The Limitations of pro athletes
Ryan Cousineau
Quoting from a 1995 David Foster Wallace essay, "The String Theory":
.. it's better for us not to know the kinds of sacrifices the
professional-grade athlete has made to get so very good at one
particular thing. Oh, we'll invoke lush cliches about the lonely
heroism of Olympic athletes, the pain and analgesia of football, the
early rising and hours of practice and restricted diets, the preflight
celibacy, et cetera. But the actual facts of the sacrifices repel us
when we see them: basketball geniuses who cannot read, sprinters who
dope themselves, defensive tackles who shoot up with bovine hormones
until they collapse or explode. We prefer not to consider closely the
shockingly vapid and primitive comments uttered by athletes in
postcontest interviews or to consider what impoverishments in one's
mental life would allow people actually to think the way great
athletes seem to think. Note the way "up close and personal" profiles
of professional athletes strain so hard to find evidence of a rounded
human life -- outside interests and activities, values beyond the
sport. We ignore what's obvious, that most of this straining is farce.
It's farce because the realities of top-level athletics today require
an early and total commitment to one area of excellence. An ascetic
focus. A subsumption of almost all other features of human life to one
chosen talent and pursuit. A consent to live in a world that, like a
child's world, is very small.
Complete essay here:
http://www.esquire.com/features/sports/the-string-theory-0796
I reiterate once again my love of amateur bike racing.
Anton Berlin
> I reiterate once again my love of high school cheer leading.
Ryan Cousineau
> > I reiterate once again my love of high school cheer leading.
Pervert.
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older,
they stay the same age."
Fredmaster of Brainerd
> http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/08/tradeoff...
Dumbass,
You've read "De Renner." And you know the teeth-gritting
mentality of the amateur bike racer.
People on rbr are not in a position to criticize pro athletes
for being obsessives.
It takes a certain dedication to become one of the best or most
extreme at a given pursuit. This does not necessarily mean
that the most extreme are the most one-dimensional. Extreme
outlier people are often outliers in more than just their main
pursuit. Maybe that is not true of professional athletes, who
have had to give up an education and also spend a lot of their
time being told how great they are. But I'll bet that, while the
general public wishes to live in ignorance of sprinters
doping themselves, their choice to dope itself has relatively little
to do with whether they are are diminished personalities.
It's just an example of societal hypocrisy. We read fawning profiles
of CEOs who work 80 hours a week, spend most of their time
on airplanes, and rose to power by standing on the shoulders
(or necks) of their colleagues, and nobody asks whether these
are well-rounded personalities. They do what they have to do
to be successes. But there's something about athletes that
makes people fans, and fans want to imagine that the object
of their adoration is like a buddy to them - few people feel that
about CEOs.
David Foster Wallace, his talent, his varied interests (how many
novelists have something intelligent to say about athletics?) and,
sadly, his fate, is actually a fairly good example of the extremism
of the extreme talent himself.
Fredmaster Ben
Beloved Fred No. 1
> It takes a certain dedication to become one of the best or most
> extreme at a given pursuit. This does not necessarily mean
> that the most extreme are the most one-dimensional.
However witness Lafferties dimensions.
RicodJour
Ummm, sorry. He's a point without a point. He's dimensionless and
definitely irrational.
I'd like to say he's imaginary, but that would make me....in desperate
need of a beer!
R
A. Dumas
> rose to power by standing on the shoulders
> (or necks) of their colleagues, and nobody asks whether these
> are well-rounded personalities.
Like, do they play the tuba?
Kurgan Gringioni
"A. Dumas" <alex...@dumas.fr> wrote in message
news:202e9$4c6477b4$53578816$21...@cache3.tilbu1.nb.home.nl...
Dumbass -
You referring to Cannino?
thanks,
Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.
A. Dumas
> "A. Dumas" wrote:
>> Fredmaster of Brainerd wrote:
>>> rose to power by standing on the shoulders
>>> (or necks) of their colleagues, and nobody asks whether these
>>> are well-rounded personalities.
>>
>> Like, do they play the tuba?
>
Neck - tuba. Was there ever any doubt?
Ryan Cousineau
I agree with all of this, more or less. Except the part about people
on rbr. I'm well-rounded: I like computers, arguing, and sprinting.
That's three interests, surely enough.
Frederick the Great
<6385c312-2140-49b8...@v6g2000prd.googlegroups.com>,
[...]
> David Foster Wallace, his talent, his varied interests (how many
> novelists have something intelligent to say about athletics?) and,
> sadly, his fate, is actually a fairly good example of the extremism
> of the extreme talent himself.
Have you read his work? The excerpt above does make me
want to read DFW. He seems to leave out important
things that would naturally occur to someone of his
apparent perspicacity; charity, for one.
--
Old Fritz
Michael Press
Frederick the Great
<a3ffe493-0c34-443f...@f6g2000pro.googlegroups.com>,
Ryan Cousineau <rcou...@gmail.com> wrote:
This beggars belief.
If you _really_ liked arguing
you would be arguing with Lafferty.
--
Old Fritz
William R. Mattil
>>> Fredmaster Ben
>> I agree with all of this, more or less. Except the part about people
>> on rbr. I'm well-rounded: I like computers, arguing, and sprinting.
>> That's three interests, surely enough.
>
> This beggars belief.
> If you _really_ liked arguing
> you would be arguing with Lafferty.
>
Since Laff@me doesn't have any comprehension skills arguing with him is
a waste of time. Perhaps the subtle difference ?
Bill
--
William R. Mattil
RicodJour
>
> I agree with all of this, more or less. Except the part about people
> on rbr. I'm well-rounded: I like computers, arguing, and sprinting.
> That's three interests, surely enough.
I like climbing, but I couldn't sprint my way past a kid on a trike
without Renshaw head-butting him...or her. Does that mean I'm not
well-rounded? If you say yes, I may have to draw some conclusions
about your love of sprinting and your well-rounded jersey. :)~
R
PS You left out drinking.
Ryan Cousineau
Liking climbing is a symptom of body dysmorphic disorder.
My jersey is disturbingly well-rounded. Let's put it this way: I get
podium placings in the flat training-crit series, and I get dropped in
the training-crit series that has a climb*.
> PS You left out drinking.
I must have been drunk when I did that. Boomsma Jonge genever is nice.
*It is a pretty brutal climb. 1.5 km laps with around 30m of climbing
per lap.
Ryan Cousineau
> In article
> <6385c312-2140-49b8-bc41-b7eee7397...@v6g2000prd.googlegroups.com>,
If you're interested in Wallace's writing, I think his essays are an
excellent entry point. "String Theory" will appeal to saddo athletes
like us; his most famous essay was probably "Shipping Out" aka "A
Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" about his experience on a
cruise ship:
http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf
If you like those two, then consider giving his novel Infinite Jest a
try; I haven't yet.