Critical Essay

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Humanities

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    • Explain how you determined the most important topic in the library essay you selected (place, community, or communication/speaking out). Would the importance of the topic be clear to someone without your explanation? If so, why? If not, what information should you add to make this connection clearer?
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NONFICTION To S c r a t c h , C l a u u , or Grope C l u m s i l L / | o r F r a r t i c a 11 Ly) j> .ROXANEGAY This is the definition of the word "scrabble" according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. My third tournament started with a brutal game In all seriousness. Scrabble was invented by a where 1 lost by more than two hundred points. man named Alfred Mosher Butts. 1 was the fifth seed and feeling confident—too confident, really. "We Are The Champions" may have been on an infinite loop in my head. And yet. It was also early on a Saturday morning. 1 am not a morning person. Before the tournament started, people milled around the hotel meeting room chatting idly about the heat, what we had done since the last time many of us had seen each other (the previous tournament in Illinois), and some of the more amazing plays we had made recently. Scrabble /• players love to talk, at length, with some repetition, about their vocabulary triumphs. There were twenty-one of us with various levels of ability but really, if you're playing this game at the competitive level, you generally have some skill and can be a contender. The more experienced players, the Dragos to my Rocky, studied word lists and appeared intensely focused on something the rest of us couldn't see. Many wore fanny packs without irony—serious fanny packs bulging vwth mystery. As 1 waited for the tournament to begin, 1 studied the table of gamerelated accessories—books, a travel set, a towel, ^ , . , , ,., Scrabble tournaments are a lot like soccer tour- „.„ a deluxe board, and some milled French soaps naments for four-year-olds in that, often times, clearly taken from someone's closet-all for ^"^'^""^ ^°'' *^°"^""^^ """'^ something, drawings to be held later in the day. -> , ^ At nine o'clock, sharp, the tournament direc- Officially rated tournaments are run by NASPA- approved tournament directors, NASPA is the North American Scrabble Players Association. Tournament directors are generally encyclopedic in their knowledge of Scrabble and can easily clarify any confusion about the rules or negotiate disputes that arise during a tournament. Disputes, they arise. tor, You have to understand. 1 was lonely in a new town where 1 knew no one. 1 wanted to be back home, with my boyfriend, in our apartment, complaining about how SportsCenter seems to air perpetually or listening to him nag me about my world competitions (thefirstworld champi- °"=^*P ^^^ ^'^^ '" ^59i), a cottage industry of Scrabble-related merchandise, game timers, boards, tiles, etc., books, documentaries, and academic articles on the nuances of competitive Scrabble. There are Scrabble-related apps for your iDevices (1 use Zarf, Checkword, the official Scrabble game, Lexulous, and Words With Friends). There are Scrabble games on Facebook (i play the official HASBRO game and Lexulous). ^^'^^^^'^ °"'™. here's the internet Scrabble Club (ISC), where 1 also play. There is a website, cross-tables.com, dedicated to tracking all the ° ^ " ^ ' tournaments in the country with scores and rankings. 1 am ranked 1,651st in the country. I'm guessing that's out of 1800 players given imaginary Internet friends. My apartment was empty, no furniture, because 1 left my sad graduate student furniture behind. After work, I'd sit on my lone chair, a step above ._, , I. J J ^ , , , There are more than two hundred Scrabble clubs in the United States. The club in my town meets monthly while the club in Champaign, ,,,. . ,,,,.. .. Uhnois, meets weekly. In bigger cities, some clubs will even meet twice a week. sad, purchased at SofaMart, wondering how my > life had come to this. ,... „ b • •... j J ... i. When my new colleague invited me to her ° home to play with her Scrabble club, . ,. Henry is not his name. He has the most gorgeous blue-gray eyes 1 have ever seen. The beauty of his perfect eyes only makes me hate him more. He has been known to wear a fanny pack and often scowls. Nemeses aren't born. They are made. Shortly after 1 started playing vAth my local Scrabble club, Marty told me about a charity tournament he holds in Danville, said it would be a great experience for me to play. 1 had nothing to lose so 1 agreed. 1 had no idea what to expect as 1 walked into the main building of the community college in Danville. After 1 registered, 1 stood awkwardly, wondering what to do until my club friends took mercy on me and showed me the lay of tournament land. Serious Scrabble people study words and remember matches from eight years ago where they played a word for 173 points. They remember when they didn't challenge a phony and lost the match. They remember everything. Some serious Scrabble players are poor losers. 1 am a good loser. 1 am proud of this. 1 loveScrabblesomuchldon't careif llose. Ialso , , . ^^ ^ 1 have always enjoyed board games. 1 love roU- have to be a good loserUnlike because 1 lose a lot so practicality plays a role. most serious Scrabble players, 1 don't have the patience to study all the possible three and four-letter words, for example, but still, 1 am extremely competi- ing !dice and moving small plastic or metal sets from around the world. 1 will play any game so long as there is a possibility 1 can win. 1 take ^^'"^ seriously. Sometimes 1 take them too senously and conflate vnnmng the game of Life with winning at life. tive. -> It's an awkward combination. 1 began the tournament thinking, "1 am going to win this tournament." 1 approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem. This helps me as a writer. Each time 1 submit a story to fancy magazines like, say, the New Yorker or the Paris Review, 1 think, "This story is totally going to get published." My heart gets broken more than it should. 1 registered and got all my paperwork and such and looked around at the other word nerds. 1 felt like people were checking me out. 1 was prepared to reenact the GAV SCRABBLE beginning of "Beat It" when everyone is silently stalking each other trying to size up the competition. There were thirty-two players, four groups (based on ranking) with eight players in each. We would play seven rounds to determine the one Scrabble player to rule them all. The tournament director read off the names of each person in each group along with their seed. He read my name last and 1 understood my place. 1 was the lowest ranked (worst player) in the room. /> 1 was the last kid who would be picked for dodgeball. 1 sat down for my first round with the top seed in my division and she was pretty cocky. 1 was too or 1 was trying to project cockiness and calm. My hands were shaking under the table 1 was so nervous. My primary ambition was to not humiliate myself, make any missteps where Scrabble etiquette is concerned, -> or shame the members of my Scrabble Club, several of whom were in attendance. My opponent looked up and said, "1 was in the next highest division yesterday." The gauntlet was thrown. She said it with a kind, warm smile but she was trying to intimidate me. 1 could tell by the way her upper lip curled. It worked. Well played. 1 wondered if 1 could purchase adult Scrabble people are really quite friendly and gracious but to be clear, they are also intense and serious as hell. 1 have an imagination. In my head, as we prepared to word rumble, 1 felt as if we were about to throw down like in the music video for Michael Jackson's "Bad." A lot of my life can be described in terms of Michael Jackson's music. I'd explain the significance of "Man in the Mirror," but then you'd think 1 was crazy. Players can be very... particular about how you comport yourself during a Scrabble game. Some players want complete silence during matches so won't appreciate your idle chatter. Some players think you're cheating if you play with your phone. Don't take a call should your phone ring, that's for sure. 1 once got a dirty look for tapping on my phone vrithout muting it. Apparently, the gentle beeps were simply too much for that player. The longer you play, the more you finely hone these particularities. I, for example, have developed several Scrabble-related pet peeves and preferences. 1 have strong opinions on the type of scoring sheets 1 use and the kind of pens I use to keep score (Uniball .5mm roUerball). I now have a very low tolerance for players who draw their tiles in annoying ways. 1 am particularly aggravated by players who do a lot of mixing the tiles up before each draw. IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE OUTCOME. I also do not look kindly upon players who tap the tiles on the board as they tally their points. Why are they doing that? What really sets me over the edge, though, is when players wrill recount my word scores after I've announced my score attheendofa turn as if 1 am incapable of simple math. Certainly, math is not my strong suit, but in general, 1 have addition under control. When this unnecessary score verification occurs, I sometimes have to sit on my hands to keep from punching a player in the face. diapers at the nearest gas station. The tournament started and 1 managed to spell my words and use the timer correctly. 1 got into a rhythm. 1 placed a bingo, "ii I was feeling good. My skin flushed warmly with early success. 1 started A bingo is when you play all seven letters on thinking 1 had a chance. Then Number One Seed your rack. This is one of the most coveted proceeded to v«pe the board with my ass; the Scrabble plays. 1 am a bingo player. I have no time to learn all the three-letter words and final score was 366-277.1 smiled and shook her random obscure words so 1 spend most of my time going for bingos because in addition to the hand but a small piece of my soul was destroyed. points you earn from the board, you also earn a fifty-point bonus. There are twenty-three pos1 thought, "Je suis désolée." When 1 composed myself, 1 took stock of what happened. 1 played decently and had two bingos 33 sible Scrabble words in BINGO. NINTH LETTER overall. There was simply nothing 1 could do. 1 kept drawing terribly and getting outplayed and she was so damn confident the entire time. Worse ,,, . Don't get It twisted. Competitive Scrabble is both word chess and word poker. You need a ganie face and you need to wear that game face hard. yet. Number One Seed played me better than -^ ^ •' she played t h e game.
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Discussion Post and Critical Analysis
When one looks at the article, it offers a subjective experience of a person going through
the emotions of being involved in competitive sport. The article gives an insight of the
personality of the narrator, her feelings, and her perception towards some opposing players, and
the way their body and mind reacts to different situations. There are tears in the article, of joy
and melancholy, but at the end of the day, the underlying premise is the nature of humanity and
life, by extension. The article shows how life has its up and downs, its good and not so good
moments, but through such moments, humanity should seek to become better, t...


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