4) Individual sports (tennis, golf, swimming, archery, boxing, track-and-field) as opposed to team sports; 5) The slow and ineluctable decline of boxing. Parallel phenomenon: the universal indifference to track-and-field records. Forty, fifty years ago, the whole world waited eagerly for the first seven-foot high jump, the first sixteen-foot pole vault, the newest sub-four-minute mile. Why the lack of interest now?; 6) Sport as drama, narrative, suspense; 7) Sports ruled by the clock (football, basketball, rugby) as opposed to sports with no time limits (baseball, cricket); 8) Sports and commerce; 9) Sports and nationalism; 10) Homo ludens .
With all good thoughts,
Paul
December 6, 2008
Dear Siri, *
How are you? I am only just recovering from the flu that hit the judging panel in Portugal. It’s been a miserable time. I hope you escaped.
I needn’t tell you how much fun it was to have all that time to spend with you and Paul.
I’m appending a letter which contains the blinding insight I promised you and Paul during our last days in Cascais. Could I ask you to print it out and pass it on to Paul? I thoroughly approve of old-fashioned letters with stamps on them, but in this case I feel I have been out of action so long that I need to harness the energy of the Internet.
Love,
John
LETTER TO P. A.
Dear Paul,
Toward the end of 2008, something happened in the realm of high finance as a result of which, we are informed, most of us are now poorer (poorer in money terms, that is to say) than a few months ago. What exactly it was that happened has not been fully spelled out and is perhaps not known precisely: it is a subject of excited discussion among experts. But no one questions that something happened.
The question is, what is the something that happened? Was it something real, or was it one of those imaginary somethings that have real consequences, like the apparition of the Virgin that turned Lourdes into a flourishing tourist center?
Let me list some real events as a result of which we—as a nation, as a society, not just as scattered individuals here and there—might wake up one day suddenly poorer.
A plague of locusts could devour our crops.
There could be drought, lasting year after year.
A murrain could devastate our herds and flocks.
An earthquake could destroy roads and bridges and factories and homes.
Our country could be invaded by a foreign army, which would pillage our cities, capture our treasure-hoards, cart away our food stores, and turn us into slaves.
We could be drawn into an unending foreign war, to which we would have to send thousands of strong young men while we poured our remaining resources into the purchase of armaments.
A foreign navy could take over mastery of the seas, preventing our colonies from sending us shiploads of food and consignments of precious metals.
By the grace of God, no such calamities befell us in 2008. Our cities stand intact, our farms remain productive, our shops are full of goods.
What then happened to make us poorer?
The answer we are given is that certain numbers changed. Certain numbers that used to be high suddenly became low, and as a result we are poorer.
But the numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . 9 are mere signs, no less than the letters a, b, c, . . . z are mere signs. So it could not have been the drop in the numbers that in itself made us poorer. It must have been something that was signified by the drop in the numbers that did it.
But what exactly was it, signified by the new, lower numbers, that made us poorer? The answer is: another set of numbers. The culpable numbers stood for other numbers, and those other numbers stood for yet other numbers, and so on.
Where does this regression in sets of signifiers end? Where is the thing itself that they signify: the plague of locusts or the foreign invasion? Nowhere that I can see. The world is as it was before. Nothing has changed except for the numbers.
If nothing has really happened, if the numbers
With all good thoughts,
Paul
December 6, 2008
Dear Siri, *
How are you? I am only just recovering from the flu that hit the judging panel in Portugal. It’s been a miserable time. I hope you escaped.
I needn’t tell you how much fun it was to have all that time to spend with you and Paul.
I’m appending a letter which contains the blinding insight I promised you and Paul during our last days in Cascais. Could I ask you to print it out and pass it on to Paul? I thoroughly approve of old-fashioned letters with stamps on them, but in this case I feel I have been out of action so long that I need to harness the energy of the Internet.
Love,
John
LETTER TO P. A.
Dear Paul,
Toward the end of 2008, something happened in the realm of high finance as a result of which, we are informed, most of us are now poorer (poorer in money terms, that is to say) than a few months ago. What exactly it was that happened has not been fully spelled out and is perhaps not known precisely: it is a subject of excited discussion among experts. But no one questions that something happened.
The question is, what is the something that happened? Was it something real, or was it one of those imaginary somethings that have real consequences, like the apparition of the Virgin that turned Lourdes into a flourishing tourist center?
Let me list some real events as a result of which we—as a nation, as a society, not just as scattered individuals here and there—might wake up one day suddenly poorer.
A plague of locusts could devour our crops.
There could be drought, lasting year after year.
A murrain could devastate our herds and flocks.
An earthquake could destroy roads and bridges and factories and homes.
Our country could be invaded by a foreign army, which would pillage our cities, capture our treasure-hoards, cart away our food stores, and turn us into slaves.
We could be drawn into an unending foreign war, to which we would have to send thousands of strong young men while we poured our remaining resources into the purchase of armaments.
A foreign navy could take over mastery of the seas, preventing our colonies from sending us shiploads of food and consignments of precious metals.
By the grace of God, no such calamities befell us in 2008. Our cities stand intact, our farms remain productive, our shops are full of goods.
What then happened to make us poorer?
The answer we are given is that certain numbers changed. Certain numbers that used to be high suddenly became low, and as a result we are poorer.
But the numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . 9 are mere signs, no less than the letters a, b, c, . . . z are mere signs. So it could not have been the drop in the numbers that in itself made us poorer. It must have been something that was signified by the drop in the numbers that did it.
But what exactly was it, signified by the new, lower numbers, that made us poorer? The answer is: another set of numbers. The culpable numbers stood for other numbers, and those other numbers stood for yet other numbers, and so on.
Where does this regression in sets of signifiers end? Where is the thing itself that they signify: the plague of locusts or the foreign invasion? Nowhere that I can see. The world is as it was before. Nothing has changed except for the numbers.
If nothing has really happened, if the numbers
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