Goose commented on

The Writing Process Schedule

Sep-20-2018

4:35 PM UTC James, I was surprised there was no list D for writers whose work is centered around masculinity as the core theme, and who are "the real deal", i.e. they lived what they taught. What would your list look like? J.London, E.Hemingway?

Sorry, Goose, just found this in my files.

-JL

These writers have to have written on masculine themes and also engaged in actual hyper-masculine activities, doing things that the normal men of their age regarded as beyond the required masculine forms of expression.

-9. Robert E. Howard boxed for the fun of it and to mold himself into at least a reflection of the heroes he wished to write about, in an age when over two thirds of men no longer chose to box or wrestle or duel, but rather to spectate. Read Black Vulmea for his most masculine character.

-8. Herman Melville, who sailed on merchant, whaling and naval ships in the Age of Sail and wrote humanly of his inhuman experiences.

-7. Gene Wolfe was a combat infantryman in the Korean Conflict and demonstrates a deep understanding of the conflicted man stuck in the civilized matrix. Read Latro in the Mist for his most masculine character.

-6. Ernest Hemmingway put himself into war zones and even hounded World Heavyweight Wrecking Machine Jack Dempsey for a boxing match. Having only read 4 of his stories and one of his novels, I cannot recommend a most masculine depiction.

-5. Jack London, adventurer, hobo and fierce political commentator lived hard, died young and immersed himself in the masculine fringe of sissy society with more authenticity than Hemmingway. For his most masculine protagonist see The Iron Heel.

-4. Louis L’Amour, did everything that London did in terms of adventure and also boxed 58 pro fights, only losing 8 and commanded a tank destroyer in WWII. Every L’Amour novel and story features a real, hard man. His best masculine depictions are in The Walking Drum, Fair Blows the Wind and To the Far Blue Mountains.

-3. Xenophon, co-commanded a division of Greek mercenaries with a savage Spartan who fought their way out of the shitiest military situation any command that size has survived. He was even adopted by the Spartans. All of his historical and practical writing focused on the self-ascension of the masculine soul.

-2. Richard Francis Burton, matchless swordsman, pro level boxer, explorer to regions previously unknown to his race, spy for the British Empire, treasure hunter, extreme womanizer, Hindu initiate, Sufi scholar, who infiltrated Herat, Mecca and Medina in service to the Crown, took a spear through the face in Somalia, beat syphilis with malaria and then beat malaria, commander of the insane Rotten Heads Irregular cavalry, unrivaled scholar of linguistics, ethnology, religion and the sword in his day and author of dozens of books, drug addict, alcoholic and unrepentant challenger of government corruption. Read my books The World is Our Widow and The Spiral Case and Stephan Jose Farmer’s To Our Scattered Bodies Go, for good treatments of Burton as a character.

-1. Ernst Junger survived the worst combat experience in human history in closer proximity and for a longer duration than any other known war hero and wrote the following books, all of which had hyper-masculine anti-collective anti-technological themes: The Forest Passage, On Pain, Storm of Steel and the novel The Glass Bees. Those are the few titles I have read.

Taken together, the list of men above could serve as a dream team of alien abductees dropped on a savage planet. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 could easily serve as the general staff of a regiment.

Impressions of Moby Dick: Herman Melville and Modern Man?s Transcendental Journey

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