/lit/ - Literature

Sun and Steel by Mishima.

>t-tfw n-no alpha s-senpai to impress with m-my risk taking: the book

start with the greeks. don't fall for this modern help bullshit in disguise.
Read evola if you need a real discussion of what manly life preserving energy is manifested as. This pseudo evolutionary psychology is fucking laughable.

The second sex

If you need a book to tell you how to be a man you've already failed.

>>6736321
You tell me what it is then.

Check out the Psychology of Gender, its not specifically on masculinity but I think it would be helpful in the greater context of other books specifically on gender

>>6736339
It's not a communicable idea because there is no imperative or ideal inherent in the male sex.

You manufacture your own ideals in the end, and you either reach them, or fail to live up to them.

Hell, it works for women too.

But anyway, my essential point is that you can read books on the subject, but if you become overly wrapped up in somebody elses idea of what it is to be a man, then you're just a croney.

>>6736253
Please don't read this, it was written by a closet homosexual and is a favorite of /pol/ and /r9k/. I would also guess r/theredpill loves it, too.

>>6736269
Kek.

The way of men is an absolute trash-tier book. Even among self-help books it's trash.

>>6736496
He's an open homosexual. He even wrote a book on manly man-love, Androphilia.

>>6736253
Fiction or Non fiction?

If fiction

>The Old Man and the Sea/The Sun Also Rises- I think these two cover the dual strength and insecurity themes that Hemingway attributed to men.
>Blood Meridian- Violence is tied to masculinity
>The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea/Confessions of a Mask- To see how obsession with the masculine ideal detracts from it's practice

>>6736253
>Any good book on masculinity
Only in fiction, and only in pulp.

>>6736496
>closet homosexual
lel you're a retard. if only he was closeted, then his obsession with blood rites would be somewhat excusable.

>>6736568
Essay but fiction is good too.
I've already read some Sagas about it.

>>6736563
>>6736579
My point is, his obsession with masculinity (right down to his ridiculous sailor tattoos and dressing like a character from Grease) probably stems from his sexuality. Perhaps his father disliked homosexuals, and this lack of acceptance causes him to lash out at femininity. Just look at Mishima, why do you think he was obsessed with strength and tradition?

>>6736375
Lol shut up

lol get a load of all the beta faggots itt.

way of men is legit. the book's thesis is that men have always been the front line of tribal defense since prehistoric times. you can be a good man, or you can be good AT being a man. the men revered throughout history have been both.

only limpwristed hipster faggots would think the reality of a hostile, unforgiving world that's a complete mystery to you a kilometer past your village is "pseudo evolutionary psychology" bs.

read Aurelius' Meditations, Epictetus' Discourses and Handbook, as well as the Iliad. that's how you get in touch with your masculinity.

>>6736841
Don't think most people in this thread live jn villages surrounded by mystery mate. Quit chasing masculinity; it's decided by the perceiver anyway, and spending your time trying to prove to people you're manly generally means you're just a limp wristed faggot who haplens to eat broccoli and have cold showers.

>>6737213
Searching means not having.

>>6737213

mediocrity: the post

>>6736841
Posturing is a classic sign of insecurity, no wonder you feel you need a book to help you to "be a man".

>>6737223
No it doesn't lol
>>6737252
You're just mad that I just flipped your world UPSiDown 👌👌👌

>>6736563
he's literally too conflicted to call himself gay.

also, have you ever seen him speak? his mannerisms and intonation are those of a butch lesbian imitating her idea of masculinity. it's pretty hilarious.

>>6736375
this is the truth

>>6736841
when will you go live in the woods with your gay warrior band of brothers?

or do you just like edgy rhetoric?

>>6736841
>get in touch with your masculinity.
This is quite possibly the most effeminate phrase and kind of thinking there is.

>>6736375
I just looked up some research documents, scientists have discovered that you can take points out of books that align with your way of thinking and improve your life and give you perspectives you may have missed.

Holy shit!

Literally all it means to be a man, a real man, is to always try to do what's in front of you, but knowing when you're beat and being unashamed to ask for help. The same for being a woman. This kind of thing isn't hard

the Norse Eddas

>The foolish man thinks he will live forever if he keeps away from fighting; but old age won’t grant him a truce, even if the spears do

>>6736253
The Way of Men is a shitty self help book. I've always been interested in /lit/ masculinity and trust me, there is very little out there of worth. Iron John is shit, Manhood in America is shit, What is a Man is shit.

Fiction is better. Reading Sea Wolf or Tarzan or The Crossing paints a better picture of masculinity than all the academic/pop-psych stuff.

Emerson or Aurelius for philosophy.

>>6736841
I feel you, anon. But Way of Men is still a bad book.

Meditations + training for a competitive event are the two best things a man can do in these Sensitive times.

>>6736253
>Any good book on masculinity, /lit/?
No.

Beowulf
The Eddas
The Iliad and The Odyssey

>>6738542

Pierre Bourdieu - Male Domination

>muh gender performativity

pls no

>>6738629
>muh gender is a social construct

>>6738629
OP here, fucking faggot.

>>6736253
nice book

>proud genderfucked delta males coming out of the woodwork on an anime forum to deride masculinity
>in a world where computer programs on portable devices can get you laid within 2 hours, if you have visible abs and act like you're on PCP
>"m-masculinity is dead! there's no point in being virile! i know, because i'm spending my evenings promoting effeminacy on an internet message board!"

