Sports in Film and Literature
At the Corner of Love and Basketball
According to Aristotle, tragedy is one of the refined versions of poetry when handling lofty issues as well as comedy. Aristotle traces a speculative and brief history of tragedy. As Aristotle presents, tragedy has seven features (Heath, 2017). The tragedy is seen as mimetic, serious, tells a story fully, it has harmony and rhythm, the harmony and the rhythm happen at various stages of the tragedy, it is performed instead of being narrated, and lastly, it creates feelings of fear and pity while purging the feelings via catharsis (Heath, 2017). The parts of a tragedy involve there being a plot, character, thought, melody, diction, and then a spectacle.
At the corner of love and a basketball is a tragic story that bears its seriousness in telling the story of Malika Willoughby and Rosalind Ross. The narrative seriously tells the love story of the two girls who had dreams for a future together. Homosexuality was a serious matter during those days, and therefore it led to Willie disowning, her daughter Rosalind who loved a girl by the name Malika (Glock, 2012). The story shows the seriousness of the feelings that Malika had for Rosalind and how much she meant to her.
Another characteristic of the tragedy that the story bears is it is mimetic. The tale is based on the things that are happening in the world. Homosexuality is real, and there are some people who have difficulties in accepting who they are. The society has negative views of homosexuality, and people who are gay or lesbian are hiding their sexuality with the fear of discrimination, just like Willie did to his daughter (Glock, 2012). The narrative also tells the story entirely. The narrative shows the story of Malika and Rosalind and how it ended. It also adds on telling the story of Pamela, Spencer, and willie too. It tells about what happened to Rosalind after Malika killed her and what happened to Malika, too (Glock, 2012). The characters in the plot have the appropriate characters that are needed by telling the story consistently and realistically.
The story makes one develop feelings of pity. One will pity Malika for how much she loved Ross even to the point of becoming obsessed with her. The fights that they kept having to instill fear on the audience. The two girls went from being happy to miserable. Ross could no longer continue with her basketball career because she was not doing okay, and therefore, she ended up becoming broke (Glock, 2012). Malika became a drunkard, and they would sleep separately and fight frequently.
However, the tragedy is not performed, but it deals with actions that ate more fantastic and within a scope that is wider. It is just a narration that is being told by the brother of Rosalind Spencer. It also does not have harmony and rhythm as it does not take advantage of the devices of spectacle and music.
Marathon Man
Hubris is a term that is used to show that one has extreme self-confidence and pride. In Greek drama and mythology, the term was an affront to the gods since no human being was supposed to see themselves as powerful than the gods (Park & Yoo, 2017). In Greek history, the gods punished people who show hubris. The saying ‘pride comes before a fall’ is an illustration that extreme pride and self-confidence are not good.
In the Marathon Man, Kip Litton is a dentist in a small town who has cheated in the marathons many times. Technology made it possible for Kip Litton to clock runners and track them at intervals that were measured. Litton was a great cheater in the marathons. He never completed a race, and he did not register split all the time (Singer, 2012). He was not seen running the race, he could only be seen in the starting point, and at the end of the race. The hubris of Litton is seen when he is extremely confident that it would be hard to discover his images as his racing bib was covered by his shirt. He was overconfident that it would be hard for him to be caught. He used to brag of the things that he knew. He would brag how he knew many cracks and potholes in all routes. People wondered whether Litton suffered from self-dilusion certitude. The character of Litton resulted in him being disqualified in races (Singer, 2012). He was discovered and therefore, would not be going anywhere in the races. The achievements that Litton had already made attracted the local media. He would tell of how he was overweight and could not run but transformed to become the athlete he is.
The hubris of Litton had an implication on the behavior of Strode. He changed his perception of Litton after learning of the things that he had been doing. Strode was immersed in a private obsession with Litton, where he started investigating his every move. Strode conducted many broad investigations. His uncovering showed that Litton had been involved in many irregularities.
The other people the hubris of Litton had an effect on was the LetsRun board. The board could not help but simmer with sarcasm about the exploits that were made by Litton. This happened after Litton asked for his shirt and his packet to be sent to him as he could no longer participate in the race. Litton claimed that he had been involved in a car accident (Singer, 2012). The journalists also began to raise their eyebrows after the stories about how modest, caring, charitable, witty, generous, and intelligent Litton was (Singer, 2012). The portray was that Litton was innocent. Reporters began exchanging emails with him during their investigations.
Reference
Glock, A. (2012). At the corner of love and basketball. espnW. Retrieved from https://www.espn.com/espnw/news-commentary/story/_/id/7985309/malika-willoughby-rosalind-ross-had-tragic-love-story-espn-magazine
Heath, M. (2017). Aristotle on the Best Kind of Tragic Plot: Re-reading Poetics 13–14. In Reading Aristotle (pp. 334-351). BRILL.
Park, H., & Yoo, Y. (2017). A Literature Review On Chief Executive Officer Hubris And Related Constructs: Is The Theory Of Chief Executive Officer Hubris An Antecedents Or Consequences?. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 33(4), 705-720.
Singer, M. (2012). Marathon Man-A Michigan dentist’s improbable transformation. The NEWYORKER. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man