>I am thinking that perhaps
>fantasy is simply an agreement among some defined group of individuals
>of how they want meaning to be identical and repetitive in a certain
>situation to meet a certain need.
[terrific example here of kids in the sandbox....]
As I understand you here, let me know if you disagree, you are saying
that where there is fantasy, there is consensus, because it is vis a vis
the consensual reality that the play is organized.
>We do build up a firewall between this more localized fantasy play
>and the cooperative activity in which more individuals are needed....
[another terrific ex. of football as fantasy of noble heros vs. brutal sport]
Here, you seem to be saying that large, collective endeavors [sustained,
I would add, by collective fantasies] coincide with smaller,
localized endeavors, such as that of the kids in the sandbox, and that
the firewall must be maintained to preserve the wider collective project.
I am reading in your reality/fantasy of a cooperative society an assumption
that indeed something IS shared among the participants -- although you
do say "there is no pure shared sense."
Jay wrote in his message on this topic, "the grand consensual
reality of th larger community is just a mosaic... of local fantasies,
sufficiently articulated for particular purposes, but not of whole cloth."
In fact, it is quite possible to enjoy football and to critique it, for
sake of a different sort of vision, and it is also possible to participate in
a wider, collective project with a fantasy of football heros in mind. If I
understand Jay correctly (and I may not) he was suggesting it has to be like
that. If Michael is right, that at least the semblance of a firewall is
crumbling, that may not be so bad for the project of circulating some
alternative visions.
- Judy
Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University