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Rudyard Kipling, If
Sorry to any classical literary types out there, but I hate this poem. While it has the ring of “manly virtue” (an expression I’m already wary of), it’s always struck me as overly stoic. While Kipling’s virtues might make me impervious to anything like pain or regret, and promises to protect me from ever being vulnerable to anyone, it actually precludes the kind of enjoyment of life which can only be had by not always insisting to be in control. Even worse, though, it precludes actually receiving or giving love, for love requires vulnerability and deference.
In any case, I like Jennifer Michael Hecht’s tongue-in-cheek review of it.
“…And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
“Well, in truth, what you’ll be is an overly defended, tightly wound Victorian guy…. What I want to point out is that all sorts of unnecessary pain is built into this motivational idea. “First of all, what’s all this about ‘winnings’? As we begin the last two stanzas of this famous poem, we are given the world as a high-stakes gambling game. Then, having lost everything, you are encouraged to ‘never breathe a word about your loss.’ Not good advice. “Next, you are challenged to ‘force your heart and nerve and sinew’ (force is a hard directive for such fleshly tissue). Look how “Will’ (capitalized, alone along with “Man’!) is to be encouraged above all else, even to the point of wearing out its own heart. “The next four lines all say that people are the same, that we should respect them all equally and not be vulnerable to any of them, ever. Also not great advice. “What of the ‘unforgiving minute’? Wouldn’t it be better to ask forgiveness from those family and friends you don’t let in rather than proffering that power to a sixtieth of an hour? And must I run?“…. And what’s this about “yours is the Earth’? Why do I want a whole planet? What about everyone else on it? “Then, of course, there’s that final triumph: masculine adulthood. “On all counts [Kipling’s] ideals are open to debate.”— Jennifer Michael Hecht, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong (Harper Collins, 2007), 48-9.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzm2f8uUHg1qb0wfxo1_500.jpg)
Rudyard Kipling, If
Sorry to any classical literary types out there, but I hate this poem. While it has the ring of “manly virtue” (an expression I’m already wary of), it’s always struck me as overly stoic. While Kipling’s virtues might make me impervious to anything like pain or regret, and promises to protect me from ever being vulnerable to anyone, it actually precludes the kind of enjoyment of life which can only be had by not always insisting to be in control. Even worse, though, it precludes actually receiving or giving love, for love requires vulnerability and deference.
In any case, I like Jennifer Michael Hecht’s tongue-in-cheek review of it.
“…And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
“Well, in truth, what you’ll be is an overly defended, tightly wound Victorian guy…. What I want to point out is that all sorts of unnecessary pain is built into this motivational idea.
“First of all, what’s all this about ‘winnings’? As we begin the last two stanzas of this famous poem, we are given the world as a high-stakes gambling game. Then, having lost everything, you are encouraged to ‘never breathe a word about your loss.’ Not good advice.
“Next, you are challenged to ‘force your heart and nerve and sinew’ (force is a hard directive for such fleshly tissue). Look how “Will’ (capitalized, alone along with “Man’!) is to be encouraged above all else, even to the point of wearing out its own heart.
“The next four lines all say that people are the same, that we should respect them all equally and not be vulnerable to any of them, ever. Also not great advice.
“What of the ‘unforgiving minute’? Wouldn’t it be better to ask forgiveness from those family and friends you don’t let in rather than proffering that power to a sixtieth of an hour? And must I run?
“…. And what’s this about “yours is the Earth’? Why do I want a whole planet? What about everyone else on it?
“Then, of course, there’s that final triumph: masculine adulthood.
“On all counts [Kipling’s] ideals are open to debate.”
— Jennifer Michael Hecht, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong (Harper Collins, 2007), 48-9.
