If we were to begin a series of old, esoteric interviews, this one from the Paris Review of Jorge Luis Borges would be a good starting point. Learn, among other things, what Borges’ favorite fabricated English word is. Unfortunately, while discussing the origin of character names, he does not bring up our resident sports revolutionary.
“The greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” —JFK
As Derek Jeter is poised to make history this weekend, his career is in a very unusual place. On the one hand, he is standing on the cusp of history, poised to become the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits. On the other hand, he is following up 2010, the worst season of his career, with an even worse year. The Yankees played their best stretch of baseball with him on the DL, leading some to wonder if the team is better off without him. And he remains under contract through at least 2013.
So why release a biography of Jeter now, at such an uncertain crossroads in his career? Writing a biography of Jeter that culminates in the 2009 season—squeezing his dreadful ’10 and his contentious contract negotiations this off-season into the epilogue—is like writing a biography of Julius Caesar that ends on March 14th.
Ian O’Connor’s new book, The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter, is bound to be incomplete. So why did he write it? It seems clear that the primary motive O’Connor had for writing this book was not to bring new light to Jeter’s career, but to enhance the myths already surrounding it. The Captain is, above all else, an exercise in mythmaking. Continue reading »
60 Minutes had a fascinating feature on superior autobiographical memory, a rare characteristic where individuals remember ordinary details from every day of their lives. Dr. James McGaugh, the neurobiologist behind the study of these individuals, has an interesting academic background.
You knew someone was going to do it–that someone was gonna go all, “Hey, doesn’t the decade really end in 2010?” and put out another encompassing review of the Aughts, 2010 inclusive. That someone turned out to be Time, which is attempting to launch an annual “Timeframes Issue” with its glance back at the last 11 years. Of special note (IOHO, of course and taking into account that some stories are not online) is James Poniewozik’s shortie on news tickers.
Slate‘s Tom Scocca, while on a cruise vacation over Thanksgiving, was inspired to post a 1998 interview he did with David Foster Wallace in several parts. The focus is primarily on Wallace’s non-fiction work, specifically his cruise essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.”
Manny Pacquiao, Boxing’s Great Hope for Continued Relevance, was dominant again on Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium in beating Antonio Margarito. That reminded us of Andrew Corsello’s April profile of the Philippine for GQ.
