新理念大學(xué)英語(yǔ)三級(jí)閱讀教程unit1

1、本文節(jié)選自Iron John: A Book About MenIron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly. Copyright 1994, 2004 by Robert BlyWe talk a great deal about "the American man," as if there were some constant quality that remained stable over decades, or even within a single decade.The men who live today have v

2、eered far away from the Saturnian, old-man-minded farmer, proud of his introversion, who arrived in New England in 1630, willing to sit through three services in an unheated church. In the South, an expansive, motherbound cavalier developed, and neither of these two "American men" resemble

3、d the greedy railroad entrepreneur that later developed in the Northeast, nor the reckless I-will-do-without culture settlers of the West. 【這一段里作者提到哪幾種美國(guó)人？他提這些的目的是什么？】Even in our own era the agreed-on model has changed dramatically. During the fifties, for example, an American character appeared wit

4、h some consistency that became a model of manhood adopted by many men: the Fifties male.He got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children, and admired discipline. Reagan is a sort of mummified version of this dogged type. This sort of man didn't see women's souls wel

5、l, but he appreciated their bodies; and his view of culture and America's part in it was boyish and optimistic. Many of his qualities were strong and positive, but underneath the charm and bluff there was, and there remains, much isolation, deprivation, and passivity. Unless he has an enemy, he

6、isn't sure that he is alive. The Fifties man was supposed to like football, be aggressive, stick up for the United States, never cry, and always provide. But receptive space or intimate space was missing in this image of a man. The personality lacked some sense of flow. The psyche lacked compass

7、ion in a way that encouraged the unbalanced pursuit of the Vietnam war, just as, later, the lack of what we might call "garden" space inside Reagan's head led to his callousness and brutality toward the powerless in El Salvador 【查工具書：是怎么回事？】, toward old people here, the unemployed, sch

8、oolchildren, and poor people in general. 【Fifties Male有什么特點(diǎn)？】The Fifties male had a clear vision of what a man was, and what male responsibilities were, but the isolation and one-sidedness of his vision were dangerous.【提問(wèn)：作者對(duì)五十年代男性是什么態(tài)度？你覺得他有褒貶嗎？】During the sixties, another sort of man appeared. The

9、 waste and violence of the Vietnam 【查工具書：了解越戰(zhàn)、反越戰(zhàn)、戰(zhàn)后的反思】war made men question whether they knew what an adult male really was. If manhood meant Vietnam, did they want any part of it? Meanwhile, the feminist movement encouraged men to actually look at women, forcing them to become conscious of concer

10、ns and sufferings that the Fifties male labored to avoid. As men began to examine women's history and women's sensibility, some men began to notice what was called their feminine side and pay attention to it. This process continues to this day, and I would say that most contemporary men are

11、involved in it in some way.There's something wonderful about this development-I mean the practice of men welcoming their own "feminine" consciousness and nurturing it-this is important-and yet I have the sense that there is something wrong. The male in the past twenty years has become

12、more thoughtful, more gentle. But by this process he has not become more free. He's a nice boy who pleases not only his mother but also the young woman he is living with. 【提問(wèn)：這句話怎么理解？作者這么說(shuō)的意圖是什么？作者對(duì)Soft Male的態(tài)度是什么？】In the seventies I began to see all over the country a phenomenon that we might c

13、all the "soft male." Sometimes even today when I look out at an audience, perhaps half the young males are what I'd call soft. They're lovely, valuable people-I like them-they're not interested in harming the earth or starting wars. There's a gentle attitude toward life in

14、their whole being and style of living. But many of these men are not happy. You quickly notice the lack of energy in them. They are life-preserving but not exactly life-giving. Ironically, you often see these men with strong women who positively radiate energyHere we have a finely tuned young man, e

15、cologically superior to his father, sympathetic to the whole harmony of the universe, yet he himself has little vitality to offer.The strong or life-giving women who graduated from the sixties, so to speak, or who have inherited an older spirit, played an important part in producing this life-preser

16、ving, but not life-giving, man. 【提問(wèn)：你同意作者這個(gè)說(shuō)法嗎？為什么？作者為這個(gè)論點(diǎn)給出理由沒有？】I remember a bumper sticker during the sixties that read "WOMEN SAY YES TO MEN WHO SAY NO." We recognize that it took a lot of courage to resist the draft, go to jail, or move to Canada, just as it took courage to accept the

17、 draft and go to Vietnam. But the women of twenty years ago were definitely saying that they preferred the softer receptive male. 【這一段有點(diǎn)繞，看明白它的邏輯沒有？】 So the development of men was affected a little in this preference. Nonreceptive maleness was equated with violence, and receptive maleness was reward

18、ed.Some energetic women, at that time and now in the nineties, chose and still choose soft men to be their lovers and, in a way, perhaps, to be their sons 【這話怎怎么理解？】. The new distribution of "yang" energy among couples didn't happen by accident. Young men for various reasons wanted the

19、ir harder women, and women began to desire softer men. It seemed like a nice arrangement for a while, but we've lived with it long enough now to see that it isn't working out.I first learned about the anguish of "soft" men when they told their stories in early men's gatherings.

20、 In 1980, the Lama Community in New Mexico asked me to teach a conference for men only, their first, in which about forty men participated. Each day we concentrated on one Greek god and one old story, and then late in the afternoons we gathered to talk. When the younger men spoke it was not uncommon

21、 for them to be weeping within five minutes. The amount of grief and anguish in these younger men was astounding to me.Part of their grief rose out of remoteness from their fathers, which they felt keenly, but partly, too, grief flowed from trouble in their marriages or relationships. They had learn

22、ed to be receptive, but receptivity wasn't enough to carry their marriages through troubled times. In every relationship something fierce is needed once in a while: both the man and the woman need to have it. But at the point when it was needed, often the young man came up short. He was nurturin

23、g, but something else was required-for his relationship, and for his life.The "soft" male was able to say, "I can feel your pain, and I consider your life as important as mine, and I will take care of you and comfort you." But he could not say what he wanted, and stick by it. Resolve of that kind was a different matter.In The Odyssey, Hermes instructs Odysseus that when he approaches Circe, who stands for a certain kind of matriarchal energy, he is to lift or show his sword. 【查：這是什么典故？】In these ea