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Rakes, Rage, & the Rationality Racket: Jane Austen, High-T, & the Long Arc of Bad Decisions
Contrary to Edward McLaren, literary Regency marriage patterns, stand-up comedy, and Homeric epic all agree: marrying Colonel Brandon is in no way a tragedy or “settling”, but rather adulting. & the real emotional sex has always been the one with the bigger army…
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A very nice catch from the very sharp Edward McLaren, on the English language’s premier novelist, Jane Austen, and on a persistent ambiguity throughout her work, as her female characters make their choices and marry Darcies, Bingleys, Wickhams, Brandons, Collinses, and Willoughbies:
Edward McLaren: Jane Austen’s Rake Problem <https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/jane-austens-rake-problem>: ‘In Sense and Sensibility Marianne, heartbroken over Willoughby… marries Colonel Brandon, who is “On the Wrong Side of Five-and-Thirty”, whereas she is only seventeen…. Willoughby has impregnated Colonel Brandon’s ward… is… engaged to a Miss Grey… [with] £50,000.… Willoughby… [admits] he did fall in love with Marianne…. Notably, Mrs. Dashwood says: “I am very sure myself, that had Willoughby turned out as really amiable…Marianne would yet never have been so happy with him, as she will be with Colonel Brandon…” To this, Elinor’s reaction is as follows: “She paused.—Her daughter could not quite agree with her, but her dissent was not heard, and therefore gave no offence.”
To me, this is a deep and important silence…. Marianne is “settling”…. Willoughby… would make a good lover… nuy be a bad husband…. [Marianne] will have a better life as Colonel Brandon’s wife…. Brandon’s cousin Eliza is said to have died of “lovesickness” for Willoughby…. So Colonel Brandon it is—but at what cost? When she is in love with Willoughby Marianne’s eyes are “bright”, or “bewitching”, whereas after her recovery she has “a rational, though languid, gaze”… [ad] can set her mind on a new “cured” rationality and… marrying Colonel Brandon… [but] the fire is snuffed out. The romantic, passionate Marianne is transformed into a happy little drone and an acceptable wife….
There are men that a woman can marry, who are willing to invest lots of time in them, and there are men that a woman can truly erotically love, who are frequently the target of other women’s conquests…. The ideal… simply isn’t real… Marriage in Jane Austen isn’t a big romantic affair, as we see in adaptations, but is a tool for a functioning society. Jane Austen was still a conservative, and she still approved of marriage, but she kept a twinkle in her eye for the rakes…
The Common ReaderJane Austen’s Rake Problem Today we have a guest post by Edward McLaren, a DPhil candidate in English Literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where he specialises in 18th-century literature with a focus on Jane Austen and evolutionary psychology. Edward is on Substack as elle laren…Read more12 days ago · 32 likes · 10 comments · Henry Oliver and elle larenGive a gift subscription
What do I think of this? Well, I definitely get off of the Edward McLaren train here. Where I get off is where he asserts that this is a truth human biology imposes on us about the way the human world has to work rather than a combination of Regency upper-class culture and Jane Austen’s not-wholly-accurate view of the world.
Why do I think this?
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Because I think a much better view about human psychology and how fully sane people view the situation comes from comedian Orny Adams:
Orny Adams: LOW T! And they talk about it like it’s a bad thing? It’s great! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoWQ8tsBCSM>: ‘Men actually get better with age. It's biological…. The TV commercials start talking to you…. “Are you a male over the age of 40?” That's me…. “Do you not have as much energy as you used to?”… I'm exhausted…. “You might have a treatable conditioncalled Low-T.” Low testosterone. They're making ——— up…. They talk about it like it's a bad thing. Low-T is the greatest thing to happen to men. Every, every bad decision I ever made was on High-T…
Leave a comment
And from comedian Neal Brennan:
Neal Brennan: <https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan/video/7350383399107841322>: 'Back to men…. Testosterone… has got nothing but bad ideas all day. Women have estrogen. The worst thing estrogen will suggest is "let's get some wine and go on Etsy". Not that bad. Whereas testosterone… is like having a prison inmate living inside you…. You're like: "Take it easy man! It's 7:30 in the morning!" He's like: "I don't give a f----, bro! I'll be doing dips till you're ready!"…
@mrnealbrennanAll of Men’s Bad Ideas are from Testosterone. #standup #comedy #joke #men #netflix #netflixisajoke #standupcomedian #funny #lol #testosterone Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Share
This is comedic recognition. But it is a comedic recognition of a profound truth. We can see that this is something that we humans have long known. How? Because we have explicit evidence that humans have recognized for more than 3000 years.
Witness Akhilleus in the Iliad on the irrational actions of the T-maddened Agamemnon:
Josiah Ober: The Greeks & the Rational <https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520380172>: ‘Achilleus has promised to protect the seer Kalkhas from Agamemnon’s wrath…. Rather than accepting the situation, [Agamemnon] employs a threat of force… to take Briseis, Achilleus’s prize captive…. It [becomes] obvious in retrospect that Agamemnon has made a very bad choice…. Agamemnon’s own [retrospective] explanation is… that [his] fateful choice had been motivated… by atê—a sort of divine madness… by a force outside of himself….
