Sport and Subversion
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Training the Body for China is an interesting examination of the way cultures influence how bodies, athletics, and physicality in general are viewed, and how these bodies can in turn exert influence on a culture. One interesting element of Brownell’s study is how athletics in China were consistently connected to national interests. To some extent,…
Fantasy Sports and Contemporary Spectatorship
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Sports, the nation, modernity, and the military
by Alan Kloosterhof •
A common thread of this week’s readings was the connection of sports and human bodies to the modern nation in some way. Morris and Brownell depicted how martial arts represented either a backwards tradition that contributed to China’s defeat at the hands of the Western powers or a valuable, uniquely Chinese tradition that was still…
Better to lose with flair than to win?
by Alan Kloosterhof •
One interesting aspect of Moskowitz’s Go Nation is his examination of the game’s rise among older working class men who usually play in parks. Honestly, it was refreshing to see players admitting that they played the game simply because it’s an interesting, challenging game (p. 135). It’s good and well to examine complex cultural characteristics…
Weiqi, Metaphor, and Abstraction
by Alan Kloosterhof •
I especially enjoyed the Chen reading this week. Chen’s tracing of the ways in which weiqi served as a metaphor for war, society, and the cosmos seems reminiscent of last week’s readings, which told us that chess was treated in much the same manner. What’s interesting to me is that the metaphors built around chess…
The Cultural Exchange of Chess
by Alan Kloosterhof •
This is an 18th century Indian chess set found on page 156 of Art of Contest. Of particular interest to me is the use of human bishops rather than elephants. Yalom suggests that the elephant would have represented the most foreign piece on the original chessboard to Europeans, and that as a result they started incorporating…
Evolving Games
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Birth of the Chess Queen is similar to last week’s readings in that it traces how the development of a society’s game can mirror other elements of that society. One anecdote I found particularly thought provoking was how the increased mobility of the queen and bishop had the unintended effect of limiting women’s access to…
Game of the District Messenger Boy, or Merit Rewarded
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Pachisi, Pokémon, and American Values
by Alan Kloosterhof •
This week’s readings, at least the text-heavy pieces, though they covered a wide range of eras and games, all shared one assumption: that the games that are popular within a given culture or period can demonstrate certain values, priorities, or other characteristics about that time and place. I suppose this might be a pretty basic…