By the hundreds of millions we show up, stand in line, turn on, and tune in to watch, mesmerized, as athletes perform. And yet this experience, so widely craved and intensely felt, we commonly dismiss as “only a game.&rduqo; A book that looks beyond the usual explanations of why sports fascinates, In Praise of Athletic Beauty also strives for a language that can frame—even enhance—the pleasure we take in watching athletic events.
The vicarious thrill, anxiety release, competitive spirit: in place of these traditional answers to the mystery of sports’ allure, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht proposes a more powerful and provocative alternative. The fascination with watching sports, he argues, is probably the most popular and potent contemporary form of aesthetic experience—in the classic, very literal sense of this concept. In exploring this idea, Gumbrecht develops a lucid reflection on the pleasures of sports spectatorship and the nature of athletic beauty. Where we might readily pronounce certain athletic moves and plays “beautiful,” this book gives us the means to explore, understand, and enjoy even more acutely the aesthetic experience that our words-in-passing barely suggest.
With a new perspective on the appreciation of—and, indeed, a new tone of praising—sports, Gumbrecht also offers a new way of narrating the history of athletics and a fresh vocabulary for analyzing various sports. Exploring athletic beauty, this book makes us understand the widespread passion sport inspires as an untamed form of aesthetic fascination.
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is Albert Guérard Professor of Literature at Stanford University.
Table of Contents
Everyfan
1. Definitions
Praise
Beauty
Athletics
2. Discontinuities
Demigods
Gladiators
Knights
Ruffians
Sports
Customers
3. Fascinations
Bodies
Suffering
Grace
Tools
Forms
Plays
Timing
4. Gratitude
Watching
Waste
What People are Saying About This
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht's book on athletic beauty achieves an athletic beauty of its own when it heroically resists the temptation of meaning. His refusal to justify athletic endeavors by positing for them consequences beyond the exhilarating moment of performance is bracing and deeply true to the phenomena that obsess him.
Stanley Fish
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht's book on athletic beauty achieves an athletic beauty of its own when it heroically resists the temptation of meaning. His refusal to justify athletic endeavors by positing for them consequences beyond the exhilarating moment of performance is bracing and deeply true to the phenomena that obsess him. Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University
Myles Brand
Sports plays a central role in our American culture. Yet, there is deep reluctance—almost embarrassment—among the intellectual class to acknowledge the enjoyment of spectator sports. In Praise of Athletic Beauty, by Hans Gumbrecht, frees us to embrace this enjoyment. For Gumbrecht locates sports viewing within the nexus of aesthetic experience. This marvelous book—both in content and style—offers a philosophically sophisticated explanation of the beauty of athletic performance. I recommend it most strongly, especially to closet fans and critics of sports.
Myles Brand, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
Diana Nyad
Now that sports have climbed to an apex of obsession in our society, here comes a book that fascinates in probing why we play sports and why we watch sports with such fervor. In Praise of Athletic Beauty considers Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche, and a host of intellectuals throughout history to get to the bottom of our love affair with athletes and their pursuit of excellence. Gumbrecht explores with a scholarly and yet charming curiosity the admiration for athletes that so many of us share. Page by page, I found myself exclaiming: 'Yes, that's what moves me when I see a sprinter striding down the Olympic straightaway!' This is a thought-provoking and most original addition to current sports literature. Diana Nyad, television, radio, and print sports journalist and former world champion marathon swimmer
Walt Harris
Gumbrecht articulates what sports enthusiasts feel about athletes and their achievements. His vast knowledge of the history and philosophy of sports, combined with his passionate intellectual perspective, make this important reading for those who question the value of athletics in our time. Walt Harris, Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, Stanford University