[But earlier,] in critically describing Agamemnon… Achilleus says this: “Truly he rages with baneful mind, and knows not at all to look both backwards and forwards in time (hama prossô kai opissô)…”. The phrase hama prossô kai opissô is a standard Homeric formula…. The agents who are said to have this capacity are older men, who are in a position of having to assess a high-stakes situation, forming a judgment, and offering advice about the best, although not the most obvious or most popular, course of action. That advice would, in each case, avoid catastrophic outcomes—were it followed…. Achilles’ point… is that Agamemnon, raging with baneful mind, lacks… wisdom and therefore is shown up to be a poor leader: He puts his own army in danger…
Leave a comment
Whoever got women to believe they were the emotional sex ran the greatest successful con job in human history…
Give a gift subscription
References:Adams, Orny. 2023. “LOW-T! And they talk about it like it’s a bad thing? It’s great!…” YouTube, December 1. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoWQ8tsBCSM>.
Austen, Jane. 1811. Sense and Sensibility. 3 vols. London: Thomas Egerton. <https://archive.org/details/sensesensibility131aust/>.
Brennan, Neal. “Back to men… Testosterone… has got nothing but bad ideas all day.” TikTok, April. <https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan/video/735038339910784132>.
McLaren, Edward. 2025. “Jane Austen’s Rake Problem.” The Common Reader. June 15. <https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/jane-austens-rake-problem>.
Ober, Josiah. 2024. The Greeks & the Rational. Oakland: University of California Press. <https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520380172>.
‘Omeros of Khios & al. -750 [1991]. [The Iliad]. Trans. Robert Fagles. Intro. Bernard Knox. New York: Penguin Books. <https://archive.org/details/iliad00home>
Tave, Stuart M. 2019. Some Words of Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. <https://archive.org/details/somewordsofjanea0000tave>.
Tomalin, Claire. 1997. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. <https://archive.org/details/janeaustenlife0000toma_g0r7>.
Leave a comment
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If reading this gets you Value Above Replacement, then become a free subscriber to this newsletter. And forward it! And if your VAR from this newsletter is in the three digits or more each year, please become a paid subscriber! I am trying to make you readers—and myself—smarter. Please tell me if I succeed, or how I fail…
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Contrary to Edward McLaren, literary Regency marriage patterns, stand-up comedy, and Homeric epic all agree: marrying Colonel Brandon is in no way a tragedy or “settling”, but rather adulting. & the real emotional sex has always been the one with the bigger army…
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Share
Share Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality
A very nice catch from the very sharp Edward McLaren, on the English language’s premier novelist, Jane Austen, and on a persistent ambiguity throughout her work, as her female characters make their choices and marry Darcies, Bingleys, Wickhams, Brandons, Collinses, and Willoughbies:
Edward McLaren: Jane Austen’s Rake Problem <https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/jane-austens-rake-problem>: ‘In Sense and Sensibility Marianne, heartbroken over Willoughby… marries Colonel Brandon, who is “On the Wrong Side of Five-and-Thirty”, whereas she is only seventeen…. Willoughby has impregnated Colonel Brandon’s ward… is… engaged to a Miss Grey… [with] £50,000.… Willoughby… [admits] he did fall in love with Marianne…. Notably, Mrs. Dashwood says: “I am very sure myself, that had Willoughby turned out as really amiable…Marianne would yet never have been so happy with him, as she will be with Colonel Brandon…” To this, Elinor’s reaction is as follows: “She paused.—Her daughter could not quite agree with her, but her dissent was not heard, and therefore gave no offence.”
To me, this is a deep and important silence…. Marianne is “settling”…. Willoughby… would make a good lover… nuy be a bad husband…. [Marianne] will have a better life as Colonel Brandon’s wife…. Brandon’s cousin Eliza is said to have died of “lovesickness” for Willoughby…. So Colonel Brandon it is—but at what cost? When she is in love with Willoughby Marianne’s eyes are “bright”, or “bewitching”, whereas after her recovery she has “a rational, though languid, gaze”… [ad] can set her mind on a new “cured” rationality and… marrying Colonel Brandon… [but] the fire is snuffed out. The romantic, passionate Marianne is transformed into a happy little drone and an acceptable wife….
