Today’s podcast is part of a series to accompany my current serialized novel, An Interpreter in Vienna, as we investigate the truth in fiction. You can also listen to the podcast via Apple or Spotify or in the Substack app. As always, feel free to share any of your work related to the conversation.
I’m in Istria for two weeks with very spotty wifi, so apologies for not getting back to your comments sooner. I’ll get there eventually!
Thank you!
A full AI-created transcript can be accessed on the desktop version.
Keywords:
Sport as part of Everyday Life
Both as action, something we do or your character does
And as culture: supporting teams, iconic athletes, Olympics & nationalism, sport subcultures, songs, designs, pastimes & social activities
Or the story itself may be about a professional or iconic athlete
Theatrics of sport / spectacle
America: baseball
Austria: skiing
Sports in literature
Considerations for your work:
What are the dominant sports of the culture of the setting of your story? In what ways do they weave themselves into everyday life? What kinds of stories do they tell?
Can you include sport as metaphor or symbol for something your character is going through? How might the discussion of or observation of a sport make this clearer for the reader and allow for individual interpretation?
Why might an athlete-character benefit your story? Consider an everyday athlete or a more professional or iconic one.
Feel free to share your related work or recommendations in the comments.
Texts:
Sports writers (Boston Globe) / Dan Shaughnessy
The Curse of the Bambino, Dan Shaughnessy
Films on Baseball:
Field of Dreams, Moneyball, Damn Yankees, Fever Pitch, A League of Their Own
Graber, Ralph S. “Baseball in American Fiction.” The English Journal 56, no. 8 (1967): 1107–14. https://doi.org/10.2307/811614.
Sunset Park, Paul Auster
Smoke, Paul Auster and Wayne Wang
Existentialism and Baseball: The French Philosophical Roots of Paul Auster, Thom Theobald
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace – tennis
“David Foster Wallace’s Perfect Game” (New Yorker)
American Pastoral, Philip Roth – high school multi-sport athlete (excerpt)
Rabbit, Run series, John Updike – basketball
Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway – bullfighting
What I talk about when I talk about Running, Haruki Murakami
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, Joe McGinniss – football/soccer
Sports in Fiction | Episode 48