In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

44 ARRAYS
spheres is being played on a keyboard fifty octaves higher. To discover
this elegance we must slow down the action, or alternatively accelerate
our own wits, just as the slow-motion film resolves the lusty blows of
the prize-fighter into movements of extreme grace and insipidity" (Eddington,
20). [see Uncertainty vs. Reality] No intellectual seems able to
escape the fascination of boxing. Those who feel obliged to despise this
sport for reasons of taste, like Thomas Mann, still grudgingly admit that
it is a key emblem of the present: "We live in an age in which uncompromising
fidelity sometimes gets on our nerves, a real jazz-band age
whose heroes are the prizefighter and the movie star, and which reveals
all the details of their huge orgies. Amusing and spectacular orgies, I
admit. It would certainly be philistine and petty bourgeois to complain
loudly about the new age" (Kolbe, 378).
The power of boxing as a multifunctional symbol is apparent in
myriad aspects of the everyday world. If these manifestations go beyond
the reality of actual prizefighting, they reflect back on it, enhancing its
social, economic, and legal status. As the New York Times laconically
states on September 22, "The fight game is more respectable now, and
also more prosperous." The German luxury liner Hamburg, departing
for its maiden voyage to New York on April 8, features a boxing ring
where the passengers can work out (Chronik, 73). [see Ocean Liners]
Male celebrities, especially writers, artists, and actors, are eager to be
photographed during their boxing practice-preferably nude from the
waist up, wearing elegant pants and fashionable street shoes (Die wilden
Zwanziger, 84; Burgess, 33). Two of the rare photo-reportages in Caras
y Caretas, on October 12, focus on professional boxing, one being a
summary of the world-championship bout between Gene Tunney and
Jack Dempsey, and the other a preview of a forthcoming fight between
the European champion Paulino Uzcudun and the Argentinian champion
Angel Firpo, "the wild bull of the Pampa." Despite a "lack of experienced
material" (1926 Quad, 223)-or in other (less boxing-adequate)
words, despite a lack of collegiate tradition-the Athletics Department
of Stanford University is trying to build a boxing team because, without
such an opportunity, the range of extracurricular activities offered to its
male students would lack a main attraction. Boxing is seen as one of the
few activities capable of reaffirming male identity in an environment that
is increasingly problematizing traditional gender distinctions. [see Male
= Female (Gender Trouble)] When an anonymous article in the July 18