Book Review

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Escher on May 23, 2009 at 9:40am

If anybody responds to the review (you could say, "I read it"), I will in sequence respond, adding new self-generated information from my autologue until Oscar says, "You didn't get it right!" and then of course I might continue anyway, believing as I do in mistakes if you don't let them get you down.

Permalink Reply by Dean Wright on May 23, 2009 at 4:56pm

Aren't we lucky to have John Escher!!! One of the most thoughtfull and intellegant persons on the planet. Loved his review of oscar's book. Of course, John comes from the triad area of North Carolina, were smart people tend to hang out, I was born raised, and hung out there for 46 years. I don't put myself in his league, however, North Carolinans are special people, even the ones that are now Texans!!!!

Permalink Reply by John Escher on May 25, 2009 at 12:06pm

Thanks, Dean. As long as I remain "intellegant" and not "intelligent," I'll be all right. Yes, a transplanted Yankee in The Triad.

The thing is, this review was not the end of my thinking about tennis, it was the beginning. But the beginning of what? Of a horrid inner voice always saying "Do this and this and this?" Or a more interesting voice saying "Try this and that and this?"

Sometimes it has been both. Then I have an "autologue," an imaginary dialogue within myself, essential for learning her 16 languages, the late polyglot Katie Lomb insisted, and not the same as a "monologue" at all.

The simple but not straightforward (joke) ideas of Oscar and the MTM may or may not remain simple as one applies them to one's own personality, but this is as it should be.

Because some people work better through their two optic pathways, a circuit apparently of a receptive road taking light impulses to the brain and an interpretive road, with ten times more nerve cells, bringing a completed image back to the eyes.

Others need to puzzle more, to "analyze," to set up minute sequences, although they quickly learn how counter-productive this is when overdone even slightly.

A good tennis player obviously does some of both, has a highly developed "corpus callosum," the organ that mediates between the spatial and temporal lobes.

Like a great dancer, he or she can take a cue and literally run with it. As a recent guest at an advanced level dance class at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, I observed people take eight cues from the instructor as he verbalized each one while performing it, and then be able, immediately, to perform all eight in sequence themselves.

Cues, cues-- that's the most fun part of tennis for me, better even than winning although I get to do that too. Taking cues, making up one's own, keeping them simple but "kinesthetic"-- if one can master this trick there seems no limit to what
one can do.

Permalink Reply by Lucile Bosche´ on May 25, 2009 at 1:31pm

Interesting references to the corpus callosum, the receptive road (I like that), and how we "see" and "feel" our way through physical experience. The "analyzer" at work (or play) dictates perception and action; but Oscar and I often debate just "who" that analyzer actually is. The answer is simply "you", and you are not even your name or your body or your mind! Herein lies the seemingly mysterious realm of the Zone, where dancers, musicians, painters and, yes - tennis players - create with ease and near perfection. And you're correct, John, it IS fun.

Permalink Reply by John Escher on May 29, 2009 at 6:21pm

Lucile Bosche´ said:

Interesting references to the corpus callosum, the receptive road (I like that), and how we "see" and "feel" our way through physical experience. The "analyzer" at work (or play) dictates perception and action; but Oscar and I often debate just "who" that analyzer actually is. The answer is simply "you", and you are not even your name or your body or your mind! Herein lies the seemingly mysterious realm of the Zone, where dancers, musicians, painters and, yes - tennis players - create with ease and near perfection. And you're correct, John, it IS fun.

Permalink Reply by John Escher on May 29, 2009 at 6:23pm

I'm sure that an impostor occasionally gets in there.