The first time I ever heard of Sonny Liston was in - I believe, it's a little hazy that far back - 1989. There was a 25th anniversary documentary abo The first time I ever heard of Sonny Liston was in - I believe, it's a little hazy that far back - 1989. There was a 25th anniversary documentary about Clay-Liston, where Liston is of course presented as the villain on the way down fighting the soon-to-be-Muslim-and-famous Cassius Clay. Given that I was bored 14 year old who knew nothing about boxing, this documentary was quite a history lesson. I remember coming away from watching it with 2 indelible impressions - a) Cassius Clay was a really obnoxious and annoying dude and b) Sonny Liston seemed about the scariest man I have ever laid (virtual, via the television) eyes on.
Which leads me to this book, 24 years later. I still know very little about boxing, really nothing more than can be gleaned from repeated playing of Mike Tyson's Punch Out!, but this book isn't actually about boxing and requires little to no knowledge of the Sweet Science. It's all about Sonny Liston, who just happened to be the most feared boxer of his generation (and still the scariest man I have ever laid eyes on). A guy caught up in the world as it was, that was then passed by.
Tosches paints a finely detailed portrait of someone who's often cast as a cartoon character of sorts. Liston comes across as brutal and thuggish, but highly intelligent (although functionally illiterate) and in his own way, completely pure. Tosches has no love lost for Clay/Ali and posits very reasonable theories about how Liston/Clay I and II could have ended as they did.
Stories about the mob and fight structure starting from the 30s onward as spliced over the top of Liston's story. Since this book documents what was essentially a criminal enterprise, a lot of it is innuendo and inference after the fact. But that makes it a good read, and a good mystery, like Liston himself. Tosches clearly enjoys talking about Mob business, and he's very good at it.
Not exactly an uplifting story, but not meant to be either. A contemplative one that forces you to speculate about how people end up who they are and where they are....more
I've read a few of Armstrong's books, but it was many years ago. I came to this one by accident - I was sitting next to a gentlemen on a flight and heI've read a few of Armstrong's books, but it was many years ago. I came to this one by accident - I was sitting next to a gentlemen on a flight and he was reading it. I'm certainly glad I picked it up.
Based upon the title, I though the book was going to be a plea of standard conversion to Christianity, which was surprising from what I know about Armstrong's own struggles. But it was much different than that - Armstrong is trying to make a case for a different conception of God than the one contained within modern culture. At the root, she makes a case for religion as a particularly different (and evolving) way of thinking, rather than a rote set of behaviors and beliefs (a word which Armstrong notes has lost it's original meeting) that people learn and conform to.
Armstrong's claim is that traditional religion used the concept of God as a way to express what lay beyond conscious thought and expression. Contemplation of myths and other mysteries would allow someone to enter and reside in an different mental space. To fully appreciate the power took practice and commitment. And there really was no question of an existence proof. But somewhere along the way, namely when the Enlightenment got involved, God became a concept of original cause, or first mover. Once God became the source of our everyday world, slowly the fights over his existence became relevant and discussions turned more towards proving literal connections rather than understanding and applying old myths. Consequently, the symbolic power of religion to take people to a different type of thinking began to drain away as fights over certainty took center stage.
Armstrong traces this development through the Enlightenment all the way to our current day, where fundamentalist groups of all stripes - Christian, Islamic, Judaic and Atheist - battle over explanations of the world and what's provable.
As someone who's pretty sick of everyone involved in this conversation - from Osteen to Dawkins - I found Armstrong's path much more palatable. And much more useful....more
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