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A Book About A Particular Life Shift
Robert Bly’s ‘Iron John: A Book About Men’ is more about maturing
Authors should have an ideal audience in mind. Any set of words will appeal to some people and exclude or push away others, and it is good to be aware of this process and to make intentional choices. Narrowly defining an audience can be done ethically, as long as the author has a comprehensible reason for excluding some people and explains it constructively. For example, if you write a book with graphic descriptions of violence, you might find a way to alert readers who don’t want or need this so they can choose to avoid it. Not everyone has to like your book, and you can kindly help them make their own choices. You can care about the wellbeing of people who aren’t your “customers” or “fans.”
I am thinking about this because I recently revisited Iron John: A Book About Men, Robert Bly’s 1990 opus that spent over a year on the New York Times Best Seller list. The book retells the story of “Iron John” or “Iron Hans,” which was recorded about 1820 by the Brothers Grimm. It’s about a young prince who releases a Wild Man from a cage against the wishes of his parents and community. The prince and the Wild Man run away together. The prince seeks his destiny in the world, occasionally calls the Wild Man from the forest for mentorship, and eventually…
