Mirkwood

Much of the tennis community is seething after Sports Illustrated crowned Dwayne Wade as their Sportsperson of the Year, snubbing Roger Federer: resultswise, a clear-cut favorite for the award with three Grand Slam trophies, 12 titles, a 92-5 win-loss record and a runaway world no. 1 ranking. Many readers commented on the unfairness of the award on internet forums and blogs. The rationalizations that followed the announcement range from the pragmatic to the ridiculous:

1. Tennis does not sell as many magazines as the NBA: This is true. Tennis is down in the dumps and is seeking all the scraps of publicity that it can get. The situation is so bad today that when Federer is featured in Vogue, commentators drool about it during a tennis game. A Roddick-Sharapova story has to be manufactured, and insinuated repeatedly until it becomes tiresome. From a practical point of view, I understand. From a tennis enthusiast’s point of view, I am irritated: Why should we care what Federer wears, when he can use his racquet to routinely create angles that have writers scribbling about Mozart and Picasso?

Continue reading ‘Genius proposes, SI disposes’

This needs a word of introduction and a word of warning. J. M. Coetzee’s novel Foe is a reimagining of Daniel Defoe’s famous novel, Robinson Cruso, told from the perspective of a woman named Susan Barton, who finds herself a castaway on the island of Robinson Cruso. After spending a year with Cruso and his cannibal slave Friday, Susan is saved and comes back to England where, in order get her story published, she enlists the help of Mr. Foe. I am convinced that the title of the novel refers to the intellectual sparring between Defoe (Mr. Foe) and his muse, though I am amused by the thought that it could also have referred to a reader’s unsuccessful efforts at trying to “place” the characters of the novel. This post is about that latter interpretation of the word “foe” as someone whose essential nature is difficult to understand.

At this point, a spoiler warning is appropriate for those who haven’t read the book yet and wish to preserve the surprises for later.

Continue reading ‘Foes on multiple levels’