Hammering Hot Iron

This is a very good book - if you are lucky enough to find a copy and wish to read and think about real questions this book may be for you. I feel very grateful to the author for this work.Charles Upton challenges Robert Bly's interpretation of the Grimm's fairly tale Iron John, an interpretation which had a strong impact on a generation of confused men looking for answers about what it means to be a man. Upton's critique draws from the perspective of the traditionalist school of writers - notably the French metaphysician Rene Guenon - and presents a profound alternative reading of the fairy tale in which the question of what it means to be a man is eclipsed by the greater question of what it means to be truly human. Upton writes: '...Bly states that his intention is to talk about male initiation alone. My intention is to try and situate this initiation in its greater context, that of the attainment of the fully human state.'