[Xmca-l] Re: Halloween, Yale and other complications

Thu Nov 12 20:07:36 PST 2015

A very smart note on the Yale/Halloween divide:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/12/heres-what-my-yale-students-get-free-expression-and-anti-racism-arent-mutually-exclusive/

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 1:18 AM, Wilkinson <vwilk@inf.shizuoka.ac.jp> wrote:

> Carnival is also associated with Mardi Gras and that in turn with
> Dionysian (as opposed to Apollonian) festival - which is exuberant,
> cathartic, and random - could be Serendipitous or could be fatal.
> Weaving together the literature and culture with primary and secondary
> education is a discourse project which requires a framework.
> Mobs riots swarms, Maharishi effect.
> All these things cannot be plotted on a single line.
> Dropping in with a comment on the fly,
> Vandy Wilkinson
>
>
> n 2015/11/12 4:42, Glassman, Michael wrote:
>
>> Hi Rod
>>
>> I have been rethinking the idea of Carnival in the context of swarm
>> intelligence and the types of turns it can take, like how celebrations
>> after sports events can turn very dark very quickly.  It is interesting
>> that carnival in the United States often has very dark connotations.  There
>> was recently an exploration by American Horror Story into this dark side of
>> carnival  Almost always it is portrayed in very dark color.  The carnival
>> barker is not a very good character.  Clowns really are scary.  Has anybody
>> explore the two sides of carnival?
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces+mglassman=ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu
>> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+mglassman=ehe.ohio-state.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On
>> Behalf Of Rod Parker-Rees
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 2:33 PM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Halloween, Yale and other complications
>>
>> I have just been reading a lovely book by Barbara Ehrenreich - 'Dancing
>> in the streets: a history of collective joy' which deals with the familiar
>> arguments about the role of carnival as an opportunity to play with the
>> rules and constraints of everyday life - a culturally important function
>> for playfulness.
>>
>> Rod
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces+rod.parker-rees=plymouth.ac.uk@mailman.ucsd.edu
>> [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+rod.parker-rees=plymouth.ac.uk@mailman.ucsd.edu]
>> On Behalf Of greg.a.thompson@gmail.com
>> Sent: 11 November 2015 18:43
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Halloween, Yale and other complications
>>
>> Stanton wortham has done interesting work on role playing in the
>> classroom and how the identities of the roles bleed into the identities of
>> the role players.
>> -Greg
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 10, 2015, at 7:27 PM, Ben DeVane <ben.devane@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> David,
>>>
>>> I have some awareness of the literature on play, and I have to object
>>> to your characterization. I would invite correction, but most
>>> contemporary literature on the anthropology or sociology does not view
>>> play as a complete or even thorough "suspension of the rules regulating
>>> social life".
>>> In fact, the rules of social life are often thoroughly embedded in
>>> play, albeit altered in some way. Gary Alan Fine's work on live-action
>>> role play does an excellent job of examining the layers of "nested
>>> identities" that are made manifest in such play, and my colleague
>>> Thomas Malaby explores the blurred lines between work and play in
>>> contemporary games in depth (drawing on Ortner's work on Himalayan
>>> mountaineering).
>>>
>>> Your example of the costume party serves to illustrate the point: All
>>> rules are not suspended. At a costume party, one cannot crudely insult
>>> the other guests, abuse the furniture, be careless with one's drink,
>>> or grope the other guests, without being ejected for misconduct. (I
>>> include groping because 'in-character' sexual harassment is an
>>> infamous problem in live-action role-playing games). And if one were
>>> to show up with a costume crudely mocking a number of participants,
>>> one might expect said partygoers to give voice to their displeasure.
>>>
>>> If one were to show up at a Yale housemaster's Halloween party in
>>> costume as an oblivious, overpaid, and unqualified residential hall
>>> administrator, I doubt one would be warmly received. In said example,
>>> the resulting lecture would likely tackle the topic of civility
>>> instead of "thinking for one's self".
>>>
>>> Ben
>>>
>>> P.S. No rules were "set up" at Yale. Only educational materials about
>>> cultural sensitivity were distributed.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 6:58 PM, David Preiss <preiss.xmca@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the link, Peter! I will hear it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It is curious how Halloween became a mirror of how difficult is to
>>>> deal with cultural and other differences.
>>>>
>>>> When is a costume celebratory and when is a costume offensive? There
>>>> is not clear-cut line.
>>>>
>>>> One wears a costume because one is borrowing other (living or dead)
>>>> person’s identity to play a game. Indeed, wearing a costume always
>>>> involves some sort of pretense. I pretend to be somebody else as a
>>>> part of an activity that intends to be non-serious and involves and
>>>> agreed (or
>>>> collaborative) suspension of the rules regulating social life.
>>>>
>>>> Problem is we all take our (cultural, other) identities quite seriously.
>>>> Yet, if we don't suspend the serious rules we adhere to build our
>>>> identities at some point in our daily lives there is no chance at all
>>>> to make a costume party. And if we can’t make a costume party, we may
>>>> become not only boring but eventually fundamentalist.
>>>>
>>>> Therefore, there has to be room to play, to make a costume party, at
>>>> least in a society that allows for some difference.
>>>>
>>>> Question remains, how far can we go in this game so it does not
>>>> become an aggression instead of a celebration of difference. If we
>>>> set up rules, as some people made at Yale, we kill the party. If we
>>>> don’t, we risk an identity conflict. There is no clear way out of this.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> In case anyone's interested, I recently was a guest on the Atlanta
>>>>> NPR station, talking about political correctness (the implicit theme
>>>>> of
>>>>>
>>>> David's
>>>>
>>>>> article on Yale).
>>>>> 2015 WABE (NPR) 90.5FM Atlanta: College PC Culture: It’s Not About
>>>>> Offending But Respecting
>>>>>
>>>> http://news.wabe.org/post/college-pc-culture-it-s-not-about-offending
>>>> -respecting
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
>>>>> xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David
>>>>> xmca-l-bounces+Preiss
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 2:22 PM
>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Halloween, Yale and other complications
>>>>>
>>>>> And so it goes with Halloween... It seems that this holiday is
>>>>> becoming a college issue. Here, a college master (I never liked the
>>>>> term because of the slavery implications it has), got in trouble
>>>>> because it did something different than the other university
>>>>> president: she asked the students to think independently. And the
>>>>> students were, of course, disgusted because
>>>>>
>>>> of
>>>>
>>>>> the request.
>>>>>
>>>> http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intoleran
>>>> ce-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> ***********************
>>> Ben DeVane, Ph.D
>>> Assistant Professor
>>> Psychological & Quantitative Foundations University of Iowa
>>> ***********************
>>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<
>> http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass>
>>
>> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for
>> the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the
>> intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the
>> information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it.
>> If you have received this email in error please let the sender know
>> immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not
>> necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts
>> no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails
>> and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility
>> for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its
>> attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied
>> by an official order form.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>