Lara's Wanderings

5 responses to “Book Review: Men of Iron by Howard Pyle”

1. 

   MH Thaung

   December 23, 2019

   Thanks for the recommendation – I could definitely do with something less grim than current speculative fiction seems to be 🙂

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2. 

   Rishabh

   January 14, 2022

   Enjoyed reading your review about a book I really enjoyed reading when I was a teen, and have later enjoyed reading to my kids too. A swashbuckling tale of adventure, chivalry and the importance of admirable / ethical conduct even against extremely difficult odds.

   I would like to express a slight reservation, however, to the mention you made about “This book shows what healthy relationships look like such as friendships between heterosexual boys who grown up remaining close friends, but also falling in love with a woman and getting married too.” Two things struck me as a tad unnecessary about that qualification about “heterosexual”.

   1) Young men who have a homosexual/bisexual orientation, or indeed those who are just exploring their sexuality, are also very much capable of forming meaningful, strong and indeed, platonic friendships with their peers.

   2) It has been remarked upon that the very emotionally intense bond between Myles Falworth and Francis Gascoyne would undoubtedly be termed a “bromance” in our modern lingo. Some have also inferred that there is a discreet undertone of homoeroticism in their relationship. While the latter is open for debate, it seems rather unnecessary to put a defensive qualifier on “heterosexual” in defining their bond.

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   1. 

      Lara Lee

      January 14, 2022

      Hi Rishabh! Thank you so much for your praise and your feedback. You do make two very good points. Yes, homosexual and bisexual boys can have good, deep platonic friendships, and, yes, the friendship in this book would be called a bromance in today’s culture. The point that you make that this relationship could be seen in the light of a homosexual relationship as well is specifically why I do add the qualifier of heterosexual. It isn’t that I disagree with you on this point, and I know that many homosexual men do want to find role models of their own emotions in history and literature. Unfortunately, though, this need by the homosexual community has affected heterosexual male friendships profoundly. I have heard from many men and teens how they feel held back from having deep, close male friendships because of the current pressure in society to “acknowledge” their homosexual tendencies. This is extremely unfair for society to now try to force heterosexual men into a lifestyle that is not natural to them. They too need the emotionally meaningful platonic relationships with other men that was considered only natural for all men throughout history. We, as a society, rail against toxic masculinity at the same time we force heterosexual men into that role by assuming (not you personally, but current cultural trends) that we can read a sexual identity in a person by their willingness to display the depths of their emotions. This book, by the romantic feelings of the main character towards a woman, is describing a heterosexual man. To impose homosexual tendencies on him because he has deep meaningful relationships is to project onto this book feelings and motives not within the text. I am very suspect of any literary dialogue that trie to extrapolate mean without support from the text itself. This would be true for a text that had a homosexual main character, and there are some young adult novels coming out in the last few years that do feature more explicitly homosexual main characters. I would like to think I would treat these book just as fairly in the interpretation of author’s intentions. Thank you again for such insightful and beneficial feedback!

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      1. 

         Rishabh

         January 15, 2022

         Hi Lara – Thanks for a very detailed, gracious thoughtful reply. Very valid points indeed and I do agree with you wholeheartedly on a number of them. On others, I have a bit more nuanced take/ slightly different POV which I would like to explain.

         On the points where I think we are in full agreement –

         1) I do agree that current social conditioning has indeed made it difficult for many men to openly express, or in some cases even develop, close friendships with other men. This is definitely a very big pity that societal “norms” deem such friendships to be in some way unusual. To discourage warmth and intensity in an emotional relationship is certainly senseless.

         2) Personally I do agree with you, that the bond between Myles Falworth and Francis Gascoyne in this book, qualifies as an intensely warm and brotherly friendship. Like we concurred, this would certainly qualify as what would be called a bromance in today’s culture/ terminology and personally, I would not read homoerotic elements into it.

         However, I am also conscious of the fact that my reading as such is also conditioned to a certain degree by my identity as a heteronormative male. A person with a different orientation might interpret it differently, and that to me is perfectly fine. Interpretations are subjective at the end of the day.

         This brings to me to the points where I have slight difference of opinion from yours – or perhaps I should not term it a difference of opinion, just a difference in nuance.

         1) When you talk about feelings and motives which are not in the text, or extrapolate meaning without support from the text itself – I would submit that this again comes back to a subjective interpretation, which we have no way of conclusively proving, as we are not precisely privy to what the author intended there/ was trying to imply. Two examples I would like to make here – one is contemporary, the other is historical.

         JK Rowling, after she completed the Harry Potter series, made several public statements clarifying/ adding background or detail to the characters made famous in her books. In particular, her revelations of what she had intended about Dumbledore, and his equation with Grindenwald became quite a bit controversial. To this day, there are fervent fans of her books who argue on either side – one, affirming that on further reading, those hints certainly were there in the books all along; and others, arguing that there is no such signalling, and that Rowling is merely trying to be politically correct here with her later revelations. Personally, I fall into the former category in this particular debate.

         The historical example I would like to insert here is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s portrayal of some elements of Sherlock Holmes’ character. It has been debated by several scholars that Sir Doyle’s characterization of how Holmes viewed women in general, could well be qualified as asexual / closeted homosexual. Apparently, Conan Doyle was very well acquainted with and had a high regard for Oscar Wilde in real life. It has been debated whether these aspects of Holmes’ character were “inspired” by the traits which Conan Doyle saw in Wilde. There are others who vehemently disagree with this. Certainly, there is no way of knowing for certain, now that the relevant people are all dead.

         2) Going back to the discussion on Men of Iron – To my mind, the fact that it includes romantic feelings of the main character towards a woman, may not by itself completely preclude interpretations of a homoerotic element in a separate relationship the main character has. These things are not so watertight and clearly mutually exclusive. There is certainly a possibility for overlap – and in fact, there are plenty of actual, well attested historical examples of the similar period this novel is set in, of personages being happily married and raising families while also having had same-sex relationships going beyond friendship.

         So I guess what I saying here is – while I broadly agree with your take, I can certainly see the case for a differing interpretation.

         Thanks again for a very engrossing and fruitful discussion on a book which I’d thoroughly enjoyed reading. Cheers.

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      2. 

         Lara Lee

         January 15, 2022

         Your response is right on target! I do agree with the points you make. In reading a story, we can get meaning in three different ways: the author, the text, and the reader. Sometimes the author will write something with one intention and then in a sequel book read into their first book a different interpretation. In The Hobbit, there is no hint that the ring Bilbo finds is “the one ring” that it becomes in the Lord of the Rings. So when I read and review a story, I try (successfully or unsuccessfully) to derive my interpretation from the story as the author wrote it. This is really all the information I have access to in most cases. I also agree that my interpretation of a story will be biased by my own world view and experiences. History and humanity is complicated and diverse with room for many different experiences. There is no getting around that except to acknowledge the bias and be willing to listen to other points of view. Thank you again for a great discussion!

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