It’s the Monday Memory:
The Pamplona Running of the Bulls is on at the moment. People have already been hurt, including one Australian. Can you remember the first time you heard about bullfighting, and what you thought about it?
I suspect it was via the book “Ferdinand,” though I don’t recall how that book ends. Or perhaps it was through a Warner Bros. cartoon (there’s a classic Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny vs. the Bull that is a true delight).
I think the first time I heard about bull fighting in earnest, I was dismayed, not so much by the idea of Man vs. Bull (seemed like a fair contest to me), but by the tormenting and weakening of the bull ahead of time. I mean, where’s the sport? We’re supposed to be combatting brains (and balls) against brawn here. Bloodletting and driving the critter to distraction seemed (and seems) like a cheat, a betrayal of the machismo ethic that stands behind bullfighting.
Didn’t give it much thought after that, until I first read Clarke’s Childhood’s End, where the Overlords put an end to bullfighting by psychically tying the audience into the bull’s agonies.
These days … well, I wouldn’t go to a match. I still think it’s a cheat, not to mention an unnecessary cruelty. On the other hand, on the list of Causes to Contribute To (or Get Incensed Over), bullfighting seems pretty low on the list, compared to abuses against other animals, let alone abuses against humans.
Hah, it’s not a betrayal of the machismo ethic to exhaust and cripple the bull before Mr. Machismo steps in, it’s the essence of the reality of the thing.
You have a point there. Machismo is often more about posturing than reality (c.v. “Boast” skill).
Only crazy Americans would get in a ring with a Bull and not bring a weapon. Bull fighters think bull riders are “muy loco”!
It’s not that the matador has a sword and cape. It’s that other folks soften the bull up first. I’d feel the same way about bull riders if someone doped up the bulls.
Regarding Ferdinand: He takes one look at the bull ring, decides it’s ridiculous and goes back to sitting under his tree smelling the flowers.
I love that book.
Ah. Thanks for the reminder.