Business
Panic
Michael Kimmelman reviews Andre Agassi’s autobiography in The New York Review of Books. He writes:
‘Soon he takes to wearing a ridiculous hairpiece to disguise the truth that he’s balding. When he reaches the finals at the French Open in 1989, he panics about the hairpiece falling off, then loses the final of the US Open, then another final in Paris, then even the will to win, until out of the blue, against a strong field of grass court players, he captures Wimbledon in 1992. His father is silent when Agassi phones to celebrate.
“You had no business losing that fourth set,” is all Mike musters, but then Agassi hears the faint sound of sobbing.’
Probably Agassi’s hairpiece is public knowledge, but I have never been interested in the hair loss problems of tennis players.
I’m not going to read Agassi’s autobiography, but the paragraph above made me almost weep. No, made me want to write a short story about the athlete and his hairpiece.
Yes, I know I’ve written a book (under pseudonym) titled “The Story of my Baldness” but hair loss is a problem that cannot be solved in one novel.
question
How can you mix so easily serious matters (Guantanomo, Irak, Afghanistan, politics, ethics) and absolute nonsense (restaurants, hairloss)?There are already enough people who make jokes about the war and who take restaurants extremely seriously. You should not behave like them! Blame on you. Stand corrected.
Agassi and Shakespeare
Arnon,I can imagine you almost had to weep, reading the story of Agassi's boldness. Me too. It touches me when I become aware men can be uncertain about their appearance too. As a comfort to Agassi: even bold he still will be very handsome. Before I start reading Shakespeare, I probably have to read his autobiography.
To Mr. Baijens: do you have deep thoughts the whole day long, without any attention for trivialities?
Bernard
Couldn't it be that Arnon is afraid of balding, that he fears the loss of his enchanting curls?When it starts getting summer, i get such a pretty tan, you can hear all the women howlin, where can i find that cleanhead man?
(E. "Cleanhead" Vinson)
Phallic
According to Desmond Morris, the balding male head looks penis like (besides indicating abundant testosterone) and should thus be (possibly subconsciously) attractive to human females seeking a mate. While I view this assertion with some doubt, I am sure most women would prefer a bald head to a bad hairpiece.Aggasi should be proud of his baldness. He should tell himelf "I'm irresistable: I'm a walking penis."
However, I am happy Agassi found out in time he looks better without the piece.
(Any tips to fight starting baldness are very welcome btw)
Freud
It's in the way a man handles it's bladness we can recognize the subliminal effects of the will, projecting the idea of a penis of the father into the worrying of it's own looks and trying too understand the thought of a woman when getting aroused.@ Dens
bald, and looking great, I might add.In my humble opinion there is a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to baldness that pleases the eye.
Nothing phallic though.
Bald man = nude man.
Jos B
I disagree with your distinction between “serious matters” and “nonsense”.Yes, not everything deserves to be taken seriously, but your remark that “restaurants” and “hair loss” are “nonsense” doesn’t point to your deep understanding of the human psyche.
Jeans
I still have to think about Agassi. His trademark wasn't his eighties hairdress, but his playing tennis in jeans. That was great and that made him very attractive to me.Mieke Dutoit
Hair is no shield at all. It draws attention. That's why preadolescent boys and girls get pubes. They want to show "We're ready to procreate".And hair on your head is purely for insulation. We lose about 80% of body heat through our head.
