Monthly Archives: September 2015
If Only There Wasn’t Egon: Searching for L. Ron Hubbard’s Charisma in ‘Going Clear’
Posted on September 30, 2015 3 Comments
By Dan Bjork I’d like to open with a huge thanks to the New York Jets. I planned my Sunday workout for kickoff and they did not disappoint me: by the time I finished, it was halftime and the Jets were down by 17. Making it so very easy to instead spend the second half […]
Book 4: Steven Millhauser’s ‘Edwin Mullhouse’
Posted on September 28, 2015 Leave a Comment
This week, Football Book Club will be reading Steven Millhauser’s Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright and talking about Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear — and the sadness of life without the NFL. Pulitzer Prize-winner Millhausuer’s debut novel operates as a biography of the late Mullhouse — the fictional […]
Her Headspace: On ‘Brain Fever’ and the Five Stages of Chicago Bears Grief
Posted on September 27, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Adam Boretz 1. Because my body is a wreck and due to a week of innumerable medical appointments[1] , I read Brain Fever in a fragmented, desultory fashion: in fits and starts and fragments — a poem or two in waiting rooms or between visits to neurologists and physical therapists and physicians. The effect was […]
Torrential Output From Meager Input: On ‘Brain Fever’ and Transcending Any Available Evidence
Posted on September 25, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Dan Bjork 1. When I was 19, David Hume hit me like the holy ghost. It’s a typical story really: In high school, I was a slightly above-average student who hid inside the security of playing socially acceptable sports; a 10th-grade honors English open essay assignment found me sunk inside The Waste Land (which […]
Undercounted Stars: The Elliptical Coolness of ‘Brain Fever’
Posted on September 24, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Yona Harvey I finally broke down and told my family I wasn’t watching football this season. I heard a collective, audible gasp. It was a major say-what-now? moment. The general consensus: that’s family time! Followed with: OK, player. Suit yourself. On the one hand, my family’s response meant I’d described our NFL bonding time […]
So Much to Say: On Mark Strand, Dorsey Levens, and ‘Brain Fever’
Posted on September 23, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Rob Casper 1. This weekend was difficult. I knew the Packers were playing the Seahawks, for the first time since last year’s disastrous NFC championship. Aside no. 1: To my mind, the only thing worse than being a Packer fan after last year’s NFC championship is being a Seahawks fan after the Super Bowl […]
Making Connections: On Jim Tomsula, the 49ers’ O-Line, and ‘Brain Fever’
Posted on September 22, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Henry Joe I was at the Toronto airport on Sunday, where the local team is the Buffalo Bills. So I couldn’t watch the 49ers at the Pittsburgh Steelers even if I wanted to. And after a few Twitter updates, I really didn’t want to. Here are some first half favorites: At least airport […]
Book 3: Lawrence Wright’s ‘Going Clear’
Posted on September 21, 2015 Leave a Comment
This week, Football Book Club will be reading Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief and talking about Brain Fever by Kimiko Hahn — our selection from last week — and life without the NFL. Pulitzer Prize-winner Wright’s Going Clear promises to be reveal tons of super creepy details about the Church of Scientology, […]
Malignant Mutations: On Family, Jay Cutler, and ‘Winesburg, Ohio’
Posted on September 18, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Adam Boretz 1. It has recently come to my attention that the once charming eccentricities of my more distant family members have devolved into full blown pathologies. The wild uncle once known for his cutting wit and free spirit has grown shiftless, unreliable, and selfish. The morbid aunt has become clinically depressed and briefly […]
Sneaked Peaks and Groaner Prose: On the Pack and ‘Winesburg, Ohio’
Posted on September 17, 2015 5 Comments
By Rob Casper Ryan, when I read your post I wondered: were you able to avoid watching football? I have to say I found it damned difficult to avoid it entirely. This week I started to feel like watching football was immoral, was like watching a beheading — and I felt ashamed when I’d sneak peaks. […]
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