Sunday, February 20, 2011

Childless man as hero

The three fundamentals of masculinity --fathering, fighting and feeding-- do admit of exceptions, by way of either metaphor or virtuosity. By metaphor I mean the translation of these three very concrete activities into three traits of character in post-hunter/gatherer societies: power, courage and skill. By virtuosity I mean that if a male shows outstanding achievement in one or two of the three, he will be accounted a man even if he is lacking in fulfilling the whole.



Beowulf is a consummate warrior and a successful king, but he never marries and he dies childless.
Yet he is undoubtedly a hero, an archetypal man in a combination of concreteness, metaphor and virtuosity.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are you driving at here? You're implying that we should stop with all this respecting Immanuel Kant?
jpm

OreamnosAmericanus said...

Once again, jpm, you pierce the veil of ignorance!

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