Rollins's Review, January 27

On my favorite Substack columns this week

Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

Neo-Gonzo Highlights

In from the Cold

Brother

Mark Bisone

’s summation of the current state of masculinity hits highlights from The Epic of Gilgamesh before winding its way around to better models of masculinity; Henry V, Aragorn, Leonidas.

For my money, his best line is:

The answer to the riddle of our violent design is not dominance, but fellowship. Without it, we are reduced to monsters eating each other in swamps. With it, we can transform ourselves into society’s fierce protectors at a moment’s notice, bonded by something far stronger than mere flesh and blood.

The Real Reason Not to Be Racist

Daniel D

is a satirist, but not always. Sometimes he writes about culture. This is a great piece, with a great message—there’s an argument against racism that’s much, much older than “antiracism”: cultural exchange and human greatness.

Dan’s argument comes down to, more or less, “If you think Jimi Hendrix, Chris Rock, or Chinua Achebe deserve the appellation ‘n*****,’ you are a fucking idiot with no class, no taste, and no soul. And if you say that oh, a select few get some kind of pass or exception from your bullshit dismissal of their culture, I can keep throwing up names until you get tired, motherfucker.”

Black Suffering

Michael DC Bowen

is peak Neo-Gonzo, and one of the classiest guys on Substack. His take on blackness as it is used within the context of culture war is not one I could ever be qualified to write, but there is nothing in it with which I disagree; it is principled, conservative and characteristically well-thought-out.

To bring his essay into the framework of the Neo-Gonzo conceptualization of Tonic Masculinity, dancing to the beat of your own drummer even when the music is against you is Neo-Gonzo, Tonically Masculine, and intrinsically Righteous, and Michael never doesn't dance to his own beat.

What is Tonic Masculinity?

Speaking of cultural exchange,

L.P. Koch

's perspective on Tonic Masculinity is characteristically European. Luc discusses masculinity in the context of classical virtues; bravery, honesty, prudence, self-control, temperance, then contextualizes them into the modern empirical approach to biological reality before swooping upwards into a discussion of the higher realities, and finally giving a master class in the application of his theory in the realm of romantic relationships and gym bros. He's first-rate thinker who still somehow manages to write easily and accessibly.

Reverse Dominance Hierarchies

Rob Henderson

is an O.G. of Tonic Masculinity. He doesn't need a boost from me, but I'm boosting this article anyway, because it contains a ton of method for what we're all discussing. Subscribe to Rob and read him if you want a brilliant Cambridge Psychology PhD's perspective on manhood. I do.

Celebrating the Small, Select Group that Withstood All of It

Heroes and Villains

has done a reading of

John Carter

's piece "Gideon's Army." Give it a watch.

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The Best of the Rest

Chapter 2 - Men and Women are Different

Niccolo Soldo

is both a hilarious, no-fucks-given interviewer and a serious journalist whose beat spans European politics, the history of the twentieth century, and relations between the sexes. His last book, published serially on Substack, was on the history of the AIDS crisis. This entry in his book club on Louse Perry's The Case Against the Sexual Revolution is fascinating and thought-provoking. Niccolo is well worth your time.

The Wondrous World of Escape Room Design

Anne Helen Petersen

has one of the most fun posts I've read in some time up on Culture Study. It’s an interview with an escape room designer that makes me want to tour every escape room in America.

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