CPL310 11/8/2004 More on Shoeless Joe -- Kinsella denies magic but recognizes a sense for such things in other people, OR he labels wonders of life as "magic" -- "I could feel the magic building like a gathering storm...growing closer, hovering somewhere out in the night like a zeppelin" (11f) -- religious parody of sort is Ray as a kind of evangelist for baseball -- plan for Salinger: "I'll piere a ein and feed him the sounds, smells and sights of baseball until he tingles with the same magic that enchants me" (39) -- "You have to be there to fell the magic...the right place and the right time...when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place" (99) -- "the magic energy that has brought us here seems to seep from us like sweat" (124) -- "...a sneaking feeling that the magic has been here all the time, that it was what drew me out here from Chicago" (231) -- Doc Graham transformation..."across the dimensions of time...cosmic rule" (247f) -- later when Graham leaves the field to save the choking girl, he's violated some cosmic rule and can't go back to playing ball Religion -- Terminology: -- voices, epiphany, devil, heaven, visionn, parable, devout, srhines, conversion, congregation, ritual, chosen, holy, evil, pagan ceremony, possessed, tent-meeting evangelist, apple/temptation, open eyes, magic waters -- "A vision of what I was to do flashed in front of me as I heard the announce's instructions; ... The picture was of me and J.D. Salinger seated at Fenway Park in Boston watching a baseball game...a miraculous feat" (32) -- "I advocate the establishment of shrines in recognition of baseball greats" (34) -- From Season to Season: Religion and American Sports by Joe Price, religion professor from Whittier College in California; ritual within the game of baseball; ball as a sacred object; baseball has temples (stadiums) and shrines (hall of fame); baseball has relics and artifacts; The Sporting News for years had the subtitle "The Bible of Baseball"; ["The Last Pennant Before Armagedon" is a short story by Kinsella about the Chicago Cubs who have the longest streak of losing the World Series] [Since the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, they'd been under a curse and hadn't won the World Series since 1918, until this year!] -- "We're not just ordinary people, we're a congregation. Baseball is a ceremony, a ritual, as surely as sacrificing a goat beneath a full moon is a ritual" (84) -- "I'm still not entirely clear why you chose me...voice?" "Yes, and...a vision" (94f) -- Hall of Fame, basilica (111); relics there: turnstyle from Polo Grounds in NY; -- photo of Doc Graham: "She passes it to me as a bishop might hand a religious object to a peasant...receiving the sacrament" (131) -- ballpark at night is more like a church than a church (160); Bloomington, MN, playing in the empty ballpark at night -- Seeing: -- "Richard can't see the players on the field as we see them...Richard's eyes are blind to the magic" (198) -- "We aren't the ones who decide who can see and who can't" (202) -- "But why can't I see?" (205); Annie's family can't see either -- Richard, "like that of a pagan watching, but not comprehending, a religious ceremony" (219) -- Revival parody..."open the eyes of the blind" (227ff) -- "Ray, teach me how to see" (239) -- "eyes blind...cannot see" (241) -- finally Richard is able to see</plaintext><br /></body></html>