The Sibling Society (Paperback)

~ (Author) "MICHAEL VENTURA HAS SAID THAT AT SOME MOMENT IN 1956, when Elvis Presley let his pelvis move to the music on the Tommy and Jimmy..." (more)
Key Phrases: old mammal brain, oedipal wall, sibling society, United States, New York, Sweet Girl (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Poet and storyteller Robert Bly takes the baby boomers to task in this highly charged exposure of midlifers' values. Having become jaded by the abuses of authority, the boomers of North America have torn down the traditional hierarchy within their families and within their communities. What's left is a "cultural flatness," says Bly, where adults cling to self-absorbed adolescent values, television talk shows have more clout than elders, children are spiritually abandoned to fend for themselves, and in the place of community we have built shopping malls. As always, Bly relies on mythology, legends, and poetry to illustrate the morals of his stories. Ultimately this is a hopeful piece of work, nudging midlifers to take on the responsibilities (and therefore the rewards) of adulthood.

From Publishers Weekly

When Bly's Iron John shot onto the bestseller lists in the early '90s, it looked as if the men's movement it helped spawn might become a cultural force equal to the women's movement. This hasn't happened, Bly intimates in his new book, because the adults needed to bring the movement to fruition aren't available. The uninitiated and un-mentored have taken over our culture, he says, and with no "parents" around to referee our squabbling, we're caught in the throes of "sibling" rivalry. Adolescents can be cruel-hence, Bly avers, our current cutthroat competitiveness in businesses that feel no responsibility to the community, environment or their employees, and hence the rise of viciousness in the media and on the street. Bly rounds up many of the usual suspects: TV, latchkey (or day-care) children, excessive political correctness, violent rap lyrics and so on. True to his life's work, he incorporates fairy tale and myth to bolster his analysis, devoting, for example, a chapter to "Jack and the Beanstalk"; to Bly, "Jack represents all men and women who live in a fatherless and, increasingly, motherless society." The text rambles at times, but Bly's central metaphor of a sibling society could catch on with those concerned about a lack of maturity in our consumer culture. First serial to Utne Reader; BOMC, QPB and One-Spirit Book Club selections; audio rights sold to Random.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679781285
• ISBN-13: 978-0679781288
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, May 11, 2001

By	Leo E. Walsh "ebraynz" (Mentor, Oh United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those familiar with "Iron John" know Bly's style, and how he uses fairy tales to illuminate the hidden recesses of modern culture. In "The Sibling Society," he pulls off an amazing feat. Using simple tales such as "Jack and the Beanstalk" and the Hindu myth of Siva/Ganesha, Bly points out many of the failings evident in modern culture. His insights are measured, wise and seem quite accurate to me. Time and time again, I found myself paging through the book, nodding "Yes! That's it." It seemed as if I were seeing the plight of Gen-Xers like myself clearly for the first time.

Unlike most of my generation, I was raised in a traditional two-parent household. My mother was strong, gentle and patient, my father an old-fashioned, firm but fair disciplinarian. Needless to say, I was shocked when I went away to college. Though I drank, the debaucheries most people went through seemed silly and shallow. Even in corporate America, I find `brown-nosing' and petty backroom politics, instead of solid analysis and ethical behavior, to be the focus of most people's careers. Not that I am always perfect, but at least I try.

I think Bly has done a wonderful job illuminating the nature of the dilemma I've been facing for years. Though some of his points are arguable, I think the synthesis is a pretty accurate Freudian/ Jungian relating of mythic elements of our psyches to the realities of modern life. His pointing out how the "super-ego" has shifted its emphasis from moral/ethical domination to a success/ popularity one seems to me quite apt. I can see it operating all around me. I was raised under the "old" system, and to this day find the "new" system quite alien.

As an answer to the critic below, perhaps you are transferring your "shadow" onto the author. If anything, he is trying to awaken us from cultural trance we find ourselves in. His aim is not, heavy intellectualism, but communicating the essence of mythic/poetic dream images to normal men and women. That is much more useful than turning out a tome that a few solitary scholars will ever read. I think few authors manage to say so much so simply as Bly manages to.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bly's On Fire!, July 21, 2001

By	mina alcaraz "nohealani73" (Hell-ay, Ca) - See all my reviews

You want to know what Britney Spears, Columbine, and Gary Condit have in common? Just read this book and you'll get your answer as well some great insights into our twisted little culture at the present. Yeah, yeah, yeah, online detractors, I heard it all before-he's stolen material from such classics as "The Culture of Narcisissm" and other works. He's unfocused, pompous,etc. Call him what you will, but I think it's brilliant how he uses myths and fairy tales to lead us into our modern day predicaments that we all sense on some vague level but can't articulate them clearly. And in the end, he is right on target with his arguments. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't whisper "sibling society" under my breath-whether it's that I see a 45 year old mother of 4 with a picture of a supermodel taped to her fridge to stop her from eating or the myriad of "reality programming" shows on every major network. Bly is a cultural prophet with a very thought provoking set-up that stays with you long after you finish the book.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important critique of modern society, June 8, 1998

By	Casca (Darwin) - See all my reviews

Bly sees a break down in traditional values, with the consumer society and television being major culprits.He also blames the baby boomers because of their disrespect of authority.(However, baby boomers were the first generation to be consumerized;since, the trend has much intensified.)He shows that the young can't grow up because they don't have real adults to guide them, and the commercial interests are keeping them at an adolescent stage.As he did in "Iron John", Bly laments the absence of fathers in the family, and the impossible burdens placed on mothers.The strength of the book is his exposition of a disturbing trend in modern society: the "arrested development" of the young, which is denying them a fully human life.Bly's social theory lacks rigor, but overall this is a very important tract for the times.