Why Burgundy Wine and Football Embrace Ambiguity and Unpredictability: An Exploration of Negative Capacity
Introduction
Living a life full of uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts may seem overwhelming and uncomfortable to some. We often seek clarity and order, striving to understand and control every aspect of our existence. However, there is an alternative perspective, a concept referred to as “negative capacity.” This idea, coined by John Keats, suggests that being “half-content with knowledge” and embracing uncertainties can be liberating and enriching. This sentiment can be applied to various aspects of life, including the appreciation of Burgundy wine and the love for football. In this article, we will explore how Burgundy wine and football epitomize the experience of living through their lack of predictability and structure.
Burgundy Wine: A Simulated Experience of Living
Burgundy wine, often considered the most complex wine region in the world, is a conundrum for many wine enthusiasts. With its multitude of small producers, ambiguous climate, temperamental grape varieties, baroque grading rules, and the whims of heredity, Burgundy wine embodies the essence of negative capacity. The region’s ultralocal variations can be baffling, and the terminology used by Burgundian winemakers can sometimes appear as pre-scientific gibberish. Nonetheless, the intricate details of terroir and winemaking techniques play a significant role in producing these wines.
What sets Burgundy apart is its refusal to adhere to patterns and predictability. While other wine regions strive for standardization, Burgundy embraces the chaos and unpredictability of nature. The lack of a consistent flavor profile creates an intriguing and captivating experience for wine enthusiasts. It is the wine that most closely simulates the experience of living – diverse, ever-changing, and full of surprises.
Football: The Unstructured Sport That Resonates with Life
Football, also known as soccer, is often hailed as the most universal sport. One of the reasons for its popularity lies in its lack of structure and set rules compared to other sports. Unlike tennis or golf, which are divided into sets, serves, tosses, and holes, football allows for a continuous flow without pre-arranged units. The absence of rigid divisions provides players with the freedom to adapt, improvise, and navigate through an ever-evolving game.
Another intriguing aspect of football is its low-scoring nature, which introduces randomness into the outcome. In a game where a team can play exceptionally well yet still lose, football mirrors the uncertainties and unpredictabilities of life itself. This inherent imperfection of the game resonates with audiences worldwide, as it reflects the struggles and triumphs of navigating an unpredictable world.
The Glory of Vagueness in Matters of the Heart
Beyond wine and sports, the concept of negative capacity extends to matters of the heart. Some of the most memorable romances fall into the gray area between a one-night stand and a full-fledged relationship. These undefined connections, which provide ongoing rapport and occasional adventures without the commitment of a defined relationship, have a certain allure. They allow for the thrill of discovery and excitement while maintaining a level of uncertainty that ensures the flame doesn’t burn out.
Unfortunately, society lacks a proper term to describe these ambiguous couplings, often relegating them to profane or trivial labels. The absence of a widely recognized term demonstrates our struggle to define and understand relationships that defy conventional categories. Despite this limitation, these connections serve as examples of embracing negative capacity in our personal lives, reminding us of the beauty in embracing the unknown.
Embracing Disorder: The Evolution of Art and Literature
The intellectual trend of the last century has been to embrace disorder and challenge conventional patterns. Artists and writers, such as the Cubists, Proust, and Joyce, sought to break free from the constraints of formal structures and explore multiple perspectives and narrative styles. Their work aimed to reflect the intricacies and complexities of life itself, rejecting the notion that art should adhere to rigid rules and predefined forms.
This revolution in art, often referred to as the “modern” or “modernist” movement, found its precursors in the Benedictine monks of Burgundy. Centuries before the modern era, these monks tended to the vineyards and embraced the notion that life doesn’t conform to predefined patterns. The wines produced from their labor retained a sense of ambiguity and contradiction, capturing the essence of living itself.
Is Clarity the Answer?
In his book “I Drink Therefore I Am,” philosopher Roger Scruton makes a compelling case for the superiority of claret, a type of red wine from Bordeaux, over Burgundy. He argues that the large commercial houses of Bordeaux have the means to ensure a higher minimum standard, providing a more reliable and consistent drinking experience. However, life cannot be equated to a regimented, standardized experience. It is messy, chaotic, and often defies our attempts to comprehend it.
Just like life, Burgundy wine embodies the unpredictability and contradictions that make it so captivating. While safer and more straightforward drinking experiences can be found elsewhere, they lack the element of surprise and discovery that Burgundy offers. It is precisely this lack of pattern and predictability that makes Burgundy wine a true reflection of the human experience.
