"[T]he function of sports, games, and athletics is that of release from the complexities of modern life. In Freud's famous phrase, modern man is forced to live psychologically beyond his means, and sport is a kind of retrenchment in an effort to balance the budget. The demands made on consciousness by mere existence in the world to-day are so great that there must be constantly available ways of lowering consciousness and escaping to simpler levels, to muscular and instinctive levels where the exigent demand for thinking is not felt."--Bernard DeVoto, The Cestus of Hygeia, Harper's Magazine, July, 1937.
Hat tip to Roy Blount Jr.'s preface to Rules of the Game. And to Sarah Miller and Michael Mayo for the gift of the book and years of friendship.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment