Author: Quenton Fyfe
Date: 09:59:00 10/31/98
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On October 31, 1998 at 11:28:20, Fernando Villegas wrote: >Hi Larry: >Of course support is a very different thing. What the father or Waitskin did >does not seems to me being just support. He definitively pushed the poor boy. Do >You remember that part of the movie when a teacher talks about the "chess >things" and then the faher gets angry and say that the kid will be better in >that chess thing a lot more than she will ever be in his craft? >The idiot surely believed he had crushed the teacher with that broadside, that >he has proved something, but is not the case. The teacher was right. The chess >thing was taking too much of the life of the kid and the fact that Waitzskin was >going to be better chess player than she will be as a teacher was not relevant. >Better to be an average happy boy that an angished chess genius at 8 years old. >I love a lot this game but I never considered to put my daughters to play it. I >would consider that a painful lose of time in a moment of his lives where >another things are a lot more important than to know how to play the Ruy lópez. >Waitskin was avictim of an stupid father, one of those guys that are all the >time trying to use his children a test of how good they are as a family, a >religion or etnic sect or whatever. >Fernando Have you read the book that the movie is based on ? I have read the book (many times) but sadly I missed the movie. My reason for asking is that I'd be surprised at you being so hard on Fred Waitzkin if you've read the book - his thoughts and anxieties about pushing his son too hard are very apparent in the book. I think he agonized about these issues, (although we can still take a judgement on whether he was right or wrong) and came over as a sensitive and caring parent. Perhaps these aspects didn't come through in the film. Hopefully I'll see it one day, and then I'll know ! Regards Quenton Fyfe
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