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13th out of 92 books
—
25 voters
On Boxing
A reissue of bestselling, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates' classic collection of essays on boxing.
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
August 29th 2006
by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
(first published February 20th 1987)
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I am really pissed off, because I spent a long time writing a whole long review of this book but then this fucking website just spontaneously erased it.
But whatever. It wasn't a great review by any means. I'll just write another, similarly mediocre one.
Being as I'm a lady boxing enthusiast who likes to read books, for years I've been vaguely embarrassed about not having ever got around to this. Now I finally have, and I'm not sure how to rate it -- there was stuff I really liked in here, but by...more
But whatever. It wasn't a great review by any means. I'll just write another, similarly mediocre one.
Being as I'm a lady boxing enthusiast who likes to read books, for years I've been vaguely embarrassed about not having ever got around to this. Now I finally have, and I'm not sure how to rate it -- there was stuff I really liked in here, but by...more
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Written with an eye towards explaining and depicting the attraction toward and zeal for boxing that both it's participants and audience have, I feel unsure whether Joyce Carol Oates is really able to understand the perspective of a non-fan sufficiently to be able to convert or convince an outsider. Her passion is compelling, but her digs at Whites and Liberals who misjudge or react negatively to the sport -- excuse me, "way of life" -- show her to be both unsympathetic and misapprehensive about...more
The first half of this book is outstanding. In a lengthy essay, Oates ruminates on boxing from a number of fascinating angles, discussing issues including idealized masculinity, the appeal of violence, the draw of the sport on writers, and the experience of being a true "other" watching a boxing match. While she sometimes seems to be making overbroad generalizations, even when she swings and misses this is a hugely entertaining and interesting impressionistic take on boxing.
The next portion, a...more
The next portion, a...more
I wasn't sure what to make of this book (really a collection of essays) when I picked it up. I box - which mostly involves punching focus mitts and a heavy bag, doing lots of situps and pushups, jumping rope, and occasionally sparring other people with protective gear - while Joyce Carol Oates watches people who do that and so much more - including trying to render their opponents unconscious in front of thousands of spectators. As such, most of the book seemed very alien: the eponymous essay re...more
"Considered in the abstract the boxing ring is an altar of sorts, one of those legendary spaces where the laws of a nation are suspended: inside the ropes, during an officially regulated three-minute round, a man may be killed at his opponent's hands but he cannot be legally murdered. Boxing inhabits a sacred space predating civilization; or, to use D. H. Lawrence's phrase, before God was love."
"The artist senses some kinship, however oblique and one-sided, with the professional boxer in this ma...more
"The artist senses some kinship, however oblique and one-sided, with the professional boxer in this ma...more
On Boxing is a collection of essays that were originally published as separate works. I think reading them all at once and fairly quickly does make some of Oates’ language and points seem a bit repetitive. Originally published in 1987, some of her concerns seem a bit outdated. She talks about her contemporary time being a low-point for boxing. I don’t think we are currently in a period where general public opinion on boxing is low, so some of her defense of the sport seems too adamant when read...more
It was a good read if a bit dated. She had no way of knowing how some of the boxers would end up - it was kind of disconcerting to realize she was a bit of Tyson fangirl. Long before his conviction and incarceration, still a little odd.
I think she romanticized a lot of elements of boxing and really ignored glaring elements that I think would have fit well. For starters, the corruption in the sport was glossed over, how poorly it's officiated and the confusing set of vague rules that don't do a v...more
I think she romanticized a lot of elements of boxing and really ignored glaring elements that I think would have fit well. For starters, the corruption in the sport was glossed over, how poorly it's officiated and the confusing set of vague rules that don't do a v...more
Joyce Carol Oates writes about the "sweet science" with the same wonderful style as her works of fiction. The main section of the book that talks about the sport in general is very interesting as she compares boxing to other diverse objects like art and pornography. Her essays on Mike Tyson (before his bizzare behavoir became his trademark) and Jack Johnson are superb in the details of how the two black men viewed themselves in "white" America. There are also essays on Ali and Joe Louis vs. Max...more
He aquí un libro extraño. No por su contenido, sino por las condiciones de su producción: un ensayo sobre el boxeo escrito por una mujer. Si creyésemos en la quimera de los roles de género, tendríamos que asombrarnos, pero eso queda de lado cuando la prosa de Joyce Carol Oates nos cautiva en lo estilizado de su consistencia, en la poderosa lucidez de la exposición y la sensibilidad para admirar a este deporte en toda su grandiosa contradicción.
Oates no pretende definir una "filosofía del boxeo":...more
Oates no pretende definir una "filosofía del boxeo":...more
If it seems to you that my reading of this book is slightly random, you're only partially right.
I know very little about Joyce Carol Oates as an author. Truth be told, I never really bothered to learn much about her or her writing. Not for any good reason, mind you. She just struck me as a writer of the sort of fiction that is no doubt well written, but does not necessarily capture my interest. I have a peculiar bias against bestsellers which has occasionally steered me past some good writing, a...more
I know very little about Joyce Carol Oates as an author. Truth be told, I never really bothered to learn much about her or her writing. Not for any good reason, mind you. She just struck me as a writer of the sort of fiction that is no doubt well written, but does not necessarily capture my interest. I have a peculiar bias against bestsellers which has occasionally steered me past some good writing, a...more
Although some of the factual detail is fascinating (even though repeated many times), Oates herself has little to add in the way of interesting comment or testimony. She is correct in recognising that a boxing match is not a metaphor, but unfortunately can't remember this insight and constantly drifts off into spurious meditations on symbolism, larded with utterly redundant references to irrelevant highbrow authors. But the picture of Tyson's early career is quite eerie, from a later vantage poi...more
There are some interesting insights on general competitive spirit combined with some stories that capture the appeal of the great boxers of past eras. Unfortunately she paints all of the boxers in the same themes, frequently leaning on a few main salient points from the introduction. It would have been more interesting to fully develop one of the stories discussed.
