What a man’s gotta do
Today: Nathan Munn, writer, musician, and author of QUÉBEC.
Issue No. 502
Raging Bulls
Nathan Munn
Raging Bulls
by Nathan Munn
I hadn’t known there was a book behind the movie of Raging Bull, the Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro, until I happened to find a paperback copy at a used book fair in my local Canadian Legion Hall. I flipped it open and read the first page. Two days later I finished it; I hadn’t been able to put it down. Reading the boxer Jake LaMotta’s firsthand accounts of his criminal exploits before becoming a pro—including beating a man nearly to death with a pipe—I had been transported back to my own youth. I wasn’t a fighter by any stretch, and not much of a crook either, but my hometown was a cauldron of violence populated by young men who rivaled LaMotta in their bloodthirst. The sordid world evoked in those pages felt familiar.
Two days into high school, a bully spat in the pencil case of a shy kid in my class. I stood up for the kid, and the bully challenged me to a fight. We met a few hours later on the front lawn of the school where, for several minutes and in front of dozens of kids, I took an enthusiastic beating. As the bully’s fists smashed into my face again and again, I realized I hadn’t the will to defend myself, much less the skill. It was then I understood I needed protection. I had to align myself with the group of kids the bully was part of, the crooks and the thugs. I focused on survival, sacrificed my own morality and angled to befriend the powerful to make sure I didn’t end up on the receiving end of their violence.
There was blood to go around back then. Simple one-on-one fights were common. On weekends packs of kids cruised around looking for whoever was gonna get it. I lived in a rough neighborhood, where walking or taking the bus home alone at night was risky. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I’ve been chased home by dudes looking to beat or rob me.
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