[Xmca-l] Re: Do adults play?

[Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>]

Larry,
Sure, we need to keep a little play in play, but at the same time, we have
to have some idea of what we are talking about. Otherwise you'd have no way
of making sense of my claim "Adults never play."
(or alternatively, "All adults ever do is play").

If we don't define play at least in some nominal sense (even if only by
what it isn't, or by examples of what it is), then how can we say anything
about "play". I'm not interested in being some kind of definition-tyrant, I
just want to know what we are talking about - or what we might could be
talking about? Is that still too much to ask?

-greg




On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 9:59 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Greg,
> I am left wondering if we need to define what we mean by *play* What comes
> to mind is the relation to *metaphor* *analogy* and *models* which can be
> seen to be the *background* to the *systematic models* that become
> preoccupied with foundations and certainty.
> If models *mediate* experience then the seriousness that comes with
> foundational yearnings may be leading to literalness and formalism and
> disciplines as foundational constructions.
> Then *play* for adults may be the exploration of the texture of these
> foundational *models* AS *MODELS*.
> I'm circling around the relation of the literal as serious and the
> metaphorical as play.
> Just thinking out loud. Bahktin's perspective suggests that our social
> relations always find ways to break up the literalness and return to the
> realm of adult *play* as entering the imaginal realms.
> Larry
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 8:22 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > If so, what does it look like?
> >
> > I looked back at the suggestions sent to Caitlin Wubbena who had asked
> > about the role of play in places like academia. It seemed like very few
> of
> > the responses spoke to play in adulthood and fewer spoke to play in
> > academia.
> >
> > So I'm wondering is the problem here that CHAT theorists are only
> > interested in "play" as a thing that gets the child into a more expansive
> > world (cf. Beth's concurrent thread on play among 1 year-olds)? Or is
> there
> > a literature on "play" across the lifespan? And to my opening question:
> > what would "play" look like in adolescence or adulthood?
> >
> > So, does anyone have any good leads on the role of play in adulthood?
> >
> > Seems like Bakhtin's work on Rabelais might be a start? But I don't know
> > enough about his work to know if Bakhtin was using the concept of "play."
> > (and other great satirists come to mind as well - Laurence Sterne's
> > Tristram Shandy seems a nice early example of "play" in writing that goes
> > beyond mere "comedy" and into a really complex form of "play", but there
> > must be earlier examples of this type of play).
> >
> > Any ideas?
> > -greg
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > Visiting Assistant Professor
> > Department of Anthropology
> > 883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > Brigham Young University
> > Provo, UT 84602
> > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >
>



-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
Status: O