Baseball
The second piece of work I had to hand in for my module The Writer as Critic, The Critic as Writer (snappy title, isn’t it!), was a Critical Essay. Per the guidelines:
“The critical essay (3500 words) can be on any topic relating to contemporary literature or culture, and may involve either literary or cultural criticism or both. We would like you to pay attention to the literary form of the essay, its rhetorical as well as its critical content. In other words, we encourage you to bring in writerly and/or poetic elements. Past topics have included, poetry and location, autobiography and culture, fashion and femininity, and have included semi-autobiographical elements, fictional dialogues, and philosophical speculation. We will give you examples of what we mean and there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss your topic, including a presentation to the rest of the class“
I chose to write mine on Baseball. I hope you like it
Constructive criticism welcomed
I read it and enjoyed it. Nice mixture of facts and history, but also a consideration of the strange mythology and legends that surround what, like cricket, is a sometimes slow, almost ponderous, game in which the situation often tends to be more exciting than the actual action on the pitch. I love Field of Dreams – it deals with history, love, fantasy, ambition, unfulfilled dreams and the ghosts of the past, from inside and outside close family groups, that haunt us in the strangest of places, like sports stadia – just talk to the many West Ham fans who feel tragically bereft at the loss of the Boleyn Ground. Unless I missed it, you didn’t mention the song by Ry Cooder – Third Base, Dodger Stadium from the Chavez Ravine album. The album is about the destruction of a Mexican-American community in order to build new housing. What happened instead was the Brooklyn Dodgers built their stadium there for their move to L A from New York in the 1950s. Lovely lyrics, quite poignant. https://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/cooder-ry/3rd-base-doger-stadium-20823.html