Grayson Perry on the pantomime of masculinity

The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry (Allen Lane, 2016)

Part autobiography, part philosophy, this book is a personal account on a complex topic. While not intended as a nuanced study of gender politics, artist Grayson Perry makes plenty of valuable points about masculinity and patriarchy with charm and humor.

He writes that “the male role in developed countries is nearly all performance; a pantomime of masculinity.” In the pantomime tradition,  ‘He’s behind you!’ would be an appropriate all-purpose warning cry since we all know male villains like this. They are everywhere, men behaving badly who are unapologetically boastful or else surreptitiously hiding in plain sight. 

For performing men, swaggering sexism has long been considered the norm. Challenges by feminists have shown them in their true colors, helping to show how patriarchy operates in practice.  For instance, the recent #Metoo campaign has exposed the insidious sexual harassment that has been ignored or tolerated in many workplaces and institutions.

Conspicuous mindfulness

Image from zeninthecity.org’ website

The young son of a friend of mine is experimenting with meditation in order to cope with the kind of anxiety people of all ages are suffering from right now.

While applauding this practical attempt to his improve mental wellbeing, my friend also expressed some irritation. “He does his practice so conspicuously”, he said, “So you could be traveling on a bus or train with him and suddenly realize that he is physically present but mentally elsewhere.” 

The image of his son entering into a higher plain in a public space made me laugh and inspired me to write the following poem:

 I’m conspicuously mindful

I meditate on trains

My head is in a sacred place

Not earthly bound in chains

 

I’m conspicuously mindful

I ruminate on stars

My days are spent in secret zones

Not hanging out in bars

 

I’m conspicuously mindful

I worship where I please

My arms embrace eternity    

While you’re still hugging trees

 

I’m conspicuously mindful

I brood without a sound

And though I rarely make a noise

You know when I’m around

Solidarity against the bigots

Asian Dub Foundation made the inspired decision to use a brilliant anti-UKIP sketch by UK’s best stand up comedian Stewart Lee to make a danceable statement against bigotry.  

The anti-racist message, coupled with the fact that all profits go to the Kent Refugee Action Group, is directly aimed at the narrow-minded xenophobes celebrating Brexit.

Comin’ Over Here launched a courageous (and ultimately successful) bid to knock off the fetid mainstream fodder of Ed Sheeran and Mariah Carey off the coveted number one position on the January 1 ITunes & Amazon download charts.

Lee admits that, as a 52-year old man delivering his definitive rant, he felt like Alan Bennett fronting Public Enemy but can now boast to his kids that during the Covid War he heroically mimed to Anglo-Saxon poetry in an empty warehouse.

Who amongst us can say they did as much?

 

 

David Foster Wallace on videophonic stress

In these lockdown days, the escalation of video calls on WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom etc and online team meetings, means that David Foster Wallace’s inspired piece on video telephony in ‘Infinite Jest’ has become highly topical. The whole section is hilarious and here is just a taste of what he had to say:

“Callers now found they had to compose the same sort of earnest, slightly overintense listener’s expression they had to compose for in-person exchanges. Those callers who out of unconscious habit succumbed to fuguelike doodling or pants-crease-adjustment now came off looking rude, absentminded, or childishly self- absorbed. Callers who even more unconsciously blemish-scanned or nostril-explored looked up to find horrified expressions on the video-faces at the other end. All of which resulted in videophonic stress.”

The life and times of Flann O’Brien

NO LAUGHING MATTER by Anthony Cronin (First published by Grafton Books, 1989)

There are certain novels, like Robert Musil’s ‘The Man Without Qualities’, that I find too daunting to even attempt and others, such as Malcolm Lowry’s ‘Under The Volcano’ that I have tried but failed to complete.

‘At Swim-Two-Birds’ by Flann O’Brien was, until this year, gathering dust in my unfinished pile. I have Anthony Cronin’s candid and informative biography of O’Brien to thank for finally completing this short, comic but notoriously challenging novel.

Cronin skillfully puts the work into a literary and historical context while bluntly presenting the man behind it as a sad character.