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Not to be confused with the "Tao of Jeet Kune Do", Bruce Lee's posthumously published training notes, this is a retrospective and introspective autobiographical/biographical hybrid on the influence and life of the most famous Asian martial artist in history. Echoing it's central theme, which I found to be very interesting, I have called my review "Bruce Lee: Human".
Related articles- Bruce Lee: Human (a review of "The Tao of Bruce Lee") (clubbchimera.com)
- Bruce Lee vs. Helio Gracie: What If These Grandmasters Fought? (bleacherreport.com)
- Bruce Lee's only in-depth television interview ever (1971) (reddit.com)
Great Review, Jamie. I haven't read the book but I found myself nodding in agreement in response to much of your summary. Lee was a man, and was likely as self-indulgent, self-promoting, and self-centered as the rest of us. (Funny how most of my teachers are like that). To put him on a pedestal is to miss the point. LIkewise, to simply brush off the profound impact he had on world martial arts (regardless of personal talent / non-talent) is to me, a form of blinkered denial. The guy was a cultural tsunami---for whatever reason--- and I think you sum many of those up.
Whether he could "fight" or not, whether he could survive in the Octagon today, or not, and how closely he personally adhered to his own moral platitudes (the way most of us don't) is completely irrelevant to me. The fact that he was very evidently a thinker who was not afraid to shake up the status quo for whatever purpose is where his contribution truly lies.
Nice work, you convinced me that I might want to pick this book up. Thanks for a detail and honest review.