📚 node [[homo ludens]]
📓 garden/forshaper/notes/pages/homo ludens.md by @forshaper
  • [[Play]] is older than humanity. We may know this by looking at puppies and other [[animals]]. They pretend to bite and such without doing too much damage, and appear to have [[fun]].
  • [[Play]] is an essential function in many [[animals]].
  • [[Fun]] is very hard to define. Huizinga says it is a recent word, and may be unique to [[English]].
  • [[Play]] is evidence of a [[mind]].
  • [[Language]], since it necessitates metaphor and changes frequently, has an element of [[play]] to it.
  • [[Play]] can be very [[serious]].
  • Huizinga seems to think that [[animals]] can't [[joke]] or [[laugh]], and uses the fact that people don't laugh at dogs playing as evidence of this. I wonder how he would've reacted to the culture of this time.
  • [[Play]] is always voluntary. If it is [[forced]], it is hard for people to play
  • [[Play]] requires [[freedom]].
  • [[Play]] is known to be a [[simulation]] by the players.
  • [[Play]] both serves and [[shapes]] [[culture]]. Play helps the group stay lively.
  • [[Play]] is typically constrained in [[time]] and [[space]]. Is there anyone who is always playing? Within a playground, play creates [[order]]. [[Constraints]] are created within the play, such as rules of a game, and the players stick with those constraints.
  • By [[withdrawal]], a player may 'spoil' a game. That is, by revealing the [[play]] as [[limited]] and not practical to the player who leaves the [[constraints]] of the game, the player ends the play- like di[[spell]]ing an [[enchantment]]. Such a player is [[banished]] for destroying the game. You might call this [[heresy]]. [[Heretics]] may leave the game and [[create]] their own game with constraints they prefer, launching a [[revolution]].
  • Once people have played together, they stay together (even if just in parallel) long after the [[play]] is ended, because they have created a small world together, a world they carry within them wherever they go. Part of play is a feeling that this playing is for the players here and now- for 'us' and not 'them'.
  • Wearing a [[mask]] or [[costume]] often aids [[play]]- allowing us to play a part, to be someone else- to be someone new.
  • [[Drama]] comes from the word dromenon , which means [[action]]. The act represents the way of the world, the cosmic process. This [[representation]] allows the actors and viewers to [[identify]] with the way of the world as experienced in the drama.
  • The [[ritual]] of the [[drama]] allows everyone in it to participate in the process of [[creation]]. This is mithectic, not [[mimetic]]. An improvisation in which everyone participates in the copying.
  • [[Vedic]] [[ritual]], whatever the ritual, plays out a process to tempt the gods into continuing that process on a larger scale. You see how this makes [[play]] of utmost importance. Every ritual is a [[summoning]].
  • The ancients [[play]]ed out the way of nature that was imprinted in their [[mind]]s.
  • Leo Frobenius asserts that man created [[time]] and [[space]] to bring [[order]] to the universe.
  • In some ancient societies, the [[King]] played the [[sun]], and so meets the fate of the [[sun]] in a [[ritual]] death- as the sun goes down every day. collapsed:: true
  • We use '[[instinct]]' to explain what we don't yet understand.
  • According to Frobenius, ancient man was seized, taken, pushed and pulled by existence. [[Play]] comes from being seized- [[creativity]] comes from being seized in this way. Something is [[beginning]], and something is [[ending]], and the individual is seized by this to play it out, to to [[transform]]. Play helps a [[cosmic]] happening [[flow]].
  • In [[play]], we figure out where we are in the [[sacred]] process.
  • [[Ritual]] is built on [[play]].
  • [[Plato]] says, "What, then, is the right way of living? [[Life]] must be lived as [[play]], playing certain [[games]], making [[sacrifices]], [[singing]] and [[dancing]], and then a man will be able to propitiate the [[gods]] and defend himself against his enemies, and [[win]] in the contest.”
  • [[Plato]] says, "They don’t realize that if [[children]] introduce novelties into their [[games]], they’ll end up as adults who are quite different from the previous generation, looking for a different way of life—which means new [[laws]] and new social [[institutions]] and, as I said earlier, disastrous consequences for [[society]] as a whole."
  • The ancient [[Greek]] word 'padeia' has the same root as the word 'paidia'. One has to do with learning, the other with leisure, but they both come from [[play]].
  • [[Xenophon]] says, “I believe that it is not only the serious actions of distinguished men which are of interest, but also those done in [[play]].”
  • [[Play]] allows you to be [[move]]d by the rest of existence.
  • Both [[play]] and the [[sacred]] required constraints to set them apart from the rest of life.
  • [[Play]] may [[end]] through external interference, a breaking of the rules, or inhibition from within.
  • A difference between [[play]] and [[ritual]] may be in whether the participant is willing to acknowledge the limits of the activity. A player knows they are in a [[simulation]], a ritualist may not acknowledge the simulation.
  • By getting absorbed into playing a part, we give the [[play]] more [[power]].
  • The [[Greeks]] made [[play]] a central part of their life, but particularly the sort of play that came from pitting players against each other to show everyone the results. A play based on [[conflict]].
  • In [[Sanskrit]], a word for [[play]] also has to do with the [[movement]] of the [[wind]] or the [[waves]]. It grew to include [[dancing]], [[hopping]], and [[throwing]] or casting, which in turn came to mean jesting or mocking. To these were added shining or radiance.
  • [[Chinese]], [[Greek]], and [[Blackfoot]] draw a distinction between [[contest]] and other forms of play. [[Contest]] involves players playing against each other to show who comes out on top to an [[audience]].
  • [[Play]] is associated with rapid [[movement]].
  • One of the older Germanic meanings of play is to vouch for, to guarantee, or to take a risk- to expose oneself to danger for someone or something. Later, there's a definition of taking care of someone, or to bind yourself to someone.
  • "Play and danger, risk, chance, feat—it is all a single field of action where something is at stake." In modern gamers, what was at stake was the ego.
  • Combat, in Anglo-Saxon, is called battle-play, as in swordplay or spearplay. To play here was to struggle with fate within constraints.
  • Play can be deadly- that does not mean it is not play- see 2 Samuel 14.
  • [[Culture]] is workshopped in [[play]], before it is solidified and passed on as culture. Part of it is crytalized as [[ritual]], others parts are [[knowledge]].
  • It mostly [[group]] [[play]] that produces culture.
  • Agonistic competition introduces [[tension]] and [[uncertainty]] to [[group]] [[play]].
  • The more challenging a [[game]] is, the more [[tension]] there will be in the audience.
  • For a [[game]] to be interesting, people have to be [[players]] or an [[audience]] who have accepted the constraints, or premise, of the game.
  • The [[reward]] of [[games]] is [[energy]] from finishing the game under the constraints of what counts for standing first or last. If there are people watching, the [[ritual]] has more energy in it, so it is potentially more rewarding. Winning in the game gives the player energy that can be used anywhere else. If there are [[groups]], then this energy also goes to the group that the player represents.
  • All [[games]] have [[constraints]] and a win condition. This win condition is often represented by a gage, or a symbol of the challenge. This [[object]] is imbued with the ritual of the game.
  • It is the spirit of [[play]] to dare, [[risk]], shoulder [[uncertainty]], and deal with [[tension]].
  • As [[tension]] increases, the [[game]] becomes more important.
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