Tom Curren

@tomoc.bsky.social

2062 Followers 201 Following

Writer; telling stories and making beautiful things about the beautiful game. Editor-in-Chief @scoutedftbl.com + Redstory, an Arsenal blog

"It’s such a weird fucking feeling, to watch City blast away Liverpool on a Sunday night, and to watch Arsenal fans on the timeline mock Arne Slot for spending so much money on his forwards (as I have) as Erling Haaland scores again and Sudanese gold flows from the bloodstained plains of Darfur into Dubai in total silence. And then, consequentially, to feel the instinct to point that out, and to know at least a small part of me wants to tell the world about the connection between City Football Group and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis because I can see how inevitable it is they are going to catch Arsenal again and stomp past them with the aid of resources implicated in the worst crimes imaginable. And I hate myself for that, for wanting to use such evil to grapple with my fears of Arsenal losing another title, because that is pathetic; but I realise that’s exactly how sportswashing works, by placing incomprehensible horrors next to fucking Super Sunday and making you feel all twisted up for noticing.

I suppose in these moments we can only shout, as loud as we can, and then turn to the art that makes us feel something and the little comfort it provides; and more powerfully, to each other. Meaning is found in others, and that can be enough. I think of the moment that ends Del Toro’s Frankenstein, in contrast to the bleakness of Shelley’s novel: the monster forgives his creator and resolves to be human, or attempt to, and not to fall to darkness; and then walks alone into the wilderness, and cries softly as sunlight holds the ragged scar of his face."