From: MOSELECW@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (chris moseley  MOZ)
Subject: the fire in the john - book
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:09:14 GMT+1200
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this came up on a list I read:

Subject: Review:  Fire In The John
From: MER@utrcgw.utc.COM

   "A myth is a story so deeply rooted in the heart of the
   culture from which it springs that no royalty or trademark
   agreements impinge upon it.  Scholars, troubadours and
   poets may quote, paraphrase, and pilfer myths without fear
   of legal action.  Sometimes they try to create new myths,
   usually in connection with weekend seminars.  This is
   called mythopoeic activity because it is more fun to say
   than mythic, even though no one is quite sure how to
   pronounce it."

   "We [men] suffer from PMSS: Post-Macho Stress and Strain.
   We're mad as hell about what's happened to us, but have
   no idea of what to do about it.  We have lost touch with
   our fortitude, passion, grief.  Some of us can't even find
   our car keys."

   "...our society has deprived men of the ritual spaces and
   mentors they need to build strong psyches...  In our
   [men's] group no man's need is too small for a ceremonial
   observance.  All one of us has to do is share the pain of
   paying a library fine and we spring into action.  Someone
   holds the confessor until his tears have subsided, while
   someone else clears the floor.  Then with a cry of `Let's
   put on a ritual!  I'll chant, you'll drum,' we're on the
   floor, screaming and pounding and dancing wildly.  It's a
   lot of fun, and afterward we help clean up."

This parody of the mythopoetic men's movement comes from "Fire In
The John:  The Manly Man In The Age Of Sissification", by Alfred
Gingold.

If maturity requires the ability to laugh at ourselves then "Fire
In The John" marks another stage in the coming of age of the men's
movement.  The book is not more bad press written by some angry
radical feminist or another macho bonehead.  Gingold has done his
research.  In fact, I suspect he has learned about masculinity the
hard way (no pun intended), through painful self examination.

"Fire In The John" does not seek to ridicule men for the important
struggles they are facing.  Instead by summarizing nearly every issue
raised by Keen in "Fire In The Belly" it presents a caricature of the
"new man" and the lengths to which he will go in his quest for the
redefinition of masculinity.  Wild leaps of mythic interpretation of
the kind so often criticised in Bly's "Iron John" also provide good
satire when Gingold analyses the lost myth "Fire In The John" left out
of the Grimms Brother's Fairy Tales for suspicious reasons.

No initiate of the mythopoetic men's movement can escape an
introduction to Jungian archetypes.  In a section entitles "Jung
At Heart", Gingold describes the characteristics, likes and
dislikes of several important archetypes including the wild man
(favorite movie: "Apocalypse Now"), the the warrior (favorite
quote: "Toga, toga, toga"), the lover and the king.

The second of three parts of the book, entitled "Twelve Steps To
Manhood", pays homage to the overlap between mythopoeticism and
the recovery movement.  The exploites of the "new man" are laid
bare as he travels through life's twelve step program:  work,
competition, mentors, initiation, sex, commitment, sharing,
marriage, parenting, breaking up, understanding what went wrong
and, finally, aging.

    "Why begin with work?  Freud would say the proper staring
    point from which to rebuild a life is the bedroom.  But
    consider: This is the judgment of a man who puffed huge
    phallic cigars until his jaw fell off.  Do you trust him?"

My biggest complaint is that the book is too mainstream.  It lacks
a parody of the extremes: the radical profeminist position as well
as the reactionary, women blaming men's rights side.  Gingold
either doesn't know they exist or he doesn't care and that's a
shame because he's a pretty funny guy.

"Fire In The John:  The Manly Man In The Age Of Sissification",
    Alfred Gingold, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1991.
    pp160.  $6.50