Response to “Glory Days: What We Watch When We Watch the Olympics”

Ashley G.

Professor Zoller

Life Narratives

9/11/2012

Response to “Glory Days: What We Watch When We Watch the Olympics”

            I thoroughly enjoyed watching this year’s Summer Olympics. Strangely enough I do not usually enjoy sports, playing them or watching them. Theatre became my sport in junior and senior high school. Nevertheless, just a few weeks ago I was fully glued to my TV, enthralled by the 2012 Summer Olympics.

            It was interesting to read the article “Glory Days” by Louis Menand because he starts off by saying that he likes sports even though his family does not; I am mostly the opposite. Menand, in my opinion, rambles on about the Olympics. He touches on the fact that if you look at the games, forgetting all the idealism that surrounds them, they are rather strange. They have become a tradition woven into our world culture. He also makes the point that you cannot simply read about the games, you must watch them to receive their full effect. I thoroughly agree. Archery has been a vague interest of mine since watching Disney’s animated version of Robin Hood as a child and I will confess that I got rather worked up when the US men’s archery team only got silver.

            I do agree with Menand that it does not particularly matter what the games mean. They exist and we should do well to enjoy them. Besides what other time does the world come together and compete simply for the sake of competition without starting a war?