Golf Ball (Object Lessons)

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Harry Brown explores the composition, history, kinetic life, and the long deterioration of golf balls, which as it turns out may outlive their hitters by a thousand years, in places far beyond our reach. Golf balls embody our efforts to impose our will on the land, whether the local golf course or the Moon, but their unpredictable spin, bounce, and roll often defy our control. Despite their considerable technical refinements, golf balls reveal the futility of control. They inevitably disappear in plain sight and find their way into hazards. Golf balls play with people. Harry Brown's short treatise on the golf ball serves up surprising lessons about the human desire to tame and control the landscape through technology. Object Lesson is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic. In the history of sport, golf bears a unique relation to the natural world. The game evolved on the Scottish links, a peculiar terrain linking arable land and the rocky coast, which farmers could not domesticate as plowed land or pasture. Modern course design aims to simulate this semi-wild borderland, artificially constructing the water hazards, sand bunkers, and rough grass that occur naturally on the links. Golf simulates the effort to traverse and tame this landscape, with players hopping among islands of fairway and green while attempting to avoid hazards. In this simulated expedition, the golf ball functions as the players avatar, different from a baseball, soccer ball, or a billiard ball because it represents the attempt of a single person to navigate an unpredictable landscape. In this sense, the ball is an assertion of control over the natural world, an extension of the ego: a bad shot can arouse violent anger, while a good shot can feel sublime. Technical refinements in ball construction reflect ongoing attempts to enhance this sense of control. Consequently, golf course design has evolved in response to the evolution of the golf ball, which is now constrained by rigorous standards created to forestall the obsolescence of the worlds courses. Despite their considerable technical refinements, golf balls reveal the futility of control. They inevitably disappear in plain sight and find their way into hazards. Golf balls play with people. They do things we do not anticipate as if by their own will, so we project a will on to them, telling them: Go left! Stay out of the trap! or Get in the hole! But the imagined will of the ball is just a function of its interaction with a terrain, a natural world, we do not fully understand, and in this sense represents a vestige of animism. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Part 1 OUT: THING 1 How I Cut a Golf Ball in Half, and Found a Lot of Things Inside 2 How the Golf Ball Keeps Holy the Lord’s Day 3 How an Empire Made the Golf Ball, and The Golf Ball Made an Empire 4 How The Golf Ball Blew Up America and Made Golf More Fun 5 How the Golf Ball Went Ballistic 6 How the Golf Ball Reached Détente 7 How the Court Decided Custody49 of the Golf Ball 8 How the Golf Ball Became the #1 Ball in Golf 9 How the Golf Ball Got So Cool Part 2 IN: PHENOMENON 10 How the Golf Ball Vanishes Before Your Eyes 11 How the Golf Ball Makes Us Feel Fulfilled, for a Millisecond 12 How to Control the Unruly Golf Ball 13 How to Hit the Golf Ball by Not Hitting It 14 How the Golf Ball Looks into the Abyss, and the Abyss Looks Back 15 How the Golf Ball Won the Golden Fleece 16 How the Golf Ball Went to the Moon 17 How the Golf Ball Makes Friends with Animals 18 How the Golf Ball Prepares for Doomsday Notes Index Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Harry Brown explores the composition, history, kinetic life, and the long deterioration of golf balls, which as it turns out may outlive their hitters by a thousand years, in places far beyond our reach. Golf balls embody our efforts to impose our will on the land, whether the local golf course or the Moon, but their unpredictable spin, bounce, and roll often defy our control. Despite their considerable technical refinements, golf balls reveal the futility of control. They inevitably disappear in plain sight and find their way into hazards. Golf balls play with people. Harry Brown's short treatise on the golf ball serves up surprising lessons about the human desire to tame and control the landscape through technology. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic. Intro; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Acknowledgments; Part 1 OUT: THING; 1 How I Cut a Golf Ball in Half,  and Found a Lot of Things Inside; 2 How the Golf Ball Keeps Holy the Lord's Day; 3 How an Empire Made the Golf Ball, and The Golf Ball Made an Empire; 4 How The Golf Ball Blew Up America and Made Golf More Fun; 5 How the Golf Ball Went Ballistic; 6 How the Golf Ball Reached Détente; 7 How the Court Decided Custody49 of the Golf Ball; 8 How the Golf Ball Became the #1 Ball in Golf; 9 How the Golf Ball Got So Cool; Part 2 IN: PHENOMENON Golf Balls Embody The Complex Human Relation To The Natural World, A Will To Control Nature, But The Action Of Balls In Play Reveals The Futility Of The Endeavor-- Machine Generated Contents Note: -- 1. As A Made Object2. As A Fetish Object3. As A Kinetic Object (part 1)4. As A Kinetic Object (part 2) 5. As A Celebrated Object6. As A Discarded Object. Harry Brown. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 129-140) And Index. "Golf balls embody the complex human relation to the natural world, a will to control nature, but the action of balls in play reveals the futility of the endeavor"-- Provided by publisher Golf balls embody the complex human relation to the natural world, a will to control nature, but the action of balls in play reveals the futility of the endeavor.--Résumé de l'éditeur