Football fiction
"Love's Winning Plays" is inspired by Inman Majors' family ties to college football.
In time for the college football bowl
season, JMU's Inman Majors has written a comic novel about the off-the-field
world of a big-time, but unnamed Southeastern Conference program through the
eyes of an "off the field graduate assistant," Raymond Love.
Majors, who teaches fiction writing as
an associate professor of English, drew from his family's heritage as
Tennessee's first family of football to write "Love's Winning Plays."
W.W. Norton & Company published the book, Majors' fourth novel after
"The Millionaires: A Novel of the New South," "Swimming in Sky:
A Novel" and "Wonderdog."
Majors answered questions about
"Love's Winning Plays" in an email interview.
This is your first novel about college football. Given your
upbringing in a revered football family in the South, was the novel one you
just had to write?
IM: I think at some point I realized I
was going to have to write a football novel, if for no other reason than that
old saw about writing write what you know. My dad was a longtime lobbyist in
Tennessee, and I’d already used that line of material for two political novels
(one comedic, one serious), so football seemed the next logical step. I’d
originally planned on writing a serious book about college football, but the
whole "football-wagging-the-university-dog" thing has struck me as
particularly silly of late. Throw in the round-the-clock coverage of the sport
on cable television and all the Internet craziness that goes with it, and you
have a topic truly ripe for the satirical picking.
Is this an accurate "roster" of your family
connections with college football: Uncle Johnny, head coach at Tennessee,
Pittsburgh and Iowa State; four uncles who played for Tennessee; father Joe
played at Florida State; grandfather was head coach at Sewanee (University of
the South) and uncle who played at Sewanee?
IM: That’s about the sum of it. For the record, I’m a fan of
college football and still watch a lot of it. And I think there’s a place on
the college campus for it. As Bear Bryant said: “It’s hard to hold a pep rally
around a chemistry lab.” So a football game on a pretty Saturday afternoon is a
great gathering place for a campus community, a place where current students,
faculty and alumni can gather to show support for a common cause. A healthy
sports environment adds some excitement to university life, and a sense of
nostalgia and history for alumni. Game day is a time when the past and present
of a university are brought together in a unique way, it seems to me. But at
all times, sports should be an addendum to the university, not the raison
d’etre. My book is satirizing the folks who think football should come first,
foremost and always.
Who did you write the book for? Would someone who is not a
fan of football enjoy reading the book while keeping a football watcher company
while a game was televised (at least being in the same room)?
IM: I personally guarantee that you and
all non-football fans will love the book, whether there is a football game
going on in the background or not.
Seriously, you don’t have to like
football to find the book funny. There’s actually very little football
discussed. The book takes place in the offseason and the plot revolves around
this barnstorming tour that most college football programs do, where the
coaches and athletic department types (men and women) travel around the state
gladhanding the fans and eating rubber chicken dinners. The book is more about
the culture of football, specifically SEC football, and all the craziness that
goes with it. Several reviewers have called it a "comedy of manners."
And there are some really good female characters in it as well. My wife, who
has never watched an entire football game, thinks it’s more of a romantic
comedy than anything. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the book is a
romantic comedy of manners about football. How’s that for a genre?
How would football fans enjoy the book on a different level
than non-football fans?
IM: Well, if you’re familiar with the
Brett Favre Wrangler commercials that every football fan sees about a thousand
times every game, then I get some jokes in about that. And the Cialis commercials that are so
cringe-worthy. And fans who whine about the team on message boards. And coaches
who wear visors at night and insist on chewing their gum with their mouths open
as far as they can get them. And the funny motivational things that coaches say
to try and motivate their teams. And those beer commercials that make it seem
like men do nothing but slap sloshy fives every three seconds.
Basically, anything that has made you
laugh or want to throw something at the television during a game comes in for a
little special treatment in the book.
You've published four novels so far. How does keeping
current in the world of fiction publication benefit your students at JMU?
IM: I think the main thing that might
help my teaching is that I’m actively writing, so anything I learn
technique-wise while drafting and revising a novel is something I can pass on
to my students. There’s not a tip I give my student writers that I didn’t first
learn by trial and error in my own work. I also think I can give them pointers
on the proper mindset for a writer, dealing with the highs and lows of trying
to create art.
One of the things I say over and over
is that if you want to write a lot of good sentences, you have to allow
yourself to write a lot of bad ones too. The idea being that even great writers
have off days, even off weeks, when the ideas just aren’t coming or the
sentences aren’t singing like you hope. The thing to do, the thing all serious
writers do, is to fight through these lulls – just keep writing and writing.
Eventually, the muse will relent and reward such diligence with a week or so
when the words come effortlessly. So along with technique and tricks of the
trade, I try to teach them that persistence, as much as anything, is the key to
success.
I guess another thing that might
benefit my students is that when they see their teacher actually publishing
books, it kind of demystifies the procedure. If I’m doing my job properly, my
students should leave the class at the end of the semester thinking, 'Hey, if
he can do it, why can’t I?'"
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Dec. 19, 2012
