Subject: game, set & match
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Wed Aug 01 2001 - 04:37:21 GMT
Well now, Nanook.
I suppose ‘Tweedy sherry sipper’ is a little advanced
but ‘lorgnettes’ certainly conveys with great exactness
the changing room’s idea of sophisticated mockery.
The years roll away & we’re back there once again,
smelling the sweat & the feet, watching the thoughts
as they slowly gather behind the supraorbital ridges,
noticing with never diminishing wonder the dexterity
with which the paws can grasp sticks & bananas.
You’re quite right. My contemptuous dismissal includes
all sporting activities - except those involving the sea
where, of course, we renew our spirits in that primal
environment from which we all spring.
Otherwise, I feel man’s competitive & combative instincts
should not be dissipated in acceptably socialised sublimations
but kept intact & armed for their true purpose: the subjugation
of one’s rivals & the ravishing of one’s mates. The alternative
is too awful to consider: becoming a REGULAR GUY.
This hunger for regularity lies like an unsuspected worm
at the heart of many an American literary rose: Hemingway
& Mailer, of course, but Salinger too. Just think of that
dreadful baseball mitt, not to mention the poor little
buggers in The Laughing Man - as Paul has just reminded
us.
Could anything be more arch, more nauseating, more
apple-pie-&-Mom than: ‘Mary Hudson, [who smoked
cork-tipped Tareyton cigarettes, and] happened to be
a girl who knew how to wave to somebody from third
base ...’
Oh my God. The Tragic Heroine as One of the Guys.
We may enjoy some strange yogic thoughts or like going
to bullfights but at heart, Mommie, you know we’ve never
stopped being the wholesome Little Leaguers you've always
loved.
Scottie B.
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