June 24, 2020

31. Beyond a Boundary.

Listen Later

52 minutes

I haven't the slightest doubt that the clash of race, caste and class did

not retard but stimulated West Indian cricket. I am equally certain that in

those years social and political passions, denied normal outlets, expressed

themselves so fiercely in cricket (and other games) precisely because they

were games. Here began my personal calvary. The British tradition soaked

deep into me was that when you entered the sporting arena you left behind

you the sordid compromises of everyday existence. Yet for us to do that we

would have had to divest ourselves of our skins. […] The class and racial

rivalries were too intense. […] Thus the cricket field was a stage on

which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged

with social significance.

C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary is part

history of cricket, part history of the West Indies in the mid-twentieth

century, part autobiography, part aesthetic treatise, part historiographical

manifesto. It’s a curious book, but it’s also considered one of the best books

of sports writing ever published. Chris and Suzanne, who know very little

about cricket, are still excited to read it and talk about what James has to

say about the intersections of sport, race, colonialism, and literature.

Show Notes.

C.L.R. James: Beyond a Boundary.

[Bookshop.]

Explained: Cricket, a video

which goes over the rules of the sport (and its history since Beyond a

Boundary was published).

Beyond a Boundary, the 1976

documentary for the BBC.

Our episode on The Black Jacobins.

Our previous episode, on Vanity Fair.

Tom Brown’s School

Days.

An archive of interviews with C.L.R.

James.

James in conversation with Stuart

Hall.

A lecture by Robert A. Hill,

James’s literary executor, at a conference for the 50th anniversary of the

publication of Beyond a Boundary.

Next: Virgil, Aeneid.

[Bookshop.] (We’re linking to the

Mandelbaum translation, but read whatever translation you like.)

David Hadbawnik, trans.: Aeneid, Books I-VI.

[Bookshop.]

Enjoying our podcast? Consider supporting The Spouter-Inn on

Patreon. (Thanks!)

...more

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The Spouter-Inn

By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma

4.8

3030 ratings

June 24, 2020

31. Beyond a Boundary.

Listen Later

52 minutes

I haven't the slightest doubt that the clash of race, caste and class did

not retard but stimulated West Indian cricket. I am equally certain that in

those years social and political passions, denied normal outlets, expressed

themselves so fiercely in cricket (and other games) precisely because they

were games. Here began my personal calvary. The British tradition soaked

deep into me was that when you entered the sporting arena you left behind

you the sordid compromises of everyday existence. Yet for us to do that we

would have had to divest ourselves of our skins. […] The class and racial

rivalries were too intense. […] Thus the cricket field was a stage on

which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged

with social significance.

C.L.R. James’s Beyond a Boundary is part

history of cricket, part history of the West Indies in the mid-twentieth

century, part autobiography, part aesthetic treatise, part historiographical

manifesto. It’s a curious book, but it’s also considered one of the best books

of sports writing ever published. Chris and Suzanne, who know very little

about cricket, are still excited to read it and talk about what James has to

say about the intersections of sport, race, colonialism, and literature.

Show Notes.

C.L.R. James: Beyond a Boundary.

[Bookshop.]

Explained: Cricket, a video

which goes over the rules of the sport (and its history since Beyond a

Boundary was published).

Beyond a Boundary, the 1976

documentary for the BBC.

Our episode on The Black Jacobins.

Our previous episode, on Vanity Fair.

Tom Brown’s School

Days.

An archive of interviews with C.L.R.

James.

James in conversation with Stuart

Hall.

A lecture by Robert A. Hill,

James’s literary executor, at a conference for the 50th anniversary of the

publication of Beyond a Boundary.

Next: Virgil, Aeneid.

[Bookshop.] (We’re linking to the

Mandelbaum translation, but read whatever translation you like.)

David Hadbawnik, trans.: Aeneid, Books I-VI.

[Bookshop.]

Enjoying our podcast? Consider supporting The Spouter-Inn on

Patreon. (Thanks!)

...more