Comments on: Andrew Womack: Love

By: Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » The Bully Pulpit

Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » The Bully Pulpit — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:24:54 +0000

[...] War politics47 and games48. As the addiction material did for infinitedetox, and the tennis did for Andrew, and the radio show did for Michael, this was a portion of the novel that truly resonated with [...]

By: The Marine who gnew Wallace

The Marine who gnew Wallace — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:54:28 +0000

Consider John McPhee’s “Levels of the Game” a 200+ page exposition of a single championship tennis match between Clark Grabner and Arthur Ashe — superb in its close focus on the physical game and in its depth of context.
Dave did.

Semper fi

By: Vanity

Vanity — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:28:04 +0000

My kid is new to tennis, so I really enjoy learning the finer details of playing such as using Lemon Pledge as a sunblock. I will put the used husks in her scrapbook.

By: Laner

Laner — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:56:19 +0000

For what it’s worth, Wallace’s father was (is?) a professor–of philosophy, I believe–at the University of Illinois. His mother was (is?) a professor of English at a community college.

By: 2011

2011 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:21:07 +0000

In response to the best tennis players to have read IJ query I’d say your best bet is to check the varsity squads of top universities. Wallace himself played for Amherst, I believe. I’m a former junior player (top 10 regionally but only in the 2-300s nationally)and current JV (junior varsity) college player and IJ is my favorite book. College kids seem to make up a good chunk of IJ’s readership and, much to my delight, I’ve personally seen it being toted around campus on more than one occasion. Also varsity players are about as close to Show caliber as you’re going to get with quite a few having actually made it there with varying degrees of success.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:10:35 +0000

Reading the tennis passages in IJ, I’m constantly reminded of one of my favorite sports books, “The Inner Game of Tennis” by T.Galwey. Like Schitt, the eccentric tennis guru at Enfield Academy, Galwey argues that the chief opponent in any tennis match is oneself. Galwey says there’s always an inner struggle between “Self One,” i.e. the inner voice that tells us to do this or that, and “Self Two,” the ‘person’ within us who merely takes action without self-talk or self-criticism. The key to tennis success is quieting/ignoring Self One and just being Self Two. At its extreme, being wholly Self Two is being in “The Zone.”

I wonder if there’s also a parallel philosophy along the lines of Galwey’s in the literature about addiction.

By: Paris

Paris — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:44:17 +0000

Love your story, thanks! I can’t resist the opportunity to share a joke that I think applies well to Orin’s preference for the “womblike” roar of football as opposed to the sophistication (for lack of a better word) of tennis:

“What’s the difference between a bass player in a rock band and a bass player in a jazz combo? — The rock bassist plays three notes for an audience of a hundred people, and the jazz bassist plays one hundred notes for an audience of three.”

By: MichaelPenisless

MichaelPenisless — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:49:34 +0000

well if you’ve read anything on the pale king it sheds some light on the obsession with the mundane. he was starting to explore boredom as the anti-entertainment, and maybe doing boring things sometimes was the way to stay sane in an otherwise insane world. the whole idea of exploring the concept of entertainment is really fascinating to me and is probably the #1 thing I am taking away from IJ.

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:24:16 +0000

Penar’s got it. It’s about the fellowship of these boys that is captured. I was a competetive swimmer–not ranked–and he nailed my training world through middle and high school. Court or pool, doesn’t matter. The hours of training, making up complex games after practice instead of going home after 3 hours of pool time, drugs and alcohol, and of course deeper friendships than any of my others. That’s why we did it for hours every day.

The comments about tennis being mundane are interesting. I believe (please correct me if I’m wrong) DFW was the son of an actuary (officially the most mundane field in existance . . . trust me, I almost went there) and his philosophy thesis was based heavily in mathematics. DFW was both raised by the mundane and drawn to it.

By: Penar

Penar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:54:09 +0000

Thanks for the writeup Andrew. The tennis part of the book is, for me, a very accurate analysis of what goes on in competitive sport. It helps to be a tennis person, but much of it would apply to other sports, easily.

I was a ranked junior tennis player, like DFW, though never destined for any kind of show. This, up to when I was 18 or so, then tennis was on the backburner for a few years. Now I’m playing semi-regularly again, but the emotion and mental state is not the same as way back when it was competitive. DFW has helped me remember that part of my life and helped describe it better than I am capable of.