Sports & Recreation Essays & Writings
Fail Better
Why Baseball Matters
- Publisher
- Brilliance Audio
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2018
- Category
- Essays & Writings, Popular Culture, General
-
CD-Audio
- ISBN
- 9781721341870
- Publish Date
- Sep 2018
- List Price
- $21.99
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Description
Taking seriously the idea that baseball is a study in failure - a very successful batter manages a base hit in just three of every 10 attempts - Mark Kingwell argues that there is no better tutor of human failure's enduring significance than this strange, crooked game of base, where geometry becomes poetry.
Weaving elements of memoir, philosophical reflection, sports writing, and humour, Fail Better is an intellectual love letter to baseball by one of North America's most engaging philosophers. Kingwell illustrates complex concepts like theoretically infinite game-space, "time out of time", and the rules of civility with accessible examples drawn from the game, its history, and his own halting efforts to hit 'em where they ain't. Beyond a "Beckett meets baseball" study in failure, Kingwell crafts a thoughtful appreciation of why sports matter and how they change our vision of the world.
Never pretentious, always entertaining, Fail Better is set to be the homerun nonfiction title of the season.
About the authors
Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is the author of eleven books of political and cultural theory, including most recently, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City (2008) and Opening Gambits: Essays on Art and Philosophy (2008). He is the recipient of the Spitz Prize in political theory, National Magazine Awards for both essays and columns, and in 2000 was awarded an honorary DFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design for contributions to theory and criticism.
Patrick Turmel is an assistant professor of philosophy at Université Laval. His main research interests are in moral and political philosophy. He has published articles in ethics and on issues pertaining to cities and justice. He is also co-editor of Penser les institutions (Presses de l’Université Laval).
Other titles by Mark Kingwell
Singular Creatures
Robots, Rights, and the Politics of Posthumanism
The Adventurer's Glossary
The Ethics of Architecture
On Risk
Wish I Were Here
Boredom and the Interface
The Best Canadian Essays 2018
Measure Yourself Against the Earth
The Man with Six Senses
Unruly Voices
Essays on Democracy, Civility and the Human Imagination
