Disruptive Play
The Trickster in Politics and Culture
by Shepherd Siegel, PhD
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Pub Date Sep 10 2018 | Archive Date Dec 22 2018
Wakdjunkaga Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
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Description
"Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture" journeys from
ancient folkloric appearances of Tricksters such as Raven
and Èṣù-Elegba, to their confined role in Western civilization, and then
on to Trickster’s 20th century jailbreak as led by dada and the
hippies. Disruptive Play bears witness to how this spirit informs social
progress today, whether by Anonymous, Banksy, Bugs Bunny, or unrevealed
mischief-makers and culture jammers. Such play is revolutionary and
lights the path to a transformed society.
Original Play is
the frolic and noncompetitive play that animals and human babies do in
order to have fun and to keep on playing...not to win or to lose. It is a
substance of the universe that occurs in all life. It is the behavior
by which love and belonging are expressed, given, and received.
When play
moves into contest or other roles and rules, with winners and losers,
it becomes Cultural Play. Issues of ego and narcissism are issues
for Cultural Play, not for Original Play.
Disruptive Play occurs
in the rare times when the rhythms of Original Play suddenly appear in a
political or cultural setting, settings conventionally fraught with
Cultural Play. Like driving a clown car across the field during an
official NFL game. Or Raven tricking Chief into releasing the sun, the
moon, and the stars into the sky. Or a surreptitious Banksy graffiti
that invades a museum or the public commons. Tricking power into
performing an act of love.
Disruptive Play: The Trickster In
Politics and Culture connects knowledge from mythology, folklore,
popular culture, art, politics, and play theory to make its case that to
be playful means not taking power seriously. At critical mass, power
collapses and leaves us swimming about in the waters of the amoral
Trickster.New values emerge and could lead to some version of the
dystopia that currently drenches popular culture. Or, if people can
discern between the authentic contact and exhilaration of play, and
branded, mediated, alienated pleasure, then we just might stumble and
frolic our way to the Play Society.
Disurptive Play is ideal
for enthusiasts of the human condition and those who hold out for the
vision, however slim, of the Play Society.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781732294844 |
| PRICE | $21.95 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Dora Archie O, Reviewer
This book is nothing but insightful. Looking at play, the origin of play and how over the years the human adult has conditioned or better yet created the kind of environment we see. I liked the first three chapters and loved reading about 'Dada' but beyond that, everything took me a while to comprehend.
The book's well written and the author takes his time building upon history, research and observations to persuade the reader. There's a part where he says "Play means being open to randomness and irrationality- patterns beyond our normal comprehension," and that stuck with me because there are times you do something and someone would say "that's not how an adult ought to behave" like there's this set of rules that defines an adult and a child and we've forgotten how to play or have fun anymore. Well, I'm digressing, I voluntarily requested to read this book and thank you Netgalley for the eARC.
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