We Like To Shoot Stuff… We’re Not Idiot Redneck Assholes

Jim here. Ever since I was a little boy my father took me fishing. One of my oldest memories is either fishing for largemouth bass and sunfish in the pond behind my house, for smallmouths in a gigantic childhood pond at a friend’s house, or maybe it was fishing for mackerel, cod and pollock off of the coast of Waterford, Ireland when I was about four…Anyways, I have been a fisherman since I could walk. When I was a little older, it developed into an obsession. When I saw a body of water I would immediately assess how many fish, of what species it would contain, and how best to go about extracting them from the water.

The Last of the Mohicans: The Romantic Structure of Drama…It’s Just Compelling

Yes, last of the Mohicans is a traditional narrative. Some would say the very structure of narrative is sexist. There is always a man at the centre who is a hero. Women are relegated to positions as sexual objects, often the bad guy is not white. In this sense drama can look like a negotiation of different bodily value in a culture. Narratives are accused of being patriarchal because they privilege the male perspective. In my experience, this has been used as an excuse to gloss over what I feel are a lot of brilliant pieces of literature.

Manly Man #1 – Dioxippus: Invincible Greek Warrior

Some anthropologists believe that the fundamental unifying quality of men is their knack for warfare. This is what gave them their almost universal status as the dominant sex across many civic and agrarian societies. This is a bittersweet reality. I for one, see it as empowering. The traditional tendency for warfare is to use violence in a way that minimizes risk and damage for ones own society. Sun Tsu and Machiavelli would describe this as knowing when to, and when not to engage in combat.