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Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.
Joyce Carol Oates
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that boxing embodies qualities of masculinity that have been largely forgotten in modern times.

Joyce Carol Oates highlights how boxing, as a sport, serves as a powerful symbol for masculinity and the traditional values associated with it, such as strength, courage, and resilience. By referring to masculinity as a 'lost religion,' she implies that these attributes, which were once revered, are now being overlooked or diminished in contemporary society, making the sport's significance even more poignant.

Themes

BoxingMasculinityStrengthCourageValues

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech on masculinity, one might reference this quote to discuss modern values.

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Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
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I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
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I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
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My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
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The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
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. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
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