Saturday, January 24, 2015

Tennis Quote of the Day: Tennis is Chess-on-the-run

"Tennis [is] like chess on the run, beautiful and infinitely dense. The true opponent, the enfolding boundry, is the player himself. Always and only the self out there, on court, to be met, fought, brought to the table, to hammer out the terms. The competing boy, on the net's other side: he is not the foe: he is more the partner in dance. He is, what is the word, excuse or occasion for meeting the self. As you are his occasion. Tennis' beauty's infinite roots are self-competitive. You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution. Disappear inside the game: break through the limits: transcend: improve: win. . . . You seek to vanquish and transcend the limited self whose limits make the game possible in the first place. It is tragic and sad and chaotic and lovely. All life is the same, as citizens of the human State." 

--- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest       

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