UKBouldering.com
the shizzle => sponsors => Topic started by: cofe on January 28, 2019, 02:31:29 pm
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We've just rereleased Pat Ament's book on John Gill – Master of Rock. It's available now as an ebook (https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Gill-Master-bouldering-legend-ebook/dp/B07KBQ6LFM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1542874890&sr=1-2) (Amazon UK link – available on the usual other suspects too) and a print-on-demand paperback (https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/biographies/john-gill-master-of-rock.html).
We've also got an interview with Pat up on our blog (https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/blog/v-publishing-blog/2018-11-21---author-interview-pat-ament-john-gill-master-of-rock.html).
Here's a big image:
(https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/assets/books/images/masterofrock_johngill_patament_podcover_485px.jpg)
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John Gill is probably vaguely known to UK climbers as the trump card played in any discussion of past climbing standards. The conversation goes:
“Tom Proctor, 7a in 1968”.
“John Gill <impressive grade> in <ludicrously early date>, I win.”
Gill introduced to bouldering chalk, brushing holds, dynos as a deliberate strategy, gymnastic rings, front levers on door lintels, one finger pull-ups, protein supplements, slack lining, V9, and elbow tendinopathy. He didn’t miss much.
Master of Rock is an interventionist biography which tells you as much about the author as subject. You won’t find anything about Gill’s childhood or introduction to climbing nor, which might have been more interesting, why he made such a radical deviation from the usual styles of the time. There is no linear narrative, more a series of images of Gill the climber as seen by his contemporaries.
Well worth checking out.
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What’s an interventionist biography when it’s at home? Couldn’t find the answer on google so thought I’d try here....
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What I mean is this is a biography where the biographer plays an active role in the narrative. Interventionist meant something in my own head but “intrusive narrator (http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100009380)” is the term in literature. Does this term also apply to biography? I don't know.
Perrin does this in The Villan: he is friends of some of the protagonists and was present at some of the events reported and mentions his own role and biases occasionally. Ed Douglas keeps his head down in Rock Athlete.
Pat Ament climbed with John Gill in the 1960s, he is a secondary character in the biography, and we learn almost as much about the author as we do the subject.
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Ah gotcha, like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (best film ever made)
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John Gill maintains a distinctly old-school but very worthy website full of historical perspectives on his own climbing and climbing generally.
http://www.johngill.net/
Ladder Climbing of the Future . . .
Dyno Ladders would be great fun and would separate the men from the boys! Rules would include banning the use of the feet and legs on the ladder - only the hands could touch the apparatus. Adjustable rungs would encourage competition. Free aerials would be the order of the day!
Muscular development would be a necessity - no more being punched out by skinny 14 year-old novice climbers and 80 pound female boulderers! No more contorted heel hooks or other athletic depravities - just pure macho flight! This is the future, men! Carpe Diem!
:lol: :clap2:
(Under "Ladders" on his website)