Iron John: A Book About Men
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Iron John: A Book About Men (ISBN 0-201-51720-5) is a book by American Poet Robert Bly published in 1990.
It analyzes Iron John, a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, in Joseph Campbell fashion to find lessons especially meaningful to men. Bly believes that this fairy tale contains lessons from the past of great importance to modern men.
It builds upon material in "What Do Men Really Want?: A New Age Interview With Robert Bly" by Keith Thompson, New Age Journal, May 1982 and first appeared as a series of pamphlets. The pamphlets were quoted by Susan Faludi in Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (1992 ISBN 0-385-42507-4)
Comparable to Clarissa Pinkola Estés's book Women Who Run With the Wolves. (ISBN 0-345-37744-3)
[edit] Spoofs
The Mythopoetic Men's Movement was spoofed by several authors; Iron John was specifically singled out by some. Two such spoofs were Iron Joe Bob by Joe Bob Briggs and Fire in the John: The Manly Man in the Age of Sissification by Alfred Gingold (whose title also spoofed another Mythopoetic work, Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man by Sam Keen).
[edit] Further reading
- Welcome to the Robert Bly Web Site
- 25th Anniversary - Minnesota Men's Conference, Sept. 8-13: Iron John is the topic in 2009
- A ManKind Project(tm) Website featuring the New Warrior Training Adventure and a focus on Men's Issues
- Mythopoetic mens movement
- MenWeb - Men's Issues Interview with Robert Bly
- Briggs, Joe Bob (1992). Iron Joe Bob ISBN 0-87113-488-8
- Gingold, Alfred (1991). Fire in the John: The Manly Man in the Age of Sissification ISBN 0-312-07483-2
- A text version of the "Iron John" fairy tale
