One really cannot overstate how important Ilya is to Shane’s sense of embodiment, being grounded, his own realness and corporeality, etc as 1) a person often trapped inside his own head and 2) a notably famous person, who has become deeply symbolic as an Asian-Canadian role model! the Figurehead of the entire city of Montreal ! the future of hockey ! the face of Rolex and Reebok and that mystery orange drink!
Shane has never consciously felt desire before Ilya. His body has been nothing but an instrument, a performance tool, a mechanism for success and praise. Later on, his body becomes even further commodified in quite objectifying adverts; sex appeal reduced to Sign, a signifier of consumerism, designed in an office to sell stuff. However! Ilya makes him feel ego-obliterating pleasure in all its sweaty physicality. Without Ilya, Shane would never experience his own body removed from anyone else’s expectations.
In parallel, Shane had never faced anyone as good at hockey as Ilya before. He’s always been the best player on the ice. As I said here, Ilya blocks out all the noise of Professional Hockey and brings the individual moments of playing against each other back to Shane. its not about what it signifies for their careers and their seasons, its about how good it feels to push the other up against the board and steal the puck!
Panting isn’t about effort and discipline and ability, it’s just the sensation of giving it everything. Moaning isn’t about being titillating or associated with vulnerability, it’s the sheer pleasure of it all. Personal victory over professional, carnality over commercialism.
Ilya takes this triad of sex-hockey-bodies and says fuck it, this isn’t an abstract nexus of ideas and money and media narratives. It’s you and me. Our lives are our own, not just what’s written about us. That’s the greatest gift Ilya gives Shane.
I know it’s well-established that Sex = Hockey, but I guess the Hollanov thesis statement really is Sex and Hockey are as real as we make it when its just between us two, this exact second of silence between the sound of our beating hearts.
