Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
My daughter doesn’t care for the book The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. She finds the military metaphors off-putting, and she has much more faith in support groups and therapists than Pressfield does.
Nevertheless, I teach the book in every iteration of my Writing in Fine Arts class at UC Davis, and I gift a copy to all my kids who want to be writers. Pressfield has helped my students understand the forces that compel them to set aside their creative projects, as well as the perhaps mythical manifestations of support that inspire them to return to the writer’s notebook or the painter’s easel.
Towards the end of the book, Pressfield differentiates people and organizations that think and operate in hierarchical ways from those who claim a territory. As you can see from this long quoted list of elements and examples, the author of The War of Art prefers the territorial:
- “The territory provides sustenance. — Runners know what a territory is. So do rock climbers and kayakers and yogis. Artists and entrepreneurs know what a territory is. The swimmer who towels off after finishing her laps feels a hell of a lot better than the tired, cranky person who dove into the pool 30 minutes earlier.
- A territory sustains us without any external output. — A territory is a closed feedback loop. Our role is to put in effort and love; the territory absorbs this and gives it back to us in the form of well-being. When experts tell us that exercise (or any other effort requiring activity) banishes depression, this is what they mean.
- A territory can only be claimed alone. — You can team with a partner, you can work out with a friend, but you only need your self to soak up your territory’s juice.
- A territory can only be claimed by work. — When Arnold Schwarzenegger hits the gym, he’s on his own turf. But what made it his own are the hours and years of sweat he put in to claim it. The territory doesn’t give, it gives back.
- A territory returns exactly what you put it in. — Territories are fair. Every bit of energy you put in goes infallibly into your account. The territory never devalues. A territory never crashes. What you deposited, you get back, dollar for dollar.”
Before I claimed the Irish Pub in Davis as my territory, I found comfort in the writing classrooms in Olson Hall and Shields Library at UC Davis, as well an art gallery in downtown Davis where I host Poetry Night.
These days, I claim as my territory the greenbelts of south Davis, as well as our walking routes downtown, though I eagerly share these places with the people that Jukie and I encounter on our walks. I’ve made friends with pilots, scientists, economists, and learned readers of the New York Times Book Review (hello Michael!). Earlier this week, a woman walking her dog told me that she thought Jukie and I are the only one out on the greenbelts more than she is, for she encounters us on every walk.
That woman wanted to know how many miles we walk every day, so I told her. When I ran into iconic Nutrition professor Liz Applegate downtown this morning, I didn’t wait for her to ask, showing Liz on my phone how many miles I’ve walked so far this year. She did a little mock-genuflecting as if she were Wayne or Garth, but we were both smiling. Liz might remember that I consulted with her when I returned to physical fitness as a goal about ten years ago.
The shift in territory from crowded pub to the wide-open outdoors reflects the gratitude I feel for being a Californian (where we dine outside year-round), and the concern I feel for myself, for my family, and for all of you as the latest uber-contagious variations of Covid sicken a growing percentage of people, including those who are vaccinated and boosted, or who have already had Covid earlier in 2022.
With these hazards in mind, we might think of “territory” both in the way that Pressfield thinks of it, and the way that Huck Finn does when he says, in the final words of the famous Twain novel, “But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it.”
We all looked forward to “returning to civilization” and to putting the pandemic behind us. As the pandemic is still with us, I will do my “sivilizing” in books such as Pressfield’s, via Zoom, and on the roof of the Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday night as I introduce two featured poet/performers.
Standing at the microphone five stories above E Street, glad to spend outdoor time with one of my favorite communities, I will shield my eyes from the glare of the sun as it sets over my territory, and perhaps yours, of Davis, California.
I hope you get to see this week’s Pub Quiz. Expect questions on topics raised above, and on the following: impermanent pubs, Wi-Fi passwords, newspaper headlines, The Statue of Liberty, swimming pools, the French Legion of Honor, The Venus de Milo, films with many A-list actors, The Vitruvian Man, religiosity, musical sounds, tetralogies, unfinished works, kinetic energy, film franchises, medical thrills, famous girlfriends who never got married, toes, forceful wiggling, fads from yesteryear, buttons, actress/singers, hard Fs, soups, neighbors from the 60s, facts we learn from The Economist, guardians, prominent Native Americans, current events, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to all the supporters on Patreon who make all this happen, especially the Outside Agitators, the Original Vincibles, and Quizimodo. I’m working on something special for one of these teams. Let’s look forward to a time when we can all gather again to play with our friends, even if we all are dressed like surgeons at work!
As you can see by visiting the website for Poetry Night, you are invited to join us Thursday at 7 up on the roof.
Be well.
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. According to its strictly-fallacious slogan, what drink gives you wings?
- Internet Culture. Radiohead self-released their album In Rainbows in the same year that Apple released the iPhone and that Kurt Vonnegut passed away. With a two-year margin of error, name the year.
- Four for Four. Which of the following actors made a cameo appearance in a flashback scene at the end of the film The Godfather Part II: Marlon Brando, James Caan, Al Pacino, Abe Vigoda? Rest in Peace, James Caan.
P.S. “Japan’s beautiful seas and its territory are under threat, and young people are having trouble finding hope in the future amid economic slump. I promise to protect Japan’s land and sea, and the lives of the Japanese people no matter what.” Shinzo Abe