Comments on: The Domino Diaries: Rosetta Stones

By: Erika Rae

Erika Rae — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:32:00 +0000

Excellent. Just wanted to say I’m still thinking about this post. So much here.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:47:32 +0000

I’m sorry to say that few supreme satisfactions exist in childhood beyond knocking that bastard out in the first round. Not *down*—OUT.

By: Phat B

Phat B — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:58:42 +0000

I can’t believe you guys beat him. I could never beat that jerk and his 1 punch uppercut knockout bullshit aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh…

Lightning punch my ass. That game broke a lot of kid’s hearts.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:28:38 +0000

Obviously your efforts at besting him proved more successful than my own. I entered that damn thing somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion times so it oughta’ve stuck.

By: Richard Cox

Richard Cox — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:20:59 +0000

Wow. I thought I remembered everything and I couldn’t have recalled that for a million dollars. Or even one hundred BILLION dollars.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:25:12 +0000

007 373 5963. Still remember the password (after EARNING it).

We’ve both knocked out Tyson then. Who knew?

By: Richard Cox

Richard Cox — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:58:51 +0000

Dude,

Why didn’t I know that about Tyson? Iron Mike read literature? And that’s part of how you were introduced to it? Life is so amazing.

I truly admire you for getting in the ring at all, let alone going back the following week after taking that abuse. Although I imagine, as you alluded, that once you realize it’s not going to kill you, there is a certain thrill to it.

The closest I’ve ever come to real boxing is going all the way to the title and beating Tyson with no cheats on the original Nintendo. It’s just not the same on Wii, although I do love the sword fighting.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:13:29 +0000

Of course I’m reading it. I don’t resist much…

By: Erika Rae

Erika Rae — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:10:42 +0000

Ah come on, where’s your stomach? Get back in the ring.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:06:16 +0000

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but this is very much the wrong note to leave me immediately after writing an article about living through the last day of your dad’s life. I’m going to have to wait until tomorrow to bear reading it.

By: Erika Rae

Erika Rae — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:55:16 +0000

You’re in prime form with this one, Brin. I freaking love your trainer. Who couldn’t love someone who talks dirty to a paraplegic?

Another incredible image: the old man begging for rum while fanning himself with a peacock feather.

I think I’ve told you this before, but I am envious of how you have taught yourself literature. It makes the way I’ve learned (in academia) seem immensely shabby.

Leedle by leedle. Words to live by.

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:23:42 +0000

I read your review and quite agree with your conclusion about that collection. Which is a testament to your good thinking on the subject rather than my getting off my ass and taking a look at the collection itself. Which I intend to do very shortly.

As you might imagine, I’m fairly swamped with all things Cuba going back the last handful of centuries with only a little Franny and Zooey and Lydia Davis offering breathing room.

Aside from F.X. Toole, I haven’t read much I cared for on boxing really. Probably for similar reasons to what you lay out about all the tiresome gender posturing. That being said, Joyce Carol Oates took a crack at it herself and her stuff was for the most part even more tiresome and glib. Oates’ “On Boxing” was to understanding the male roughly what I imagine “A Farewell to Arms” was to understanding the female.

I don’t pretend to know what boxing really means to human beings. A lot of different things, I guess. The truth is I’m less interested in the ideas behind why it means something than how it makes me and others I know feel.

I really appreciate your kind words. And I’m sorry about injecting any sympathy towards Mike Tyson. It happened to me too. I wasn’t looking for it.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:44:33 +0000

You are such a fucking fantastic writer. It kills me. I have never had sympathy for Mike Flipping Tyson before. Even though I knew basically the things you wrote. You just did it better. Seriously. I am someone who doesn’t care a whit about professional sports, least of all boxing, but I find myself loving boxing and boxers when I read you. J.R. Moehringer wrote a piece called “Resurrecting the Champ” about the search for a faded champion boxer. It’s in the collection “The Beholder’s Eye.” It’s not as good as this. You should also read “My Dinner with Ali” by Davis Miller, which is in the same collection. It’s really lovely. Yes, of course I wrote a review of the collection. And of course I’ll link it here: http://www.notitles.com/?page_id=50 (For real though. amazing stuff here)

By: Brin Friesen

Brin Friesen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:02:54 +0000

This is all very nice to hear. Thanks man.

By: David S. Wills

David S. Wills — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:25:17 +0000

Wow, brilliant post, Brin. I didn’t know a thing about boxing until this. I didn’t know Tyson was much of a reader, or that he inspired others to read. And I’d never thought about a person’s first boxing match before… I guess it would be impossible to know how you’d take a punch before you actually take one.