The camera in the stands

The wisdom of Pudge Fisk, channeled through Jon Udell:

Somewhere in the 2000s, [Roger] Angell asked [Carlton] Fisk to reflect on what had most altered the game of baseball since his playing days. The salaries? The drugs? No. The game-changer, Fisk said, was instant replay. His game-winning 1975 home run is one of most-remembered moments in all of sports. The video of that event is one of the most-watched clips. You might think that Carlton Fisk has seen that clip a million times. But in fact, he told Roger Angell, he never watches it. That’s because he doesn’t want to overwrite the original memory, which is his alone, recorded from a point of view that was his alone, with a memory we all share that was recorded by a camera up in the stands.

7 thoughts on “The camera in the stands

  1. Seth Finkelstein

    I don’t know about “overwrite”, but it’s not uncommon for people who were at events to be uninterested in video of those events – i.e. “I was there – I don’t want to watch someone else watching me there” (other people have different views – some say “That’s me! That’s me!” – each to his or her own).

    But my reaction to this anecdote was, there’s only one of him (Fisk), but millions, billions, who are NOT him, and can only experience that event via the camera.

  2. Thefrailestthing

    The point to take from this, it seems to me, is not about the relative value of recording events for people who are not present. It is about the kind of self-documentation made possible by ubiquitous means of digital documentation. It is about becoming spectators of our own lives and introducing a kind of temporal alienation into our experience as we live not for the experience in itself, but for its representation.

    It seems to me that this sort of rupture in experience and memory that the Fisk anecdote attempts to get at.

  3. Seth Finkelstein

    Regarding “… as we live not for the experience in itself, but for its representation.” – but isn’t this why humans have representation in the first place? From cave paintings to oil paintings to photographs to video, there’s a human drive for the symbolic recording of experience. It’s an old joke that it can go too far. But inversely, should one criticize it intrinsically – it is wrong _per se_? For people watching a baseball game, the direct vs recorded experience seems a pretty minor matter.

  4. Paul Yarbles

    Seth Finkelstein sez:

    Regarding “… as we live not for the experience in itself, but for its representation.” – but isn’t this why humans have representation in the first place? From cave paintings to oil paintings to photographs to video, there’s a human drive for the symbolic recording of experience.

    Paul Yarbles responds:

    Yes, but when the representing is done concurrent with the experience — as it so often done — it becomes a primary part of the experience. What a eff’d up way to live!

    SF sez

    From cave paintings to oil paintings to photographs to video, there’s a human drive for the symbolic recording of experience.

    PY responds:

    Did the painters in caves record in such ways while they were hunting mastodons or after the hunt? Are oil painters recording not primarily engaged in oil painting?

    More and more modern life seems to be nothing but crawling up one’s own a**hole.

  5. Lori Comisky

    I understand where Fisk is coming from when he says that he wants to have that memory remain the way it was when he first had it and not alter or “overwrite” it by watching a recording of himself. Video recordings are a great way to remember actions but they cannot fully show ones feelings and thoughts you go through especially in a highlight moment like in a game-winning home run. However I think someday he will appreciate having those recordings for they will not fade like his memory will.

    “… as we live not for the experience in itself, but for its representation.” We do live in an age of digital documentation that people somehow feel they need to prove themselves but I do believe that people still can live for the moment…and if that moment is so great what is so wrong with wanting to record it and remember it or share it with others?

  6. Susan Butterworth

    There’s a reason that we go to live performances and games rather than watching them on video. They are two different animals. Performing is an experience that involves energy. The energy of the moment. The thrill of being there, for the performer and for the audience. This energy only partially translates to film. I’m with Carlton Fisk. I never watch a film of myself performing. It’s better to remember the thrill.

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