Popped into my local bookshop on Saturday and was intrigued to see the slim volume above. It’s a treasure. ‘What is Sport?‘ (google books preview here) was written by Roland Barthes as the commentary to a Canadian Broadcasting Company documentary, made by the little known Hubert Aquin. Essentially, Barthes was invited to write 5 pieces on sports specific to their national settings: bullfighting in Spain, motor-racing in the US, the Tour de France in, erm, France, ice hockey in Canada and football in England.

All of them contain moments of almost shiver-inducing clarity, though I think my favourite is on motor racing:

…on the turns…space is against time. Hence the driver must be able to cheat space, to decide whether he can spare it…or if he will brutally cut it down; and he must have the courage to drive this wager to the brink of the impossible.

drive this wager to the brink of the impossible - love it. And not unlike my rubbish poker technique. Its 65 pages (of commentary) are full of these little crackers. Have to say that the final chapter on football was a little disappointing, as it moves too quickly into generalised conclusion to the whole piece, but the others are all great.

Also nice are Aquin’s letters inviting Barthes (who had published ‘Mythologies‘ shortly before) to contribute to the project in the first place. I’m guessing copyright issues prevented them from including Barthes’ replies, which is a shame. There’s also a lovely note at the end from Richard Howard, Barthes’ long-time translator.

Now where can I track down the documentary itself?