Everything You Know Is Pong
Roger Bennett
- 01 november 2010
- 9780061690518
Samenvatting:
Every sport claims to be the world's game-soccer, basketball, kabadi. If you throw in a billion Chinese aficionados, it is no empty boast to claim that ping pong is the most popular yet little exposed pastime in the world today. This title tells the little-known story of this almighty subculture.
A highly illustrated, beautifully designed tribute to ping pong, the world's most popular yet least appreciated sport—with tales from the table by Nick Hornby, Will Shortz, Davy Rothbart, Harold Evans, Jonathan Safran Foer, and others.
Every sport claims to be the world's game—soccer, basketball, kabaddi. But none can match the global status acquired by modest, ubiquitous ping pong—the most popular yet misunderstood pastime in the world today, a sleeping giant of fast-paced fun. Join us on a journey into the dark corners and distant alleys of this ponging globe, from suburban basements of misspent youths to Bangkok backrooms to New Jersey rec rooms to Beijing stadia to dwarf child champions to elderly enthusiasts to Hollywood hipsters to perky porn stars. This cast of thousands, combined with artifacts from the authors' ever-growing collection of ping pongalia, reveals the hidden truths of the world behind the game: the secrets of eternal youth, guerrilla warfare, foolproof seduction, fame and adulation—all explained through two paddles, sixty inches of net, and a bouncing, bouncing ball. A world where everything you know is pong.
Every sport claims to be the world's game-soccer, basketball, kabadi. But few can match the global status acquired by modest yet ubiquitous ping pong: constant but never ascendant, willing to be considered a little ridiculous, all the while secreting its fingerprints across popular culture. Fidel Castro and Prince Charles, Thelonius Monk and 50 Cent, George Foreman and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlie Chaplin and Ellen Degeneres - all have clutched a paddle, all have peered across that net with menacing intent. If you throw in a billion Chinese aficionados, it is no empty boast to claim that ping pong is the most popular yet little exposed pastime in the world today. A beautifully illustrated, unabashed love letter to ping pong, "Everything You Know is Pong" tells the little-known story of this almighty subculture. With essays from such paddle-weilding luminaries as Jonathan Safran Foer, Nick Hornby, Harry Evans, Davy Rothbart, and Will Shortz, and using images as diverse as 1960s Dr. Pepper advertisements, Chinese telephone cards, and primitive video game consoles, this book is nothing less than a coronation of ping pong, the sleeping giant of fast-paced fun.