Notes on "Homo Ludens"
Animals play just like men. E.g. little dogs playing with some rules (don't bite too hard, act as if you're angry, etc) So play has always been part of man.
Most studies on game and playing focus on trying to solve question "why doe people play" by trying to see it through the lens of a particular field.
None really focuses on the aesthetic value of playing.
Rite, myth, law,order, art, poetry, wisdom and science are all rooted in play. Comment: It seems to me a bit far-fetched...
Play = non-seriousness. Comment: I really don't see where they're going... if play is never serious and (as they said ealier) pretty much every human activity stems from play then does it means no human activity is serious?
Play is a voluntary activity ie. you have to do it freely otherwise it's not playing anymore. Play = freedom. Comment: what is interesting is that playing (usually?) has rules ie. anti-freedom. So playing is freely accepting rules of the game.
Play is not ordinary, not real. Distinct from the daily life activities.
Game has a beginning and an end. During its course it transforms the mind.
Relation between play and secrecy.Comment: but *where* are they going?
Play as "dressing up" (relation to secrecy) -> the disguise. Playing some other person.
Play in relation to the rite ie. serious and mysterious "play". Rite = act, action, representation.
Frobenius (anthropologist) describes the mental process of rite as thus: (1) the experience of life and nature "seizes" the primitive man and (2) he must then (by reflex) act this emotion of "being seized". Comment: This is in my view what art is about too: "being seized" by a work of art brings you back to your deep nature.
Now they say play could be serious. Comment: they contradict themselves...
Similarity between play and rite. E.g. specific place to happen, rules, separation with ordinary life.
Interesting example of initiative rites with men wearing masks, acting like ghosts. Everybody knows who is behind the mask but they nevertheless flee with horror when they come in front of one. Also see Santa Claus.Comment: But hey I really believed in Santa Claus :)
Identity: when dressed as a kangaroo in the ritual the practitionner is the kangaroo (personification). No conceptual distinction between "being" and "playing".