stirred to anger by Bly's impassioned call to restore male depth of emotions. The academic postmodernist/poststructuralist camp, amazingly (and without ever reading the book, obviously)accuses Bly of oppression simply because he states that men are human and suffer, too. This book is still a target of postmodern wrath in universities, but the criticism never focuses on the text but rather on projections surrounding Bly's persona.

The book itself (don't read it if you hate poetry and mythology! )contains a skillful blend of old world folklore and Jungian psychology aimed at restoring male modes of feeling in the world. Men who can descend into their wounds are not so dependent on women for nurturance, and thus are far more eager to see a world of powerful, independent, and connected women and men.

156 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Few Hints, March 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Iron John: A Book About Men (Paperback)

This book has been well summarized and reviewed, but here are a few hints to those considering buying it.

(1) This is not a work of academic sociology. Do not come to Iron John for suggestions about social policy for your dissertation or articles. He does not regard professors as intellectuals, but rather puts them in the same category as businessmen or others trapped on soulless career tracks. Creative people are driven from academe quite early, in grad school, and Bly knows it. (2) This is a suggestive, exploratory, poetic attempt to use myth as a form of guidance for people in their real lives. That is, Bly seems more interested in throwing out powerful images and myths concerning men and men's lives and trying to make sense of them within our context of media-saturated consciousness than he is in traditional academic argument. It's an alternative to academic approaches, not in competition with them, and that is partly what makes it so wonderful: we're free to grasp at what interests us and leave what doesn't. Swimming in the questions is a beautiful thing. (3) Bly was an old 60s activist. If you can't bear the thought of someone not being conservative then don't read Bly. If, like me, you're conservative but not Republican, you'll be fine. (4) Having spent ten years in academe before running, screaming, in the opposite direction, I can tell you that Bly is no kow-towing feminist and no victimologist. Anyone who thinks Bly is too feminist needs to be stranded in a Women's Studies department for an afternoon. Then you'll come to him begging forgiveness. Bly is too careful of the feminists, I agree, but they're after him every step of the way trying to shut him up. He's despised by gender fascists, who see him as an advocate of violence against women. For them, a man is merely a potential rapist, end of discussion, and any attempt to portray them otherwise is seen as a pure wish to attack all women and bring harm to them. As for victimology, Bly is not seeing men as victims, alone, but as people who don't fit the above feminist profile everywhere and all the time. There are sick, brutal men, of course, but Bly wants to help men to see that they can be happier and more fulfilled if they dispense with both the feminist cliches and mass-media stud cliches and try to get in touch with something deeper, something with a lineage back into the furthest reaches of history, and something profoundly important to all men. He's very conservative in this way, as am I, and wants to restore some of the virtues of a strong, responsible, mature man whose strength is not a danger to women. Is that so evil? (5) Bly has mean things to say about New Age, contrary to what people seem to think would be the case. He treats New Age as what it is: floating, indecisive, maleable, pleasantries that never really provide a basis for anything. Bly wants grounding for men in myths and initiations that are robust and strong, and New Age is anything but that. (6) Read Bly with his poetic vocation in mind: poems do not make point-by-point arguments, but rather engage the mind, the senses, the feelings, and leave an impression. That's Iron John all over, and if that leaves you wanting something else, there are Men'Studies departments in the universities who will provide what you want. This is a book for the imagination as well as the mind, and that is why it is very engaging and beautiful.

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and touching work, December 6, 2000

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iron John: A Book About Men (Paperback)

Reaching my mid-30s, I find myself with questions about manhood and who I am. Remembering an old interview with Robert Bly that I saw some 10 years ago, I decided to pick up his book. Iron John is Bly's interpretation of an old folktale about a "Wild Man" who takes a young boy, and guides him toward a whole manhood. Bly sees in this tale an outline of the pre-Greek (or at least pre-Christian) system of initiation.

Mr. Bly's work was for the most part with Baby Boomers, and this book shows it. He focuses on issues that were important to that generation, such as Vietnam, workaholic/wife-beating fathers, "manic Catholic priests", and Republicanism. As an early post-Boomer, I find that my issues are somewhat different than this. However, Mr. Bly does take aim at many different groups, including New-Agers, and those who are "smoking weed, reading nothing, and being generally groovy."

I must admit that this book did not answer my questions. However, Mr. Bly's poetic look at what men are and can be speaks powerfully to me. This book is a fascinating and touching work, and is something men should find time to read.