Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk

by Edward Carpenter

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Sexuality, Nonfiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist.

A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]

As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.

A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.

Other authors on Goodreads are also named Edward Carpenter.

Reviews

[Carl Svensson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to grab random old books at the library which don't look like they've been checked out for the last 20 years. It's enriching to get some insight into what the forgotten words of the past had to say even if I may find them somewhat outdated or unfounded. Then sometimes the book is like this one which make you wonder why people are so behind it, even those who would suspect they are ahead of it.

[Hooper Bring]

“Draws a parallel between the androgynous shaman found in some non-western cultures and the modern forward-looking homosexual.”

[Ilenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Men who don't love fight or hunt and Women who refuse to spent their life in the house, discover necesserily other interests and occupations in order to vent their energies. And so these intermediate types become the beginners of new activities as life's scholars, magician, wizards, art teacher, prophets, medicine men, founder of science and literature. The fusion of feminine and masculine temperament produces people whose perception are so subtle, complex and rapid to be defined genial.

[Lee Wind · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating OLD OLD book about homosexuality - why are their gay people? what evolutionary purpose is served by having some people attach emotionally to others of the same gender?
soooo interesting!