Words

These last few days I have been reading. My transition period to a “possible” PhD (I don’t know if I am through yet) hasn’t been productive. Also, being a football fan doesn’t help as the season is warming up and promises to be an exciting 3 horse race (Ha! Fuck you Liverpool.).

So it has been Turgenev and Hornby - nihilism and football. Throw in a couple of Manchester United autobiographies (Ryan Giggs and Sir Alex, if THEY aren’t Manchester United…) and you realize that nearly a month has been lost.

You will find many interpretations for Fathers and Sons (if you need even one at all), I remember showing it to my father a couple of years back and he wasn’t exactly thrilled. I am not going to review it here, do read it if you find the time though. Also, here is an interesting link that I found concerning the relationship between Turgenev and Dostoevsky.

http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/by_others/Quarrington/dostoevsky02.htm

Nick Hornby suggests in his book (Fever Pitch) that males are defined by their passions rather than their personalities. The true sport fanatic probably knows what Mr. Hornby is talking about. I am a miserable conversationalist and yet I can be remarkably eloquent when I talk football. (And the batting average with women suddenly makes sense…ok not so suddenly). And yes, I know all the jokes, I have loved united, they haven’t loved me back etc. etc.
I truly wish that Hornby was a united supporter. Arsenal doesn’t deserve him.

The male obsession with sport is a bit of a cliché. In Annie Hall, when asked “What is so fascinating about sitting around watching a bunch of pituitary cases stuff a ball through a hoop” Woody Allen replies that its physical and the body doesn’t lie. The point being we can probably fake intellectual sophistication but out in a football field our limitations are evident… immediately. (No basketball for me and I am too lazy to paraphrase). I relate to this, I am not much of a winger, dynamic goal scoring record though. Yes, I blame them lungs.

Oh and the damn draw for the F.A cup was rigged surely, we play Arsenal at home and Liverpool has Barnsley… Barnsley for god sake.

On a parting note, I can’t believe that arguably the best movie of the year is a limited release. I am disappointed that I won’t be able to catch ‘There will be blood’ on screen, bah State College is the arsehole of nowhere.