There are men that a woman can marry, who are willing to invest lots of time in them, and there are men that a woman can truly erotically love, who are frequently the target of other women’s conquests…. The ideal… simply isn’t real… Marriage in Jane Austen isn’t a big romantic affair, as we see in adaptations, but is a tool for a functioning society. Jane Austen was still a conservative, and she still approved of marriage, but she kept a twinkle in her eye for the rakes…
The Common ReaderJane Austen’s Rake Problem Today we have a guest post by Edward McLaren, a DPhil candidate in English Literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where he specialises in 18th-century literature with a focus on Jane Austen and evolutionary psychology. Edward is on Substack as elle laren…Read more12 days ago · 32 likes · 10 comments · Henry Oliver and elle larenGive a gift subscription
What do I think of this? Well, I definitely get off of the Edward McLaren train here. Where I get off is where he asserts that this is a truth human biology imposes on us about the way the human world has to work rather than a combination of Regency upper-class culture and Jane Austen’s not-wholly-accurate view of the world.
Why do I think this?
Get 50% off a group subscription
Because I think a much better view about human psychology and how fully sane people view the situation comes from comedian Orny Adams:
Orny Adams: LOW T! And they talk about it like it’s a bad thing? It’s great! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoWQ8tsBCSM>: ‘Men actually get better with age. It's biological…. The TV commercials start talking to you…. “Are you a male over the age of 40?” That's me…. “Do you not have as much energy as you used to?”… I'm exhausted…. “You might have a treatable conditioncalled Low-T.” Low testosterone. They're making ——— up…. They talk about it like it's a bad thing. Low-T is the greatest thing to happen to men. Every, every bad decision I ever made was on High-T…
Leave a comment
And from comedian Neal Brennan:
Neal Brennan: <https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan/video/7350383399107841322>: 'Back to men…. Testosterone… has got nothing but bad ideas all day. Women have estrogen. The worst thing estrogen will suggest is "let's get some wine and go on Etsy". Not that bad. Whereas testosterone… is like having a prison inmate living inside you…. You're like: "Take it easy man! It's 7:30 in the morning!" He's like: "I don't give a f----, bro! I'll be doing dips till you're ready!"…
@mrnealbrennanAll of Men’s Bad Ideas are from Testosterone. #standup #comedy #joke #men #netflix #netflixisajoke #standupcomedian #funny #lol #testosterone Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Share
This is comedic recognition. But it is a comedic recognition of a profound truth. We can see that this is something that we humans have long known. How? Because we have explicit evidence that humans have recognized for more than 3000 years.
Witness Akhilleus in the Iliad on the irrational actions of the T-maddened Agamemnon:
Josiah Ober: The Greeks & the Rational <https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520380172>: ‘Achilleus has promised to protect the seer Kalkhas from Agamemnon’s wrath…. Rather than accepting the situation, [Agamemnon] employs a threat of force… to take Briseis, Achilleus’s prize captive…. It [becomes] obvious in retrospect that Agamemnon has made a very bad choice…. Agamemnon’s own [retrospective] explanation is… that [his] fateful choice had been motivated… by atê—a sort of divine madness… by a force outside of himself….
[But earlier,] in critically describing Agamemnon… Achilleus says this: “Truly he rages with baneful mind, and knows not at all to look both backwards and forwards in time (hama prossô kai opissô)…”. The phrase hama prossô kai opissô is a standard Homeric formula…. The agents who are said to have this capacity are older men, who are in a position of having to assess a high-stakes situation, forming a judgment, and offering advice about the best, although not the most obvious or most popular, course of action. That advice would, in each case, avoid catastrophic outcomes—were it followed…. Achilles’ point… is that Agamemnon, raging with baneful mind, lacks… wisdom and therefore is shown up to be a poor leader: He puts his own army in danger…
Leave a comment
Whoever got women to believe they were the emotional sex ran the greatest successful con job in human history…
Give a gift subscription
References:Adams, Orny. 2023. “LOW-T! And they talk about it like it’s a bad thing? It’s great!…” YouTube, December 1. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoWQ8tsBCSM>.
Austen, Jane. 1811. Sense and Sensibility. 3 vols. London: Thomas Egerton. <https://archive.org/details/sensesensibility131aust/>.
Brennan, Neal. “Back to men… Testosterone… has got nothing but bad ideas all day.” TikTok, April. <https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan/video/735038339910784132>.
McLaren, Edward. 2025. “Jane Austen’s Rake Problem.” The Common Reader. June 15. <https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/jane-austens-rake-problem>.
Ober, Josiah. 2024. The Greeks & the Rational. Oakland: University of California Press. <https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520380172>.
‘Omeros of Khios & al. -750 [1991]. [The Iliad]. Trans. Robert Fagles. Intro. Bernard Knox. New York: Penguin Books. <https://archive.org/details/iliad00home>
Tave, Stuart M. 2019. Some Words of Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. <https://archive.org/details/somewordsofjanea0000tave>.
Tomalin, Claire. 1997. Jane Austen: A Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. <https://archive.org/details/janeaustenlife0000toma_g0r7>.
Leave a comment
Subscribe now
If reading this gets you Value Above Replacement, then become a free subscriber to this newsletter. And forward it! And if your VAR from this newsletter is in the three digits or more each year, please become a paid subscriber! I am trying to make you readers—and myself—smarter. Please tell me if I succeed, or how I fail…