>>6736253
It's about being strong, following your impulses and convictions, yet being empathetic, loving and nurturing.

Start with The Confessions.

>>6738890
Who's the author?

>>6738973
St. Augustine of Hippo.

>>6738861
Reminder that you're on 4chan too, you epsilon male.

>>6738861
>implying casual sex isn't a way for whores to get pregnant and free money from their cuck 1-night standers

>>6738861
sexual obsession is more of a feminine than masculine characteristic tbh
as for all the books itt i can't say because i would never bother reading them

>>6737759
agreed
masculinity isn't something you 'get in touch with' unless you're a female

Avoid all Christian writers. The Old Testament is masculine, but the New is for twerpy little dweebs. Christianity is a religion for women and effeminate males. There are some masculine Muslim writers, though.

>>6739001
God, is it even possible to not be a cuck according to you people? Having sex with random girls that you'll never see again is extremely alpha. Or ancestors would have done the same any time they went off to war, just maybe without a little less consent.

>>6739018
>being virtuous is for twerpy little dweebs

All you people in this thread are beta CUCKS, masculinity should be something you really really want. I recommend OP reads books like pic related, but maybe watch some homoerotic male on male domination fetishism if you REALLY wanna be an alpha in this CUCK times.

>>6739076
being compasionated is.

>>6739603
Spoken like a true weak man.

>>6739609

*tips crown of thorns*

>>6736253
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

>>6739624
What you're experiencing is fear, but that's alright. I'll pray for you.

>>6739638

No, I think I'm experiencing sanity. You on the other hand probably experience more fear than I ever could. Then again, you probably also experience pessimism, nihilism, jealousy and hatred. You could get rid of these by throwing away your 'perfect truths' and thinking for yourself for once, but considering what you posted before, you won't and probably never will

Watch some PUA vids OP; picking up paralytic women and working on your game is a solid way to show those bullies that you're not a beta

The Odysseus chapter in Dialectics of Enlightenment is pretty insightful on masculinity, so are some passages in the Minima Moralia.

>>6736253
Iron John by Robert Bly

>>6739711
>A certain gesture of manliness, be it one’s own, be it that of another, deserves mistrust. It expresses independence, surety of the power of command, the silent conspiracy of all men with each other. Earlier one anxiously called it, awe-struck, the whims of lords, today it is democratized and is played by film heroes for the benefit of the lowliest bank employee. The archetype for this is the good looking man in a smoking jacket, who enters his bachelor’s pad alone one late evening, turns on the indirect lighting, and pours a whisky-soda: the carefully recorded fizzing of the mineral water says what the arrogant mouth does not; that he despises whatever does not smell of smoke, leather and shaving cream – above all, women, and for that very reason they swarm all over him. For him, the pinnacle of human relations is the club, the site of a respect founded on a considerate inconsiderateness. The joys of such men, or on the contrary of their models, which hardly anyone alive really matches, for human beings are always better than their culture, have altogether something of the latent act of violence. By all appearances, this is threatened to others, though he has long since had no need to do so, sprawled on his easy chair. In truth it is past violence against himself. If all pleasure sublates earlier displeasure, then here displeasure is raised – as pride in bearing it – unmediated, untransformed, stereotypically into pleasure: unlike wine, every glass of whiskey, every puff on the cigar still recalls the reluctance, which it must have cost the organism, to accustom itself to such powerful stimuli. According to their own constitution, the he-men would thus be what they are usually presented as in film scripts, masochists. The lie is concealed in their sadism, and it is as liars that they truly become sadists, agents of repression. That lie is nothing other than repressed homosexuality, which emerges as the only approved form of what is heterosexual. In Oxford one can differentiate between two kinds of students: the tough guys and the intellectuals; the latter are equated almost without further ado to those who are effeminate. There is a great deal of evidence that the ruling class polarizes itself according to these extremes on the road to dictatorship. Such disintegration is the secret of integration, of happiness of unity in the absence of happiness. In the end the tough guys are the ones who are really effeminate, who require the weaklings as their victims, in order not to admit that they are like them. Totality and homosexuality belong together. While the subject falls apart, it negates everything which is not of its own kind. The opposites of the strong man and the compliant youth fuse into a social order, which unreservedly asserts the masculine principle of domination. By making everyone, without exception – even presumed subjects – into its objects, it recoils into total passivity, virtually into what is feminine.

>people ITT unironically using the expression "real man"
Has there ever been a worst no true scotman than the "real man"? Or "maning up"?

By opposition to that, the "fake" man? The "inauthentic man"?

>>6739753
>By opposition to that, the "fake" man? The "inauthentic man"?
That would be too obvious, so they'll say, the cuck, the faggot, the beta, the mangina, etc etc.

highly recommended

>>6739753

It's not an NTS you cuck, it's an ideal for men to live up to

>>6737213
>he doesn't like broccoli
what's wrong with you

>>6736253
that book is literally "n-no homo"
you should read a better book

>>6739656
Well spoken, gentleman. I tip my fedora to you.

>>6736253
Why not read Stirner and act exactly how you want to act, without measuring your behaviour by all sorts of arbitrarily defined spectrums of ideology?

>>6736253
Not a book but I enjoyed henry Rollins spoken word performamces

>>6740022

>>6739869
Spinach > broccoli