My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.

Crisp frames childhood as a tug-of-war between two parental strategies: maternal sheltering and paternal intimidation. The mother’s “protection” suggests insulation from social harshness, while the father “threatened” him with the world—invoking it as a punitive force meant to enforce conformity. The line implies that “the world” is not neutral but hostile, something a sensitive or nonconforming child (as Crisp often portrayed himself) is taught to fear. It also captures a paradox: both approaches—overprotection and fear-based discipline—center the world’s judgment, shaping identity through anticipation of external cruelty rather than internal confidence.