“Iron John” is of course the Robert Bly book on manhood based around the fairy tale of the same name.
I’m attempted to read it through a few times without success; I think it’s laughable garbage. However, a lot of people just absolutely swear by it, so I may be blind to something here. Has anyone read it and would like to comment on it?
Good luck to you. I actually couldn’t get through the thing–pretty much for the reasons you named. I think Bly had some good ideas, and certainly that whole “reclaiming the full spectrum of masculinity” did a lot of good for a lot of people, but I think he could have presented it better. Make the story a theme, and tone down how much it appears in the book, is the big one I remember.
It’s been awhile, but I think I also strongly disagreed with some his theory on what masculinity is. (Bearing in mind that I’m female, and thus have an outsider’s perspective.)