<div dir="ltr"><div>All,</div><div>Please find below and attached Scott Peterson's review of Noah Cohan's <i>We Average Unbeautiful Watchers</i>.</div><div>Duncan</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Cohan, Noah. <i>We
Average Unbeautiful Watchers: Fan Narratives and the Reading of American Sports</i>.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Hardbound, $45.00.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
Reviewed by Scott D. Peterson, University of Missouri—St. Louis<span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Like all good cultural scholarship, Cohan’s book resists the
monolithic, all-or-nothing take, and as an optimistic cultural critic, Cohan
seeks to demonstrate the “transformative power” of sports fans to “subvert the patriarchal
and corporate imperatives embedded in the broadcast and the box score” (4). To
reach this goal, Cohan examines a wide range of fan texts: novels, memoirs,
films, and blogs, across a number of major sports. Readers familiar with David
Foster Wallace’s essays might recognize the book’s somewhat unusual title,
which points to the paradox at the heart of the fan experience: those of us who
fall short of athletic genius (thus leaving us “average” and “unbeautiful” by
the inevitable comparison) are ultimately disappointed by the athlete’s inability
to explain her/his own powers and their impact on us (2). Given that we all
struggle to define and describe the meaning we derive from sport—and sports—Cohen’s
book offers numerous insights into that process from the fan perspective. <span> </span><span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Cohan’s texts range from materials that could be counted
among the Sport Literature canon —DeLillo’s <i>Pafko
at the Wall</i>, Coover’s <i>Universal
Baseball Association</i>, Exley’s <i>A Fan’s
Notes</i>—to authors and auteurs discussed in the pages of <i>Aethlon</i>—John Wideman, Spike Lee, Bill Simmons—and films examined
and/or reviewed (and sometimes graphically quoted at SLA conferences)—<i>Fever Pitch</i> and <i>Silver Linings Playbook</i>. Some of Cohan’s texts—especially the
blogs—would not be considered canonical, yet these are nonetheless significant
and important examples of fan-made meanings. Each of the chapters contains
carefully and effectively constructed comparisons of these far-reaching texts
to ultimately illustrate “the potential for alternative narratives that remake
or reshape fans’ understanding of their role such that they subvert or
reconceptualize that hierarchical structure [that] is always present …” (201). Because
it treats some of the same texts as the early sport literature analyses of
Michael Oriard and Christian Messenger, Cohan’s book expands those treatments
by focusing on the fan’s role.<span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Despite Cohan’s accurate and needed analysis of electronic
texts, Chapter 5 and his Epilogue reminded me that some aspects of sport
narrative have remained unchanged across the century and a half of sports
journalism. The bloggers examined in Chapter 5 effectively serve as an
alternative perspective, yet the numerous excerpts illustrated how these fans
turned writers were just as prone to flights of fancy as the “clever
journalists” in love with their own wit who drew H.L. Mencken’s sharp criticism
of the profession a hundred years ago. Last month’s flap over the former
Houston Astros assistant GM’s comments highlights memoirist Stacey May Fowles’
point about the dangers of losing sight of players as human beings (208);
however, this perspective is hardly new: Ella Black, writing in the <i>Sporting Life</i> in 1890 called for the
same accountability both on and off the field. Though she did not use the term
“hypermasculinity,” Black was not unfamiliar with the concept. Cohan’s analysis
does not shy away from the excesses of sports fans—c.f. Coover’s Waugh or
Exley’s fan, and recent excesses of sports fans can certainly be counted among
the extremes that had Michael Schulman addressing “the dark side” of popular
culture fans who are “more powerful than ever” in the September 16 issue of the
<i>New Yorker</i> (26). As a suggestion for
future research, the hows and whys of sports fans making meaning across
generations is another area ripe for similar investigation; it could be
something as simple as what Michael Chabon does with his and his father’s love
of the original <i>Star Trek </i>series in
the November 18 issue of the <i>New Yorker</i>
(24). With the apparent demise of <i>Dead
Spin</i> and the precipitous decline of <i>Sports
Illustrated</i>, perhaps space will open up for a new publication dedicated to
sports fans.<span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">At the end, Cohan returns to his optimistic cultural critic
perspective when he writes, “Reading sport isn’t just something fans can and
should do for personal fulfillment, but also a form of labor that can be
directed to improve the games themselves” (209). Just as I drew comfort at a
recent conference from philosopher <span>Alva Noë’s argument that keeping score at a
baseball game is an exercise of “knowledge production,”</span> Cohan’s argument
also sits well with me, even as I do my best (with mixed success) to root for
sport in general over any particular team. Cohan’s book will appeal to cultural
critics, fans of all stripes, and American Studies scholars as it thoroughly
and convincingly examines an understudied and undertheorized perspective of the
Sport(s) Media Industrial Complex.<span></span></p>
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</div><div><br></div><div><div><div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Ashland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>