What do you think?
Rate this book


114 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
I didn't really understand why masculinity meant having to ignore pain. I saw it exercised by men and tried to do the same when it came my turn. I understood that it was not a rejection of the body but the patience to endure it, a load on a beast of burden that is too heavy at times and can even kill, but up to that point you don't complain. The body was a patient beast that men tamed with pride. The body was ruled by the unyielding codes of southern virility.
The spines of the sea urchin that boys learned to pull out by themselves were left in by fishermen to be slowly absorbed beneath the skin. I was learning from them how to detach oneself from pain.