Apr 12, 2024 04:22 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 12, 2024 04:29 PM by C C.)
https://junkyardofthemind.com/blog/2024/...ing-fandom
EXCERPT: . . . Kendall L. Walton (2015) thinks this puzzle of sports fandom parallels the paradox of fiction.
“The fan imagines that the outcome matters immensely and imagines caring immensely—while (in many cases) realizing that it doesn’t actually matter much, if at all. She is caught up in the world of the game, as the spectator at the theater is caught up in the story. Afterwards, like the playgoer, she steps outside of the make-believe and goes back to living her life as though nothing much had happened—even if the home team suffered a devastating and humiliating defeat. It’s just a story; it’s just a game” (p. 77).
Walton himself and other authors (Wildman 2019, Moore 2019) who have tried to explain this aspect of sports fandom have applied Walton’s theory in a quite limited way. These three Waltonians have an impoverished view of sports make-believe and sports fandom. There’s a better way to apply the Waltonian theory to sports.
On Walton’s account, the prop in a fan’s game of make-believe is the sporting event: the game, the contest, the match. What’s the content of the sports fandom make-believe? Walton mentions a few specifics:
Two worries crop up [in this analysis].... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . Kendall L. Walton (2015) thinks this puzzle of sports fandom parallels the paradox of fiction.
“The fan imagines that the outcome matters immensely and imagines caring immensely—while (in many cases) realizing that it doesn’t actually matter much, if at all. She is caught up in the world of the game, as the spectator at the theater is caught up in the story. Afterwards, like the playgoer, she steps outside of the make-believe and goes back to living her life as though nothing much had happened—even if the home team suffered a devastating and humiliating defeat. It’s just a story; it’s just a game” (p. 77).
Walton himself and other authors (Wildman 2019, Moore 2019) who have tried to explain this aspect of sports fandom have applied Walton’s theory in a quite limited way. These three Waltonians have an impoverished view of sports make-believe and sports fandom. There’s a better way to apply the Waltonian theory to sports.
On Walton’s account, the prop in a fan’s game of make-believe is the sporting event: the game, the contest, the match. What’s the content of the sports fandom make-believe? Walton mentions a few specifics:
- In addition to one’s real-world concerns about the outcome of the game, one is supposed to imagine that the game matters a great deal (p. 78).
- Spectators’ affective response to whatever real-world concerns they have with the game can serve as reflexive props; a small sensation of excitement at a successful third-and-long conversion is imagined to be much greater sensation responding to a fictional concern (p. 78).
- Frequently fans imagine, in a fairly indeterminate way, that the opposing players are the “bad guys” and that the preferred team is the “good guys,” and fictionally desire that the good guys triumph (p. 79).
Two worries crop up [in this analysis].... (MORE - missing details)