A book that describes boxing as art an form, with the boxer's canvas being literally the canvas of the ring. Two boxers create a battle of human heart, a real world drama, with real drama where men fight for pride, for glory, for greatness, for a means to support his family, for fame, and for the love of competition.
A brilliant book and almost infinitely quotable:
"There [in the ring] as in no other public arena does the individual as a unique physical being assert himself; there, for a dramatic if fleeting period of time, the great world with its moral and political complexities, its terrifying impersonality, ceases to exist."
"There [in the ring] as in no other public arena does the individual as a unique physical being assert himself; there, for a dramatic if fleeting period of time, the great world with its moral and political complexities, its terrifying impersonality, ceases to exist."
"ogni incontro di boxe è una storia- un dramma unico, fortemente condensato e senza parole. anche quando non accade niente di sensazionale. il dramma, allora, è "puramente" psicologico"
tentativo di razionalizzazione/spiegazione del mondo della boxe, in parte riuscito e in parte abbastanza pretestuoso.
tentativo di razionalizzazione/spiegazione del mondo della boxe, in parte riuscito e in parte abbastanza pretestuoso.
Oates brings insightful, intelligent prose to the "cruelest sport" in this meandering collection of essays. Oates tackles her subject with the artful circling of the legendary boxers she cites. Any schooled, novice, or passing boxing fans will learn about the core truths of the blood-speckled spectacle.
Incredible. Oates compares the boxer's life to the writer's life - specifically, a writer: Dostoevsky. She muses on time, space and the double...etc. etc. My copy is the 1987 paperback with only the "On Boxing" essay; other editions include an extended portrait of Mike Tyson...etc. etc. I look forward to reading the "Criterion Edition" of this in the future...for now, this was as inspirational as it gets - mixing sports and writing into a magical whole.
joyce carol oates is a boxing fan, i'm not. this is one of the best nonfiction sport essays i've ever read. it's an exercise in breaking down the sport/art and unraveling the layers of drama, ritual and human progression that goes into this form of a universal endeavor.
The sort of sports writing that hacks like me can only idly aspire too. Really good looks at young Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson and a tiny bit on Joe Louis. Wish she'd written more on Tyson's peak and fall rather than just his early rise.
The sections on Tyson were pretty good, but only as an introduction. This book is well written, but it is nothing compared to Liebling's A Sweet Science.
I liked her insight and human understanding in this book. The piece on Mike Tyson is illuminating given how complex a character he is.
Oates psychoanalyzes fighters and boxing. On some points she was probably right, on others she was way off.
This is an interesting duscussion of the Sweet Science from a very gifted author. This is a very good read. The few photographs in the book are fantastic, as well.
Oates gives a sense of not only the physical, but the social and philisophical about the sport. Indeed, she even asks what a sport is, how we define it and what that means. This text does not trip over itself too much. If I make it seem overly academic, that is my flaw, because Oates does not. Rather, she fuses the beauty of the sport...more
Oates gives a sense of not only the physical, but the social and philisophical about the sport. Indeed, she even asks what a sport is, how we define it and what that means. This text does not trip over itself too much. If I make it seem overly academic, that is my flaw, because Oates does not. Rather, she fuses the beauty of the sport...more
Jun 30, 2012
Orsodimondo
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
americana,
saggistica
La boxe si configura come l'immagine di un mondo in cui si �� responsabili, dal punto di vista umano, non solo delle proprie azioni ma anche di quelle dirette contro di noi.
There are books on two almost forgotten sports in the United States that I enjoy reading. Those on boxing and those on horse racing. Neither sport do I follow, but like film noir, I find them facinating. Who would have ever pictured Joyce Carol Oates as a boxing fan?
The best book on boxing and boxing culture I have ever read.
This book goes much deeper and beyond ordinary sport journalism.
Only wish I knew more about the boxers of that era.
Mar 02, 2013
Ayelet Waldman
added it
I‘m reading up on boxing for my novel.
I'm not currently enjoying this. I was warned about her over-intellectualizing boxing, but she's obviously a brilliant woman, so I wanted to hear what she had to say. Strike one: she doesn't like A J Liebling. Liebling is The Best. Strike two: Even as she tries not to, she goes on about "the self" "the shadow id", and brings up masculinity and race more often than an undergrad term paper. She can't help writing from an ivory tower. Still, she is capturing a pretty cool period in boxing, and I lo...more
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Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure...more
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“I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing-for one of those bouts that go on and on, round following round, jabs, missed punches, clinches, nothing determined, again the bell and again and you and your opponent so evenly matched it’s impossible to see your opponent is you …”
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10 people liked it
“No American sport or activity has been so consistently and so passionately under attack as boxing, for "moral" as we'll as other reasons. And no American sport evokes so ambivalent a response in its defenders: when asked the familiar question "How can you watch . . . ?" the boxing aficionado really has no answer. He can talk about boxing only with others like himself.”
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