Conclusion
From the poems of John Keats to the intricate world of Burgundy wine and the unpredictable nature of football, the concept of negative capacity permeates through various aspects of our lives. Embracing uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexity of existence. Burgundy wine and football remind us that the best things in life are often ambiguous and elusive, mirroring the realities of our own journeys. So, raise a glass of Burgundy wine, embrace the chaotic beauty of life, and revel in the joy of not having all the answers.
Summary
In a world that values clarity and structure, the concept of negative capacity reminds us of the beauty and richness that can be found in embracing uncertainties. Burgundy wine and football epitomize this notion, offering experiences that simulate the complexities and unpredictabilities of life. While Burgundy wine may seem confusing and football’s low-scoring nature defies conventional expectations, these elements mirror our own journey through life. By embracing the ambiguous and the unknown, we open ourselves up to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the world around us. So, let us raise a glass to the complexities of Burgundy wine and the unpredictability of football, celebrating the glory of vagueness and the power of negative capacity.
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I live near the former home of, now a museum dedicated to, John Keats. His poems are too moving and in love with nature for a man as arid as me. But a phrase he made up is always useful. “Negative capacity”. It appears in his letters, not in his verses, and signifies a tolerance for “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts.” If you are “half-content with knowledge,” instead of seeking clarity and order all the time, you have a negative capacity. He used the term in praise of Shakespeare, who never tells us how to live and whose characters remain enigmas.
The Burgundy wine is testing my negative capacity. It competes with travel as my biggest financial expense after housing. More specifically, it rivals language learning as my biggest cognitive drain outside of work. The most complex wine region in the world is a mess of small producers, ambiguous climate, the temperamental pinot noir grape, baroque grading rules, the whims of heredity (a master can bequeath a fool) and adjacent vineyards of significantly different character.
These ultralocal variations can be exaggerated. Burgundian speech is prone to pre-scientific gibberish. (Look up the great “minerality” debate.) But the details of terroir and technique do count. And the region has managed to keep them in a nation with a strong intellectual bent toward standardization.
So why do I bother? Why not go back to the old British taste for Bordeaux? Not by any refinement on my part. I have a palate as delicate as a cow’s rump. No, the appeal of Burgundy lies precisely in not being able to fathom it. In its lack of pattern and predictability, it is the wine that most simulates the experience of living.
Looking around, all the best things are ambiguous. My favorite cities are the least planned. This is the world’s favorite sport.
With the new season about to start, I think I now understand better why football is almost universal. It is the least structured of all sports and therefore the most true to life. It is not divided into sets, serves, tosses, overs, frames, turns, holes, or other pre-arranged units. Basketball is somewhere close in its flow, but it takes place on a smaller surface with fewer players, so the permutations are fewer. And, because soccer is so low on points, randomness is a huge element. It is possible to do nothing wrong and lose. Does it remind you of something?
The glory of vagueness is everywhere, even in matters of the heart. Some of the most memorable romances fall into that gray area between a one-night stand and a relationship. These tend to last long enough to allow for rapport, and perhaps a weekend break in Rome, but not long enough for boredom to set in. Much of the sex in a modern Western nation occurs in these hard-to-place couplings, but we don’t have a term for them, or at least none that isn’t too profane or silly to give them dignity. (“Situationship,” a recent social media coinage, is used by that genre of brunch-eating people.)
The intellectual trend of the last century has been to embrace disorder. There is a nice scene in oppenheimer where he revels in the uncertainties of the quantum world after two centuries of Newtonian structure. At the same time, more or less, the Cubists were painting from many perspectives, not just one. Jazz was breaking out of a recognizable musical form. Literature was losing its shape under Proust and Joyce.
The connecting idea here was that life itself does not obey formal patterns, so why should art? It is a revolution that we call “modern” or “modernist”. But Benedictine monks who tended the vine had been applying it in a region of eastern France nearly a millennium earlier. The wine that comes out of there can still taste of contradictory things at once and, to a newcomer, nothing at all.
In I drink therefore I am, a clever name for a profound book, the philosopher Roger Scruton almost convinced me that claret is better. The large commercial houses of Bordeaux have the logistical means to ensure a higher minimum standard. But life is not Bordeaux. It is not Tuscan or Californian. In its power to confuse and disappoint, it is Burgundian. Safer drinking experiences can be had, at lower prices, with much less brainpower. But what poet ever exalted the positive capacity?
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