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Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

residentcontrarian.com

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Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#51

Post by fumeux_fume »

yodon wrote: post #13

When the author starts their post off insulting David French they lose all credibility in my mind as an arbiter of literature. David French has written an enormous number of posts I disagree strongly with, and an equivalent number that I agree strongly with. That's because he thinks and writes about extremely complex matters of morality and does not reduce his views to the "liberal" or "conservative" orthodoxy. He st…

"When the author starts their post off insulting David French they lose all credibility in my mind as an arbiter of literature." Has got to be the funniest comment I have ever read on HN. Only slightly funnier than: "I'll be clear here that I'm not interested in judgements on literature provided by someone who frames their worldview as hating one of the few writers willing to address the real complexities of real issues today." French stans on HN, I love it! Also, I checked out Bois' youtube and really enjoyed Pretty Good episode 10.

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#52

Post by brimble »

kemayo wrote: post #36
haswell wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the comment as a tongue-in-cheek jab, not an insult. The author made no value judgements about French, and it’s hard to deny that part of French’s audience turned on him. The reasons for that are not examined, and in the context of the reviewer’s opening, it serves as nothing more than a way to say “usually, trust can be built over time, David French’s situation notwithstanding”. To conclude that the author ha…

For what it's worth, I found in the comments to this article a discussion by the author of why he doesn't like David French: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/nobody-will-admit-the-b... So I don't know about "hates", but he really does dislike the man.

Interesting. That appears to explain why the review has a strong, "quirky, 'hip' campus Christian newsletter" vibe.

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#53

Post by wyldfire »

Kapura wrote: post #40
scyclow wrote: post #8

When I read the title of this post, Jon Bois was the first thing that came to mind. 17776 is one of my all time favorite websites, and my goto example of amazing hypertext fiction. https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football

17776 was something that I heard recommended by a bunch of game developers before anybody else. It's one of the most inventive pieces of science fiction I've ever read (watched? experienced?)

It's super cool -- so far, I'm not quite through it yet. It does have some similarity w/the story from "ST:TMP" though.

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#54

Post by [deleted] »

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #49

> Nobody Will Admit The Best Novel of Our Generation is About Football Just stop. We all have different preferences. Personally I hate American football (it's too much like a stupid video game now), so you'll never even get me to read whatever book this person is talking about.

[deleted]

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#55

Post by thazework »

A highly recommended book about (real) football that transcends the genre is The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. Ostensibly an 'account by American writer Joe McGinniss of the first season Italian association football club Castel di Sangro Calcio spent in Serie B' it's really about an author's descent into madness through fanatical self-identification with his subject matter.

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#56

Post by dharmab »

moolcool wrote: post #33
brimble wrote: post #4

Rather, "Nobody Will Admit that A Novel about Football is the Best Novel of Our Generation". This does not appear to be about people denying that the book is about football. Also, the novel is actually a novella. Also, it seems not to be a book, but a web page: https://www.sbnation.com/2014/8/18/5998715/the-tim-tebow-cfl... [EDIT] Also, from the story: > Raghib Ismail. Call me Raghib. sensible-chuckle.gif [ANOTHER ED…

Jon Bois is fantastic. All of his videos are great and he's a great writer. I highly recommend his "Pretty Good" series.

My first encounter with Jon Bois was the final entry of "Breaking Madden" and I have never forgotten it.

https://youtu.be/CeKC7cH1-kI

https://www.sbnation.com/2014/1/30/5351052/breaking-madden-s...

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#57

Post by labrador »

> I once told a friend that there are a lot of books I enjoyed as one enjoys a piece of candy

After 8 paragraphs of this sort of thing we get to the book

The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles follows the adventures of a fictionalized version of Tim Tebow who, brokenhearted over his inability to make it as an NFL quarterback, arrives in Toronto to join the Argonauts

What school of writing is teaching writers to bury the lede in a page or two of personal anecdotes?

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#58

Post by brimble »

zokier wrote: post #35

I do find the thesis in the ending quite weak: > For a longer time before the gritty period, we all dedicated ourselves to the idea that anything we’d acknowledge as very good had to be both serious and artsy. People really liked Good Will Hunting (see: very serious); it was also a good movie, so it won an Oscar. Zillions of people love movies like The Princess Bride and Happy Gilmore; it’s incredibly likely both dwa…

Everything Everywhere All At Once is almost certain to at least be nominated, and it's a feel-good sci-fantasy family action-comedy... more or less.

Re: Nobody will admit the best novel of our generation is about football

#59

Post by UncleOxidant »

ss108 wrote: post #32
Herodotus38 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your reply made me interested in learning more about David French, so I went to his substack and read his post about John Adams Fear, which I enjoyed and thought was pretty balanced. I was wondering, and maybe someone else can chime in, why the author of this article said: "OK, so, there’s this thing where if you write a bunch you hope you eventually build up some trust with your audience. You try to be generally rel…

It's a bit of a clumsy joke I think; David French's previous followers turned on him, as explained above. He maintained his moral and intellectual integrity whereas many of his longtime readers and fans betrayed theirs. So it didn't matter that he had built-up trust. He didn't genuflect to Orange Man and go along sheepishly for the ride the Republican Party has decided to take, so they ditched him.

This is my understanding as well for the criticism of French: He's still very much a conservative, but the definition of "conservatism" has changed to include fealty to an individual instead of (or perhaps in addition to, in some cases) a set of principles. In that context he's maintained his principles and it's led to a lot of criticism from those who have changed theirs in ways they don't seem to be aware of.
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