It would be possible to make the case that the present world crisis—for I think we are facing one enormous crisis with many aspects—is a crisis of masculinity. The rising tide of fascism and its cult of violence is a masculine phenomenon, “toxic masculinity” inflated to levels not seen since World War II. That does not mean that women have no part in it. Indeed, the list of toxic women is lengthening: Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Kari Lake, Sarah Palin, Marine Le Pen in France, Giorgia Meloni in Italy. But they play at it, enjoying the thrill of “wearing the pants,” of playing in the boys’ game. And even then they try to hide behind “traditional values” in which the woman is subservient to the man.
Bravo, Michael. Your conception of the gifts available to the son who transmutes his mother’s love into a manhood uniquely resonant with his native gifts and interests in contrast to the womb-slashing, Circe-raping son who earns his freedom by bloodying his sword called to my mind how vital to psychological and cultural maturity is Frye’s notion of interpenetration.
Clearly, the either/or of the son who either slays his mother or betrays his virility is imaginatively regressive. And even an alternative vision of reconciliation between the maternal and the masculine is something less than maximally creatively fertile, as it implies a prudent paring back of the undiluted expressions of two energies.
So much emotional and spiritual growth seems to me to turn on a mind grasping, or at least intuiting, the idea of interpenetration. And yet, it also seems to me to be a really challenging concept to many people. Perhaps one of the great boons, if not the greatest, of the arts is keeping alive tangible evidence of the more real than the merely real world available to us through metaphorical thinking—and feeling. Frye says as much anyway, again and again.
Your essay here reveals how true that is in a cultural context in which much is at stake in the moment. Let us praise the teachers of literature, like you, whose imaginations interpenetrate with the Word to such inspiring effect.
Thanks for this wonderful comment, Michael. I am blessed to have such readers, who are not only highly insightful and grasp what I'm trying to say, but are inspired to go on to develop my ideas into something of their own, as you always do. I so much agree about interpenetration. In fact, it occurs to me that that should be a newsletter topic in itself. Hmm... Thank you for the inspiration!
Bravo, Michael. Your conception of the gifts available to the son who transmutes his mother’s love into a manhood uniquely resonant with his native gifts and interests in contrast to the womb-slashing, Circe-raping son who earns his freedom by bloodying his sword called to my mind how vital to psychological and cultural maturity is Frye’s notion of interpenetration.
Clearly, the either/or of the son who either slays his mother or betrays his virility is imaginatively regressive. And even an alternative vision of reconciliation between the maternal and the masculine is something less than maximally creatively fertile, as it implies a prudent paring back of the undiluted expressions of two energies.
So much emotional and spiritual growth seems to me to turn on a mind grasping, or at least intuiting, the idea of interpenetration. And yet, it also seems to me to be a really challenging concept to many people. Perhaps one of the great boons, if not the greatest, of the arts is keeping alive tangible evidence of the more real than the merely real world available to us through metaphorical thinking—and feeling. Frye says as much anyway, again and again.
Your essay here reveals how true that is in a cultural context in which much is at stake in the moment. Let us praise the teachers of literature, like you, whose imaginations interpenetrate with the Word to such inspiring effect.
Thanks for this wonderful comment, Michael. I am blessed to have such readers, who are not only highly insightful and grasp what I'm trying to say, but are inspired to go on to develop my ideas into something of their own, as you always do. I so much agree about interpenetration. In fact, it occurs to me that that should be a newsletter topic in itself. Hmm... Thank you for the inspiration!
Best, Michael