Philosophy Smackdown

Оглавление

Douglas Edwards. Philosophy Smackdown

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Guide

Pages

Dedication

Philosophy Smackdown

Preshow. 1. Origins

2. Rundown

3. Thanks

4. Glossary

1 Reality: Work vs Shoot

1. Three Layers of Reality in Pro Wrestling

2. Reality Intrusions

3. Dirt Sheets, Podcasts, and Total Divas: The Quest for Reality

4. The Co-Dependence of Reality and Appearance

5. Pro Wrestling, News Media, and Democracy

2 Freedom: Scripting vs Spontaneity

1. Scripts and Freedom

2. Scripting and Coaching in Sports

3. Degrees of Scripting

4. The Wrestling Stoic

5. Know Your Role

6. Flipping the Script: Women’s Wrestling

7. Pushing the Script: Intergender Wrestling

3 Identity: Person vs Gimmick

1. Where’s Razor?

2. Working Yourself into a Shoot

3. The Real Me?

4 Morality: Babyface vs Heel

1. The Classic View

2. Virtues and Vices

3. Turns

4. The Classic View Disrupted

5. Reflecting on the Disruption

5 Justice: Prejudice vs Progress

1. Race and Jingoism in Pro Wrestling

2. LGBTQ Issues in Pro Wrestling

3. Reflecting Culture vs Changing It

4. Commodification and Social Justice

5. How to be a Socially Responsible Pro Wrestling Company?

6 Meaning: Sport vs Monster

1. Philosophy and Definition

2. Pro Wrestling as Sport

2.1 Refereed Sports and Performance Sports

3. Pro Wrestling as Sports Entertainment

4. Pro Wrestling as a Monster

4.1 What are Monsters?

4.2 Pro Wrestling’s Monstrous Origin

4.3 Pro Wrestling: the Monster and Us

Dark Match: Pro Wrestling vs Philosophy

1. Philosophy and Wrestling

2. Narrative Structures

2.1 Plato’s Dialogues

2.2 General Narratives

3. Matches and Symposia

4. The Pro Wrestling of Philosophy

5. What’s Your Gimmick?

6. Philosophy: Work or Shoot?

Credits

1. Wrestling Shows Discussed

2. Wrestling Podcasts

3. Wrestling News Websites

4. Wrestling Documentaries/TV Shows

5. Books about Wrestling

6. Articles Referred To

7. Philosophy Works Referred To

8. My Other Books

Index of Names. A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

POLITY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Отрывок из книги

To Theo and Lola

The moment when I really became gripped, though, was WrestleMania X, and the triumph of Bret “Hitman” Hart. Bret, at the time a classic babyface, or good guy, was a spirited, plucky hero in distinctive pink and black attire, who, despite not being the biggest guy in comparison to behemoths like Hulk and Warrior, relied on his technical expertise and skill to work his way to the top. At the time Bret was feuding with his brother Owen, and the story of their feud resonated with me. A classic story of sibling rivalry, it hit close to home: my brother and I constantly competed and strove to beat each other, no matter what we were doing. Only 18 months apart, we played pretty much any game you could think of, and the story was always the same. Me, trying to prove that, because I was older, I was better, and him trying to show that that was nonsense. Bret and Owen’s feud, pitched as it was with Bret the babyface and Owen the heel (bad guy) spoke to my 11-year-old self as a mirror of my experience: Bret even had brown hair, and Owen blonde hair, just like me and my brother!

.....

In Freedom: Scripting vs Spontaneity, we look at the idea that pro wrestling is scripted, and the extent to which this is a distinctive mark of pro wrestling over other sports, and real life. We explore the different extents to which pro wrestling is scripted, and discuss philosophical accounts of how “real life” is scripted. We also talk about breaking cultural scripts, look at the development of women’s wrestling, and examine the controversial issue of intergender wrestling.

Identity: Person vs Gimmick delves into the relationship between a wrestler and their character, or “gimmick”. We explore questions of personal identity, such as what happens to a character when the person playing them changes, and how we can make sense – if at all – of a character changing over time. We also talk about what happens when wrestlers “work themselves into a shoot”, and inadvertently become their characters. We also see that the predicament of wrestlers and their gimmicks is not a million miles removed from the issues of identity we face in our everyday lives.

.....