1. Despite the fact that there are clear rules, there's something of carnival to the matchday experience, especially for supporters. Something to do with how we react so when something transgressive occurs. I say things and scream and shout at games in ways I don't anywhere else. I don't know exactly how this works, but interesting to think about. 2. is the most interesting to me. There are archetypes in football as we find in Jung and Shakespeare - hero's and villains for starters, but if you looked I'm sure you could go into more detail there. People like Suarez and Terry are 'characters' people love to hate, for example. These characters and the events they are involved in are exploited by the media to give them a narrative for the week - to fill the time between matches and get people to watch/read/listen. Even match reports are infected with this. Must guardian reports of games deal with the controversy or transfer sagas involved with one or both clubs involved, the Newcastle report stated the facts of the game, but it's the Pardew story that's important because it can continue the next day. The football is almost an inconvenience to this. If you don't already, read F365's mediawatch column, they deconstruct some of the **** that goes on. 3. Football as a social construction? Tell me more Very enjoyable post. Anyone who looks at things as Shakespearean archetypes is speaking my language!
Well I'm claiming original script following my post last week with: "Sans Lambert, sans Lallana, sans Lovren, sans everyone" and my reference to Shaw mewling and pewking and Lallana with pipes and whistles in his sound.... .... My lawyers will be in touch Liked it spaced saint
Really enjoyed that spacedsaint, creative and refreshing, look forward to more I think we've all had enough of the same plodding tired narrative of the Premier league, and where they think we belong in it!
Or they'll go all Orwellian on us and, once Saints are established as a "top four club" - a tag that doesn't actually rely on representing four clubs per se - the media will claim they have always been in that number. "Southampton has always been a top four club, Winston, and they always will be. In your face, forever."
I can't remember which mangers said this, this week; "outside the traditional big six" goes to show how entrenched that particularly tiresome narrative is. Ye Olde Toppe Six...locked in a battle as old as time.
Spaced are you a critic? It's all very clever (really, I couldn't write something like that), but it seems to me that all this intelligent talking about a subject like football, or theatre, or something that people are - ultimetly - entertained by, will always fall short of the actual experience of being entertained by that of which you speak. Do we really need fancy compound words (uber-narrative? really?) that make normal people feel stupid to describe the story of football (or of theatre for that matter). I've never really understood this. In short, I think you've tried to squeeze your beloved Southampton into too tight a Lyotard. Nonetheless it's probably a better waste of time than watching Eastenders!
Maybe. I think football can exist on many levels... Which is kind of the point. Edit: oh, and I am not a critic. I teach English Lit and write short stories for magazines and stuff.
I liked the bit about the Pochettino narrative "moving glacially toward a predictable but satisfying close". You lost me after that though.
Perfectly acceptable to discuss football using the metaphor of Shakespeare. After all, we see such great acting by the assembled "players" and the refereeing is often a comedy of errors. As for the Orwellian references, I guess that all clubs are created equal, but some are more equal than others. As for whether Spaced Saint is a critic, don't forget that a critic is someone who leaves "no turn unstoned".
