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The New Yorker - Parkour Article

Monday, 09 April 2007

Alec Wilkinson of the New Yorker recently finished writing a great article about Parkour. In it Alec takes the time to discover some of the people, places and ideas of Parkour and relays them to his audience. Check out the article here.

Users' Comments

Display 18 of 18 comments

1. 04-09-2007 11:19

Amazing article!!! This is what an article should be! I learned so much.

leonn

2. 04-09-2007 11:38

good article, the length is really nice, but the writer is really bad, it reads like a childrens book, "David Belle is now thirty-three. He has an older brother, Jeff, who is also a fireman; they have the same father but different mothers." the info is good but they obviously didn't get their best writer on the job. good thing writing style doesn't detract from the message relayed.

warpigs330

3. 04-09-2007 12:06

I am glad to see this turned out well, especially in the wake of the TIME disappointment.

Thank you Alec for putting in the time and effort to get it right.

I disagree about the writing style. I think it is intentionally written in a simplistic style due to its informational nature and mass target audience.

For anyone wondering, It has been released online and will not be published in the actual magazine until the next issue that comes out on April 16.

demon

4. 04-09-2007 12:24

Ya I got a chuckle out of the writing style as well. The author must be a novelist. But overall nice article, the stuff with David Belle was especially interesting because it revealed more about him as a person, and the history.

I still sensed some belle-centric bias when they were discussing the history, downplaying the other individuals like Seb and Yan. But what do you expect, this was an article on Parkour, not freerunning or Le Art Du Deplacement.

Overall very informative piece. Good work to all involved.

skynative

5. 04-09-2007 12:42

What a great article, really in depth and it's clear the author took his time and really invested himself in the article.

I'm really impressed, good job to everybody involved!

akh

6. 04-09-2007 15:01

Thanks for the article, Alec!

It's not simplistic. Re-read the first paragraph.

Remember - Alec is writing for his audience - the New Yorker. It's not Martial Arts monthly, American Journal of Physics, or the New York Times.

It's well written, and personal. I get more of a sense of who David Belle is from this article than I have from any other interview.

So, if you have PK cred and writing skills I encourage/ challenge you to write something for your local media.

You can write letters to the editor of the New Yorker at themail@newyorker.com.

Once again - thanks for the article, Alec!

btay

7. 04-09-2007 15:44

That ruled. We need more positive exposure like that.

yli

8. 04-09-2007 18:01

Informative to those unfamiliar to Parkour yet still interesting to those veterans of the art.

As being a writer myself I understand why the article was written so simply. The writer wanted to make sure no the article was clear and the scenes and people easily imagined (which I got great imagery from it).

The writer is also humble enough and has a good enough self-image to not "over-write" and use words bigger then necessary words to make himself sound so much greater. I really enjoyed it! Great job to everyone involved!

Saint 7

9. 04-09-2007 21:20

Haha what the hell are you talking about. you think thats bad writing, you must have really high expectations then because, newsflash: that was good, even relative to other things it was good.

satsantokh

10. 04-09-2007 22:12

I loved the simplicity of the writing, it makes a topic (parkour)which is so tough for most people to comprehend, so much more understandable. I thought I knew quite a bit about David Belle, and this article talked about things I didn't know, it was really interesting. I loved the way Alec described the people and the places... I've seen videos of david in his mothers house, and alec explained it perfectly. I loved the article, and I only hope that other journalists take the same time and care into writing a peice about parkour. It's a discipline that is very easily misunderstood

kage

11. 04-10-2007 03:11

great article, but -
"its founder would like to see it included in the Olympics" -
is that true?
david belle actually wants pk in the olympics?

pete

12. 04-10-2007 07:56

I am sorry to say the the better article was rather boring and the time article was an interesting read. The New Yorker read like laundry list of facts and most people who dont care about Parkour would take it as something that movie stunt men only do and a few kids pretend to do at the playground.

The time article catches peoples attention because we read it as another one of those dangers our kids are going to run into when they leave our safe home and go to college and end up getting injured or killed.

If I was just reading a newspaper and both articles were in it I would read the time one and leave the NY after the first couple of sentences. Regardless of which is accurate or well written. :sigh

hblockdvm

13. 04-10-2007 10:00

I'd say that in my opinion you're the root of the problem. People who would rather read sensationist crap than factual journalism are the reason that sensationalist crap is so prominent. More people read the enquirer and crap like that than anything else, so you're not alone by a long shot, but to me, it perpetuates a society based on fever-pitch emotion instead of discovery of truth.

m2.

14. 04-10-2007 12:27

The New Yorker is not a newspaper. Some of the other articles are about commuting, Tibet, and buying a suitcase.

What I thought was very cool - on their "Urban Jungle" page, they say "To learn more about parkour, visit AmericanParkour.com."

It will be interesting to see how many visitors we get in the next few weeks.

btay

15. 04-10-2007 19:42

A very good article, and whether or not we think it was simple, boreing, literary, genius, or crap, the point is that it was researched and displayed parkour as all new practices should be displayed. Virtually no one knows exactley WHAT Parkour is. What I mean is, they have only seen it in glimpses and have can't really understand the history or origin of it. Most don't even know that it has a "following". In my opinion, this is a first step. We've seen it portrayed in a bad light, and now we're seeing a mainstream magazine put in the effort to bring it out of the dark and take that first step. The first of many we hope. Expect to see more articles of a positive nature regarding Parkour. Wait for those, and then we'll start to see journalism that addresses the style, purpose, and technical aspects of the dicipline that we all hold onto like it's our first born child. Thank you to Alec for giving that child the chance to take that first step.

Rispearski

16. 04-10-2007 20:00

I like it, it's good to have Parkour display with the right perspective in the media, regardless of how exciting it is. Maybe some grumpy old people will read it and it will lighten their resentment towards us damn kids. The up close and personal with David Belle was very interesting as well. I've never seen the human side of that guy before

serdmanczyk

17. 04-18-2007 03:15

I would think twice before criticizing the writing style of an article in the NY'er. You might be saying more about yourself than the article. The NY'er is one of the finest magazines in existence. Some of the most intelligent thoughts to be had. A here we are, a bunch of PK guys--like myself--ready to correct one of its writers writing style. Wouldn't you giggle a bit if an editor came out and told you how to do a Tic-Tac. That's how we sound to the people at the NY'er. We sound like a bunch of nitwits.

gunnarsharp

18. 04-26-2007 20:19

This is real reporting. This is the most beautiful article that I have ever read!

deathvendetta

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