The jouissance of England vs Mexico

 

I stayed up to watch England vs Mexico. The kick-off started at 2am BST due to a thunderstorm in Mexico city. I tried a doughnut-flavoured pale ale waiting for the game to start. It was so worth staying up to watch it. So much drama and excitement. I felt what Lacan described as jouissance, an extreme, excessive enjoyment that felt like pain. I would describe it as the game is killing me, but in a good way. I felt overwhelmed after Bellingham scored the 2 goals within less than 100 seconds in between each other, then Mexico scored before half time. It was followed by the second half of pitch drama and referee VAR drama. Harry Kane lost his voice after the match because of the celebrations. What made jouissance slightly better was that I was watching through Sky puck, so I heard my neighbour shout ‘yeah!’ 30 seconds before England scored a goal.

I guess the feeling of "jouissance" is beyond language, because it is the feeling, and a group feeling at that. Following on from the musical congregation across cultures, times and species webinar last week, a lot of it is located in football being quite a tribal sport. 

I ought to sleep for a few hours now. I have my autism diagnostic interview later today.