Golf Ball

ISBN-13: 9781628921380 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 160 str.

Harry Brown

Opis

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Harry Brown explores the composition, history, kinetic life, and the long deterioration of golf balls, which as it turns out may outlive their hitters by a thousand years, in places far beyond our reach. Golf balls embody our efforts to impose our will on the land, whether the local golf course or the Moon, but their unpredictable spin, bounce, and roll often defy our control. Despite their considerable technical refinements, golf balls reveal the futility of control. They inevitably disappear in plain sight and find their way into hazards. Golf balls play with people.Harry Brown's short treatise on the golf ball serves up surprising lessons about the human desire to tame and control the landscape through technology. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.

Recenzje

Golf Ball is a funny, smart, and charming meditation on an unlikely subject. Who knew that the story of this humble little white sphere could tell us so much about our history and culture? Brown weaves cultural history, literary criticism, physics, and philosophy into this wonderful book. His meditation on the golf ball deserves a place on the reading list of the curious golfer and cultural critic alike. Orin Starn, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, USA, and author of The Passion of Tiger Woods

Spis treści

AcknowledgmentsPart One: Out: Thing1. How I cut a golf ball in half, and found a lot of things inside2. How the golf ball keeps holy the Lord's day3. How an empire made the golf ball, and the golf ball made an empire4. How the golf ball blew up America and made golf more fun5. How the golf ball went ballistic6. How the golf ball reached détente7. How the court decided custody of the golf ball8. How the golf ball became the #1 ball in golf9. How the golf ball got so coolPart Two: In: Phenomenon10. How the golf ball vanishes before your eyes11. How the golf ball makes us feel fulfilled, for a millisecond12. How to control the unruly golf ball13. How to hit the golf ball by not hitting it14. How the golf ball looks into the abyss, and the abyss looks back15. How the golf ball won the Golden Fleece16. How the golf ball went to the moon17. How the golf ball makes friends with animals18. How the golf ball prepares for doomsdayNotesIndex

O autorze

Harry Brown is Associate Professor of English at DePauw University, USA. He is the author of Injun Joe's Ghost (University of Missouri, 2004) and Videogames and Education (M.E. Sharpe, 2008)