David Foster Wallace: 'Federer as Religious Experience'

Brilliant author David Foster Wallace's much anticipated article on Roger Federer (and Rafael Nadal, to some extent) for the NY Times is finally here. It hangs on an analysis of Fedal at Wimbledon--and the absolutely perfect symmetry of the Rafa-Roger rivalry. Apollo and Dionysus.

All you Federer fans out there will know exactly what he means, I think, when he says:

Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal. It has nothing to do with sex or cultural norms. What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.

Roger Federer as Religious Experience

Also from the NY Times: Facing Federer
Patrick McEnroe breaks down Federer's game.

ETA: Radio interview with David Foster Wallace on NPR about the article and the interesting article footnotes, which are less footnotes than extended digressions.

Comments

[ancicfan]

yay!

i've been looking forward to this for a while ^_^

[Peacemaster]

That's a fantastic article. I want to thank Mr. Wallace for expressing with infinitely more eloquence what I attempted to futilely pontificate a week ago: "TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love."

A week after I saw Roger in the semifinal and final in Toronto, I'm still trying to absorb the experience and the impression it made on my mind. It is rather interesting that, I too, could come up with only one comparison: a “bloody near-religious experience.”

====================
In case anyone's (especially Federerheads) interested, I posted the HQ versions (which could be used as wallpapers) of a couple of the best (most artistic, IMHO) photos I took of Federer at the Rogers Cup final on my photoblog. If you wish, you can download them here. I couldn't upload all the photos in high res due to bandwidth limitations.

[ancicfan/fedhead]

Thanks Peacemaster!

p.s. lmao on "Fedheads" term

[Peacemaster]

My pleasure. Actually, I like your suggestion of "Fedheads" more than "Federerheads". The former has more of a rhythm to it.

[Rosemary]

Heh, I like it. I was always an Edhead, now I'm also a Fedhead.

That article is tremendous. I've already saved it to my computer. Thanks!

[ancicfan]

Fedheads unite!

I sent the link to my (non-tennis playing/ non-pro tennis following) friend and she sent me back an e-mail saying:

"Just reading this makes my heart thump in excitement."

[federated]

I've sent it to non-tennis fan friends whom I've talked about tennis to ad nauseum, too. I'm hoping this makes them see the light! I think I may already have one convert ;-)