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lucasgong 's review for:
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
by Doug Gillette, Robert Moore
King, Warrior, Magician, Love has a compelling premise: it uses the eponymous Jungian archetypes developed by the authors to explore facets of masculinity. This framework examines both the positive traits of the masculine archetypes as well as the negatives -- which the authors condemned decades before the term "toxic masculinity" would enter the zeitgeist -- and explores how to embody the mature traits and their positive aspects "in their fullness".
However, the text suffers massively from poor execution. Apocryphal anecdotes, historical and mythical examples, and pop culture references are interspersed randomly throughout and usually only addressed superficially. I would have liked a more systematic approach that explored each example more deeply in its historical and cultural context and juxtaposed the manifestations of the masculine archetypes against the ideals the authors assert. Instead, we get a meandering commentary that makes conclusions that are at best poorly supported or at worst completely contrived.
Ultimately, I would recommend that anyone interested in this topic should read a summary of this book. The ideas are worth exploring, and there are many summaries available online that do a good job of organizing content concisely. There is little value to be gained by reading the rest of the content in the book itself.
However, the text suffers massively from poor execution. Apocryphal anecdotes, historical and mythical examples, and pop culture references are interspersed randomly throughout and usually only addressed superficially. I would have liked a more systematic approach that explored each example more deeply in its historical and cultural context and juxtaposed the manifestations of the masculine archetypes against the ideals the authors assert. Instead, we get a meandering commentary that makes conclusions that are at best poorly supported or at worst completely contrived.
Ultimately, I would recommend that anyone interested in this topic should read a summary of this book. The ideas are worth exploring, and there are many summaries available online that do a good job of organizing content concisely. There is little value to be gained by reading the rest of the content in the book itself.