Everyone should be familiar with the name Bobby Fischer - a chess prodigy who dazzled the world with his prowess before going into reclusion.
Well apparently he died recently and in the wake of the announcement about the bio being made about him the video in the link was released. Somehow I don't think the material in the video will make it to the big screen, but if it does I may be forced to watch...
I'm not commenting one way or another. The interview segment in the short video took place mere hours after the 9/11 attacks.
Be warned the video has NSFW audio, so wear headphones if you're watching at work.
Bobby Fischer... Who Knew?
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2008-01-31
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2 comments:
Uhh... wow. Who knew, indeed!
Well, I can only wonder if the following audio (At the bottom of this post) will be featured in Macdonald’s movie or if it will be completely ignored and will champion Fischer as a chess hero or the man he really was.
As the author of the post noted, the movie will be "based on the book by David Edmonds and John Eidinow," so expecting it to be used as an attempt to expose him for the eccentric beliefs of his paranoid dotage is ridiculous.
As to his character, take the case of brilliant atheist philosopher Antony Flew and the 2007 book There Is a God: How The World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed his Mind, allegedly coauthored by Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese. Read this New York Times article on the book. Is the man Antony Flew "really was" to be found in the pages of what will likely be the final book to bear his name? Is he more or less to be found in The Presumption of Atheism*?
The Fisher clip is no more "the man he really was" than was his career in chess, or his nine month detention in Japan, or his years hiding from US prosecution. Those who think otherwise may live to be judged by the extremes of their utterances rather than by the life they actually lived.
* Full text, concise, and brilliant , by the way :) From his 1984 book God Freedom and Immorality: A Critical Analysis.
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