Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Walking, not a sport

“Walking is not a sport. Putting one foot in front of the other is child’s play”: Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking, trans. John Howe (London: Verso, 2014).

I like the spirit of this book. But there’s considerable repetition, and too many abstractions and unsupported assertions. After all, walking, for some people, is a sport, and for others, it’s impossible or nearly so. The translation is often ungainly: “One can plunder the streets delicately like that for ages.” This book is best borrowed from a library. The library is best reached on foot.

comments: 4

shallnot said...

It might be child's play but not if you are a super-hero...

http://youtu.be/Fh38JGtR8Js - Bill Nye "The Science Guy" as Speed Walker vs The Grabber from 1990s "Almost Live!"

Michael Leddy said...

Silly stuff! I used to make my kids laugh with Bill Nye imitations: “You see, the galaxy is like a gigantic cheeseburger,” and so on.

shallnot said...

“Almost Live!” aired on the Seattle NBC affiliate, “King 5”, a half-hour before “Saturday Night Live” and was generally more amusing than SNL.

There wa enough shared references (e.g. rains often in both Seattle and Victora, British Columbia). Some humour was situation transferrable (old slow drivers in Ballard, WA and old slow drivers in the municipality of Oak Bay). And some was just brilliant observational humour (the commercial for the closeout sale of “Roscoe’s Rug Emporium” narrated by the great Pat Cashman). I swear there’s a rug store here in Vancouver that has been going out of business for the last decade.

Michael Leddy said...

I just found the commercials, or some of them, at YouTube — funny, and a real SCTV flavor.