Literature and sport as ritual and fantasy

Papers on Language and Literature, Fall 2001 by Meyers, Ronald J

In the caves of Lascaux as well as in Northern Iberia, the celebration of hunting is given its magical (perhaps even mystical) due through the rendition on cave walls of the fantasy of the successful hunt for bison, goat, boar, etc. Hunting, fishing, and wrestling are represented in the pre-literate art of the Etruscans, Egyptians, and Chinese, and in fact in nearly all primitive art. The myriad of dance masks in African culture reinforces the magical relation between play, art, and religion. The use of masks in the representation of the gods, as well as in ritual play, further confirms the relationship among ritual worship, art, dance, drama, and athletic contests. In Zen Buddhism, sword play as well as other martial arts were thought to have a ritual origin, and even the manufacture of the sword and its maintenance were priestly functions.

The character of the Dionysian as well as of the Apollonian, mimesis as well as fantasy, are all evident in drama as well as in sport. Susanne K Langer, in her fine aesthetic study Feeling and Form, argues what could be equally applied to sport, that in art "feeling is associated with spontaneity.... On the other hand, form connotes formality, regularity, hence repression of feeling" (17). She suggests that music is "a motion of forms that are not visible, but are given to the ear instead of the eye" (107), and "all dance motion is gesture . . . but always motivated by the semblance of an expressive movement" (174). In these instances, art "is not stimulation of feeling but expression" (28), i.e. the symbolic form is more central than the imitation of life. Sport likewise consists of "symbolic actions" rather than a realistic narrative. What also distinguishes sport-even from drama-- is the more active involvement of the spectators in the action and the exercise (or exorcism) of primitive, primordial passions.

One does not need to pursue historical, archaeological, or philological studies to discover the global universality of play. Watch infants in the crib and you discover ubiquitous biological patterns as with other advanced animal species. Piglets frolic among themselves, and lion cubs learn how to hunt and kill and fulfill their role within the pack through play. Play involves both spontaneous excitement and a saturnalia of sorts. Children are entranced by Calder mobiles, giggle and play with rattles, with blocks, and with geometric shapes. On the playground and in nursery school, they gravitate toward the plethora of play objects available to them and discover their solitary pleasure in playing. At first satisfied with their own creativity and solitary fantasy, they move on to the greater reward of shared play-throwing a ball and receiving it back constitutes a shared fantasy. And finally the restrictions imposed by rules become a necessary component of the game. Even as children, they delight in risk-taking both as rebellion from parental restriction and an act of freedom.

Children early on express the desire to compete, nourish a commitment to self-improvement and focus, and demonstrate a compulsive and obsessive drive to win that will last through their lives. In the spontaneous burst of energy in the pursuit of the sweet pleasure of victory, there is perhaps another purpose that allows the release of aggressive drives and serves to mitigate the health and well-being of children no less than adults. The universal action of play relates to the triumph in the contest, and the agony of losing, a veritable metaphor for death. During the fall, winter, spring, and summer solstices, we attend matches, or turn on the television to watch the struggles between the combatants dressed in their colorful uniforms reenacting the ritual patterns of thousands of years, the conflict between the old and the new, the strong and the weak, for mastery: from the Tour de France, to basketball, America's Cup Yachting competition, car races from Indianapolis, horse races from Churchill Downs, soccer, volleyball, boxing, dog racing, cock fights, lawn bowling, weight lifting, cricket, as well as figure skating, cheerleading, baton twirling, mountain climbing. Incessant gambling, board games like Chess, Monopoly, and Scrabble, and card games like Bridge and Poker, far too many to catalogue, are played all over the world; and we all relish our favorites.