Tuesday, June 14, 2005
In the last two weeks I have written letters to the managing editor of the Sporting News, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, and Richard Roeper (of Ebert and Roeper fame) attempting to correcting each of them. The missives were short and direct. I didn't start them off with a hello. I don't know these people, why would I say hello? They weren't personal, they were just about mistakes.
When things in my life seem like they are beyond my control that's usually when I fire off a steady stream of crank letters. I'm surprised I didn't write more in the summer of 2001. That summer I just accepted rejection letters, I didn't send them.
Pointing out the errors someone else makes enables you to feel as though you're not the only fallible one. It's very satisfying to point out factual errors that someone makes; 'How can you say Bill Mueller challenged for the batting title last year? He hit .283!' You can't debate facts. You can't look at .283 average any other way.
It's petty. It's petty to write to a baseball columnist and nitpick bullshit like that. As if I don't have better things to do (a short story to finish for one). Sometimes it's just hard for me to read something that requires a leap of faith that I can't make. Even if that leap of faith amounts to believing that you can win a batting title with an average less than .300. Hold on a second! That is a bullshit leap of faith, you'd have to be out of your gourd to believe that shit.
Ernest Hemingway once wrote a review of Shirley Jackson's 'Lottery' in which he said that 'even if this did happen, it's not true'. I guess he just couldn't make the leap of faith.
When things in my life seem like they are beyond my control that's usually when I fire off a steady stream of crank letters. I'm surprised I didn't write more in the summer of 2001. That summer I just accepted rejection letters, I didn't send them.
Pointing out the errors someone else makes enables you to feel as though you're not the only fallible one. It's very satisfying to point out factual errors that someone makes; 'How can you say Bill Mueller challenged for the batting title last year? He hit .283!' You can't debate facts. You can't look at .283 average any other way.
It's petty. It's petty to write to a baseball columnist and nitpick bullshit like that. As if I don't have better things to do (a short story to finish for one). Sometimes it's just hard for me to read something that requires a leap of faith that I can't make. Even if that leap of faith amounts to believing that you can win a batting title with an average less than .300. Hold on a second! That is a bullshit leap of faith, you'd have to be out of your gourd to believe that shit.
Ernest Hemingway once wrote a review of Shirley Jackson's 'Lottery' in which he said that 'even if this did happen, it's not true'. I guess he just couldn't make the leap of faith.
# posted by Die Brucke @ 9:25 PM 
