Art
There's a series of short stories I've been working on that's set in a world where anything worth doing is considered art. Science, literature, sports, money management, and so on, are all seen as having some sort of artistic value and are thus considered "art."
I was trying to think of how I'd made some of the topics work. Mostly because when I talk to people who want to tell me something about sports, I say, "I don't know anything about sports."
They say, "But you do your martial arts thing. That's sport."
And I say, "Yeah, but it's called martial arts. I'd differentiate it from sports."
"But yeah," they say, "it's still competitive, so it's still a sport."
"But you don't hear me calling football 'throwing-ball art,' because its nature is that its competitive, requires you work with a set of rules, and essentially abandon creativity. Martial arts invite change and adaptation and self discovery. That's not something you find in sports.
"When martial arts become sports, that's when you're looking at tae kwon do people who're trying to earn as many points as possible. Thai fighters are doing something personal, not for money or fame (because they don't earn any money; all earnings go to the kru, who gives the money to the camp or village). They have to string together what they know into something that is essentially their own, change, adapt in the ring. Without that, they're just athletes who are doing what they're told."
But I've been thinking, how could I make football seem like an art? Well, this is kind of what I mean by that portrayal:
Not just that it's football presented artistically, but it makes it look like a battlefield, where one individual has to defeat a series of enemies using his wits and his own creative ability (and physical adaptation), not to earn a few points, but for the sake of the act. Art.
I was trying to think of how I'd made some of the topics work. Mostly because when I talk to people who want to tell me something about sports, I say, "I don't know anything about sports."
They say, "But you do your martial arts thing. That's sport."
And I say, "Yeah, but it's called martial arts. I'd differentiate it from sports."
"But yeah," they say, "it's still competitive, so it's still a sport."
"But you don't hear me calling football 'throwing-ball art,' because its nature is that its competitive, requires you work with a set of rules, and essentially abandon creativity. Martial arts invite change and adaptation and self discovery. That's not something you find in sports.
"When martial arts become sports, that's when you're looking at tae kwon do people who're trying to earn as many points as possible. Thai fighters are doing something personal, not for money or fame (because they don't earn any money; all earnings go to the kru, who gives the money to the camp or village). They have to string together what they know into something that is essentially their own, change, adapt in the ring. Without that, they're just athletes who are doing what they're told."
But I've been thinking, how could I make football seem like an art? Well, this is kind of what I mean by that portrayal:
Click to viewNot just that it's football presented artistically, but it makes it look like a battlefield, where one individual has to defeat a series of enemies using his wits and his own creative ability (and physical adaptation), not to earn a few points, but for the sake of the act. Art.