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<\/a>First up is Michael Chabon\u2019s<\/a> very recent Manhood for Amateurs<\/em><\/a> (HarperCollins, 2009).\u00a0 Chabon is a Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist, an essayist, husband to author Ayelet Waldman, and father of four.\u00a0 He makes his home in Berkeley, California.<\/p>\nThe text is a collection of Chabon\u2019s essays on aspects of manhood culled from publications like GQ, <\/em>the New York Times<\/em>, and Details<\/em>.\u00a0 Essentially, Chabon traverses the confusing landscape of modern manhood.\u00a0 He writes from a postmodern perspective, seeking to find the irony, beauty, and hypocrisy of men.\u00a0 He is a spiritual person; he attends a Jewish synagogue, and this works its way through his essays.<\/p>\n Like other bestselling contemporary male authors (Bill Simmons, for example), Chabon grounds his exploration of his subject in popular culture.\u00a0 His childhood included much engagement with comics, fantasy tv shows, and the like, and so these things pop up repeatedly in Manhood for Amateurs<\/em><\/a> (currently around #400 on Amazon).\u00a0 I do not have as much affection for this sort of culture and so did not connect with these stories as others might.<\/p>\n Chabon is an excellent prose stylist.\u00a0 He occasionally pushes his language just a word or phrase too far, but in general, his writing is inventive and alive.\u00a0 In terms of his views on manhood, they are, unsurprisingly, quite different from my own.\u00a0 Chabon writes at one point of his decision to carry a \u201cmurse\u201d, a chapter that made my stomach turn, as did Chabon\u2019s approach to a number of other subjects, including sex.<\/p>\n Manhood for Amateurs<\/em><\/a> is richly written and insightful.\u00a0 I would not recommend it to young readers or those with sensitive consciences.\u00a0 It is an eloquent statement of a postmodern take on manhood.\u00a0 Of course, in the end, the book struggles to find its footing on what exactly manhood is.\u00a0 Chabon regularly notes that he eschews adherence to a masculine code, though this does not prevent him from offering his own ideas on the subject.<\/p>\n As a Christian, one is left awed by the writer\u2019s gift, moved by a number of his stories (\u201cThe Hand on My Shoulder\u201d is haunting), and unconvinced by his conception of manhood.\u00a0 If Chabon gets a number of things right about manhood (including its uncertainty, its beauty, and its propensity for fiery self-destruction), he has lost sight of a sure foundation for manliness, the quarry which only the Word of God can provide.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, this book is worth reading, for those who can handle its mature content.\u00a0 It walks through many of life\u2019s most powerful experiences, illuminates the pain of a broken world, and shows how confused the modern world is about manhood.\u00a0 It is beautifully written and would be a help to the writing Christian community, the prose of which trends toward dull mawkishness on the one hand and iron didacticism on the other.<\/p>\n His book is quite convincing.\u00a0 Crawford argues that today\u2019s educational zeitgeist<\/em> militates against shop class and manual work, preferring instead the attainment of a college degree which may or may not actually equip students for meaningful work.\u00a0 Crawford further argues that the modern workplace offers many workers (particularly middle-management) the opportunity not to perform important duties, but to manage workers\u2019 moods.\u00a0 Drawing, quite humorously, on his experience in a DC thinktank, Crawford makes a compelling case for his point.<\/p>\n The author\u2019s background skews toward Stoicism.\u00a0 As a Christian, one is left wondering whether Crawford\u2019s view of the value of work possesses a sure base.\u00a0 The Christian doctrine of the image of God, which imbues all of our activity with meaning, coupled with the Christian doctrine of the necessary glorification of God in all of life and work, seems a much stronger ground upon which to build our conception of labor.<\/p>\n But readers should not miss Crawford\u2019s book (currently around #420 on Amazon).\u00a0 It has reshaped my understanding of the importance of physical work, trades labor, and the modern workplace.\u00a0 In short, I came away from it convinced of the need to both tackle manual challenges and to support tradesmen.\u00a0 Shop-Class as Soulcraft<\/a> <\/em>shows that there is great intelligence and value in work done with one\u2019s hands.\u00a0 There is also a great need for skilled craftsmen, though few of us recognize this as we buzz through the technocracy.<\/p>\n We are simply wrong to think of craftsmen as less intellectually able than knowledge workers.\u00a0 We should not send a significant portion of our students to college to earn degrees that will not benefit or fulfill them.\u00a0 Furthermore, the modern workplace, replete with speech codes, is no promised land for young minds.\u00a0 It is, as Crawford shows, filled with passive-aggressive signaling proceeding out of an unsure psychological climate in which no one is sure of their standing, and thus everyone says just enough to cover their tracks and rarely enough to implicate themselves should things go wrong.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/292\/2009\/11\/crawfordsoulcraft.jpg\")
<\/a>Matthew Crawford\u2019s Shop Class as Soulcraft<\/em><\/a> (Penguin, 2009) is another example of shining prose, good ideas, and the ultimate lack of a philosophical\/theological foundation for its ideas.\u00a0 Crawford<\/a>, a PhD graduate of the University of Chicago and motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Virginia, writes to point out that modern society has devalued the trades, the manual occupations that allow people to get their hands dirty and build things.<\/p>\n