Cross-cultural misconceptions were a key ingredient to imperialism. To the conquered these misconceptions led to a gross underestimating of those doing the conquering, as for the conquerors misconceptions led to an undervaluing of foreign cultures and thus leading to the need to trivialize and eradicate them. Caillois’s analysis of primitive society’s religious rituals as forms of “play”…
Caillois Response
by Claire Knaeble •
I can’t seem to get a solid idea on what my own definition of play is, mainly because I think it is just a matter-of-fact concept. Reading Caillois’ book was borderline dense, in my opinion. I think he delved too deep into what play is through his associations between the different types of it (i.e.…
Caill-why
by Patrick Anderson •
Forgive the pun, but I couldn’t help myself from just questioning the paths Caillois was taking in his book. The motivation (and a reasonable amount of the theory) behind much of what Man, Play and Games is fairly solid and admirable, but he just kept making seemingly arbitrary blunders in what he was trying to…
The hero we needed, not the hero we deserved.
by Griffin H. •
Week 3 To-Do/Notes on Reading Responses
by Maggie Greene •
By Wednesday night (1/28), post a short reading response for the Caillois. As I mentioned today, I was generally really pleased with everyone’s first efforts! But there’s always room for improvement, so I wanted to reiterate a few points to keep in mind for your weekly responses: One of the tricks or traps here (and something…
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Hello, I Have Anxiety Disorder – And Gaming Helps (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Professional Games and Spectating
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Of particular interest to me in this week’s readings were Huizinga and Parlett’s claims that professionalized play, especially sports, tend to fall outside the definition of play. Certainly simple participation in “ball-games,” as Huizinga calls them, falls under the category of play, but does this change if the game becomes big business and one signs…
Week two reading response, Huizinga
by Keenan T •
Reading through Huizinga’s work I became very distraught at times due to what he was saying about play and he wouldn’t always clarify what he meant to ease my worries. Huizinga mentions the seriousness of play and said that it is naturally not serious and that humans made it seriousness with games such as chess,…
1/22 Reading Response
by cgill •
Most of the texts we read for the first week did not leave a lasting impression. It wasn’t until I started reading “Homo Ludens,” by J. Huizinga that I found sentences that left me thinking about games and history. The first one was when Huizinga stated, “Play only becomes possible, thinkable and understandable when an…
Reading Response
by Maria •
Homo Ludens by J. Huizinga was an interesting read that I gained a lot of information from as well as interested on how he referred to and defined ‘play.’ The fact that he did not limit play to a human characteristic and acknowledged that animals ‘play’ as well was intriguing. Huizinga also states that ‘play’…