In the summer of 1969, while backpacking through Europe, Sylvester Stallone had his palm read.
asserted
palm → backpack → Europe
The 23-year-old longed to act but had little experience.
asserted
old → long → experience
A fortune-teller spoke about patience and persistence.
asserted
teller → speak → patience
She said that within seven years, dramatic changes would transpire.
asserted
changes → say → years
Stallone wrote the screenplay and played the lead role.
asserted
Stallone → write → role
The film tells the story of Rocky Balboa, a small-time Philadelphia boxer who takes on the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Apollo Creed.
asserted
who → tell → world
Rocky loses.
asserted
Rocky → lose → ?
In defeat, however, he discovers dignity and respect.
asserted
he → discover → dignity
In a new memoir, The Steps, Stallone, who recently turned 80, revisits those seven years he spent as a struggling actor, before his lucky break.
asserted
he → turn → break
We also read about his impoverished childhood.
asserted
We → read → childhood
Tyrone Gardenzio Stallone was born in 1946 in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.
asserted
Stallone → bear → Kitchen
Later, his father, an Italian immigrant, changed his name to Sylvester.
asserted
father → change → Sylvester
Home was a rat-infested hovel with no central heating or hot water.
asserted
Home → infest → heating
Stallone’s parents had grandiose ambitions for stardom, but neither had much luck.
asserted
neither → have → luck
Today, Stallone feels grateful for his tough upbringing.
asserted
Stallone → feel → upbringing
It helped him survive the petty violence and psychological turmoil he encountered in New York in the early 1970s, while working several underpaid menial jobs.
asserted
he → help → jobs
Culture offered hope and possibilities.
asserted
Culture → offer → hope
In his spare time, Stallone regularly visited New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where he discovered the work of Van Gogh, Maillol, Bourdelle, and Rodin.
asserted
he → visit → Gogh
In The New York Public Library, he befriended a security guard, who introduced him to the original manuscripts of Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe.
asserted
who → befriend → Whitman
They pointed to his slurred speech, droopy eyes, and deep voice.
asserted
They → point → speech
But the countless rejections made Stallone even more determined.
asserted
Stallone → make → ?
Are we reading a self-help guidebook?
asserted
we → read → guidebook
It feels like it.
asserted
It → feel → it
He is philosophical and poetic about the loneliness he endured.
asserted
he → endure → loneliness
His remedy was not to seek out company but become comfortable in his own skin instead.
asserted
remedy → seek → skin
“The love for myself became true,” he writes.
asserted
he → become → myself
“It became real, in a way that was important to my survival.”
asserted
that → become → survival
Stallone’s ambitions to write always lingered, but he struggled to find a subject he could make his own.
uncertain
he → write → subject
He wrote short plays.
asserted
He → write → plays
But they weren’t successful, or original, instead mimicking the likes of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugène Ionesco.
asserted
they → mimic → Beckett
Eventually, Stallone moved onto screenplays.
asserted
Stallone → move → screenplays
His education in film was casual and informal; he worked as an usher at a Manhattan cinema .
asserted
he → work → cinema
“You aren’t really seen as a person,” he writes.
asserted
he → see → person
That humiliation aside, the job presented an opportunity to study film.
asserted
job → present → film
Watching Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider was a turning point.
asserted
Watching → watch → Rider
The low-budget independent film proved that if a creative idea had truth and passion, reaching a wide audience was possible.
asserted
reaching → prove → audience
Gradually, Stallone got some acting experience.
asserted
Stallone → get → experience
But the gigs were not regular and provided no financial security.
asserted
gigs → provide → security
He appeared in Bananas (1971) The Lords of Flatbush (1974) and Capone (1974).
asserted
He → appear → Flatbush
He moved west to Hollywood.
asserted
He → move → Hollywood
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
