Some more 'Fever Pitch'

I've noticed that most of you are a bit behind, so I' going to be easy on you for this week...

Remember last week we read/watched bits from Fever Pitch?

Look at the trailers for the British and American versions of the film:





Compare and contrast them in a comment below.

Fever Pitch

In the previous post, you read an extract from Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. The book was later turned into a film (or two films really, a British version, which is quite close to the book, and an American version, which is a loose adaptation). We are going to watch the last scenes from the film:

1) Which of the people in the video do you think represents the author?

2) Compare the two men's attitudes towards the match.

3) Research on the Internet the Liverpool vs Arsenal Final (1989). Why was this game so important/memorable?

4) What was the most memorable football match (or any other sports event) you remember? Why? What do you remember about it?

Please write your answers in a comment below.

The Sugar Mouse Ritual

Remember that a couple of weeks ago we talked about superstitions in sport? The following text is an adapted extract from Nick Hornby's novel, Fever Pitch. The novel is autobiographical, and it revolves around the author's (and his friends') relationship with football, and especially with Arsenal, his favourite team. Each 'chapter' focuses on a different football match. Here's the one that I have chosen:

SUGAR MICE AND BUZZCOCKS ALBUMS

CAMBRIDGE UNITED v ORIENT

4.11.78

What happened was, Chris Roberts bought a sugar mouse from Jack Reynolds, bit its head off, dropped it in the Newmarket Road before he could get started on the body, and it got run over by a car. And that afternoon Cambridge United, who had hitherto been finding life difficult in the Second Division (two wins all season, one home, one away), beat Orient 3-1, and a ritual was born. Before each home game we all of us trooped into the sweet shop, purchased our mice, walked outside, bit the head off as though we were removing the pin from a grenade, and tossed the torsos under the wheels of oncoming cars; Jack Reynolds would stand in the doorway watching us, shaking his head sorrowfully. United, thus protected, remained unbeaten at the Abbey for months.
I know that I am particularly stupid about rituals, and have been ever since I started going to football matches, and I know also that I am not alone. I can remember when I was young having to take with me to Highbury a piece of putty, or blu-tack, or some stupid thing, which I pulled on nervously all afternoon (I was a smoker even before I was old enough to smoke); I can also remember having to buy a programme from the same programme seller, and having to enter the stadium through the same turnstile.

There have been hundreds of similar bits of nonsense, all designed to guarantee victories for one or other of my two teams. During Arsenal’s protracted and nerve-racking semi-final campaign against Liverpool in 1980, I turned the radio off half-way through the second half of the last game; Arsenal were winning 1-0, and as Liverpool had equalised in the last seconds of the previous game, I couldn’t bear to hear it through to the end. I played a Buzzcocks album instead (the Singles – Going Steady compilation album), knowing that side one would take me through to the final whistle. We won the match, and I insisted that my flatmate, who worked in a record store, should play the album at twenty past four on Cup Final afternoon, although it did no good. (I have my suspicions that he might have forgotten.)

I have tried “smoking” goals in (Arsenal once scored as three of us were lighting cigarettes), and eating cheese-and-onion crisps at a certain point in the first half; I have tried not setting the video for live games (the team seems to have suffered badly in the past when I have taped the matches in order to study the performance when I get home); I have tried lucky socks, and lucky shirts, and lucky hats, and lucky friends, and have attempted to exclude others who I feel bring with them nothing but trouble for the team.

Nothing (apart from the sugar mice) has ever been any good. But what else can we do when we’re so weak! We invest hours each day, months each year, years each lifetime in something over which we have no control; is it any wonder then, that we are reduced to creating ingenious but bizarre liturgies designed to give us the illusion that we are powerful after all, just as every other primitive community has done when faced with a deep and apparently impenetrable mystery?

 

1) Name at least 5 rituals mentioned in the text. Which has been the most successful?

 

2) How did the 'sugar mouse ritual' originate?

3) How did the 'Buzzcocks' ritual start? Why does the writer think didn't it work in the Finals?

4) What does the writer mean when he talks about 'smoking goals in'? What about 'lucky friends'?

5) Analyse the idea of 'power' in the last paragraph.

6) Find an expression in the text that means...

a. until now or until a particular time (paragraph 1)

b. sadly (paragraph 1)

c. an idea, something said or written, or behaviour that is silly or stupid (paragraph 3)

d. something that is difficult to do and causes a lot of worry for the person involved in it (paragraph 3)

e. a rite, a particular set of words, music and actions used in ceremonies in some religions (paragraph 5)

Please hand in your assignment by e-mail (mmasuyama.nes@gmail.com)

Self-assessment

So, we have been working on this blog for a bit over a month now. I think it would be a good idea to stop and reflect on our work so far.

Some students brought up the fact that they had trouble getting used to working in this way. Let's see if we can share some strategies:

1) How often have you been visiting the blog?

2) Do you always access the blog on the same day/time, or do you do it whenever you have free time?

3) Do you regard this as a real part of the subject, or just as something 'extra' that you have to do?

4) How long does it take you to complete the activities each week?

5) Which activities are easy for you to do, and which do you find difficult?

6) Do you work individually or with your classmates?

7) Do you get enough feedback, or would you like me to provide more detailed corrections?

8) Have you found the activities and topics appealing/interesting so far?

9) Suggest topics or activities you'd like us to work with.

10) Is there anything that you'd like to change about the way in which we've been working?

Please write your answers in a comment below.

I've also updated your grades. Make sure you look at them and let me know if you have any questions.

Writing a Short Story

Today we are going to write a short story. First, watch the following video and pay attention to the tips mentioned:



I also suggest that you read these tips on writing a short story.

Remember it's very important to use narrative tenses.

Choose one of the following topics for your short story:

• an unlucky day
• a superstitious sportsman

(you can draw inspiration from the videos we watched last week)

I would also like you to include at least five of these words: glance - step  - shriek - slam - shudder - scream - leap - jerk - pound - gasp (remember you looked them up in the dictionary?)

Write your story in around 150 words. Send your story by e-mail (mmasuyama.nes@gmail.com)   

Superstitions in Sport

Watch the following videos:

Would you say the rituals shown are superstitions? Which of them do you think is the most absurd? 

Have you heard of any such rituals in connection with sports?

Do you have any rituals of your own (for example, before a sports match, before an exam, etc.)?

Write your answers in a comment below.

Mr Lucky

Watch the following video:



What superstitions are represented in the video?
Write your answers in a comment below.