Sam Lipsyte on Philip Roth and toxic masculinity:
"Second, the conventional wisdom of a society is always shifting (like the aforementioned change in some people’s view of sexual liberation), and we need our writers to keep chronicling the transformations. Mr. Roth’s main theme was not so much sex but the idea of the individual in America, the immigrant or striver, the kid straining against the confines of the kind of appropriate behavior elders consider linked to success. A possibly immature but exuberant carnality was rebellion against conformity."
Read the article here.
We all know that praise is often just another stab in the back with a different kind of knife.
And we all know now what we should say when we meet a stranger: "Sir, are you ready for possibly immature but exuberant carnality? It's nothing personal, just rebellion against conformity."