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In August 1991, Witold Rybczynski lamented the way that Americans spend their Saturdays and Sundays. Society took a long time to offer its members two days off, he wrote, but "what we choose to do looks increasingly like work, and idleness has
acquired a bad name."
My favorite part of the piece is as follows:
I'm always charmed by old photographs of skiers which show groups of people in what appear to be street clothes, with uncomplicated pieces of bent wood strapped to sturdy walking boots. These men and women have a playful and unaffected air. Today every novice is caparisoned in skin-tight spandex, like an Olympic racer, and even cross-country skiing, a simple enough pastime, has been infected by a preoccupation with correct dress, authentic terminology, and up-to-date equipment. This reflects an attitude toward play which is different from what it was in the past. Most outdoor sports, once simply muddled through, are now undertaken with a high degree of seriousness. "Professional" used to be a word that distinguished someone who was paid for an activity from the sportsman; today the word has come to denote anyone with a high degree of proficiency; "professional-quality" equipment is available to--and desired by--all. Conversely, "amateur," a wonderful word literally meaning "lover," has been degraded to mean a rank beginner or anyone without a certain level of skill. "Just an amateur," we say; it is not, as it once was, a compliment.
The lack of carelessness in our recreation, the sense of obligation to get things right, and the emphasis on protocol and decorum do represent an enslavement of a kind. People used to "play" tennis; now they "work" on their backhand. It is not hard to imagine what Chesterton would have thought of such dedication; this is just the sort of laborious pursuit of play that he so often derided. "If a thing is worth doing," he once wrote, it is worth doing badly."I hope Mr. Rybczynski would object to my blogging about this piece on the weekend.
Comments (2)
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I have a hunch - that amateur pronounced with a hard ch is derogatory, but if you pronounce it with a crisp t and a buttery eur, it's still complimentary. "rank amatchur" = humiliating, "devoted amateur" = admiring.
Yes, upon reflection I think you're right.