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Play in the City 2013
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Welcome to the on-line conversation for Play in the City, an Emily Balch Seminar offered in Fall 2013 @ Bryn Mawr College, in which we are addressing the question of how we construct, experience, and learn in the act of play. How is play both structured by the environment in which it occurs, and how might it re-structure that space, unsettling and re-drawing the frame in which it is performed? This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to. The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not a site for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts." It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking. The idea here is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours. |
Who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in our course. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. You're writing for yourself, for others in the class, AND for others you might or might not know. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of LOTS of people. The web is giving increasing reality to the idea that there can actually evolve a world community, and you're part of helping to bring that about. We're glad to have you along, and hope you come to both enjoy and value our shared explorations. Feel free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE.
![Muni's picture Muni's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1297.png)
Mark's section: POV 5
The original design of Eastern state forced people to really look into themselves and their actions, alone in a cell with nothing to do but explore your own mind allows a person to form a new perspective on themself.
Eastern State seemed more like a place of torture than reform. Solitary confinement can quickly make a person go mad, so I understand why Eastern State had so many problems, especially after getting a short glimpse at what the prisoners experienced.
ESP is an important but also overcelebrated milestone in American history with an interesting and rich history. ESP cells are lonely but also made me realize our own dependence on technology.
I found the cell to be interesting. Due to time constraints, myself and two others sat in the cell at the same time, but we did our best to ignore each other. I meditated for the half hour, found it very relaxing. Found myself annoyed by the little sounds the others made, very annoyed by the passing tours (and, admittedly, amused then they exclaimed about ‘how creepy’ the people in the cell were).
It is a cold penitentiary consisting of 10 cells, which are both better than how I thought it would be, and also worse than my original imagination.
The cell is cold and a little bit smelly. I am afraid and do not want to stay any longer at all. The grey walls around me make me feel lonely and constrained.
![tflurry's picture tflurry's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1274.jpg)
Mark's Section, POV 4: a contemporary American citizen who has an interest in America’s identity as an Incarceration Nation
Eastern State Penitentiary was an innovative attempt at changing the very hearts of prisoners, but which failed to take into account the role of kindness.
Prison reform in Eastern State was one of the cruelest and severe. Prisoner’s lack of communication and isolation did not aid in improvement but rather inspired rebellion.
It’s an inspiring and illuminating pioneer in reforming the prisons although it failed.
From the POV of a contemporary American citizen interested in prison reform, ESP was a place that shouldn’t be glorified as a breakthrough design.
The morals of Eastern State are questionable, and the role of success of reforming prisoners (rather than simply punishing them) is disappointingly low for how many people were forced to stay there.
“Freedom belongs to everyone, no matter who made mistakes or not.”
It is a place built to reform prisoners, and gives us hope since US has been striving to do so for a long time.
From the POV of a contemporary citizen who is interested in prison reform, ESP was a place that stripped people of what made them human, and prevented people from performing acts that keep people sane. It could almost be seen as a method of torture, where instead of helping people as the founders had hoped, it took away every liberty a person has.
![Clairity's picture Clairity's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1275.jpg)
3.From the point of view of Philadelphia journalist Thomas Rowe in 1856
The prison was a site of mental torture, inconceivably harsh to anyone who had not seen it with his own eyes.
Eastern State was an eerie place, not necessarily having the effects on its prisoners it hoped to.
Eastern State was a prison unlike any other, where the methods were so damaging to the human spirit, and was so radical that the fascination that came with the prison was far greater than the suffering.
It is a place where prisoners try to fight against isolation, which is meant by the builders in order to make the inmates contemplate and reflect towards reformation.
The prison would seem useless-does it really do anything for reform and penitence? Who rules the prison, the guard or the prisoners, comes into question.
ESP was a place you wouldn’t want to end up in lest you enjoyed the company of your own criminal soul and the judging eye of god.
Eastern State is truly unlike the other prisons today, prisoners must face perhaps the strongest punishment of our time, solitude.
This doesn’t work well-most of prisoners have no ability to read and spend their time (which is what they got) in trying to communicate with their neighbors.
Eastern State is not successful. Treating prisoners so cruelly with isolation will only drive them madder.
![tomahawk's picture tomahawk's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1255.jpg)
POVs: Contemporary American Citizen
Testament to the failure of the American Dream.
Like all the others, it ended up a very expensive storage areas for criminals.
Is it practical?
Today this pattern still continues but in a subtler way.
There are still hundred of thousands of prisoners today kept in dungeons, medieval-like conditions, for years, huge portion of their lifetimes, with nothing but (conditions?) for their brains to to (ziet?), be warped, and emerge with hatred, anger, and frustration toward the world.
(I couldn't read two of the words.)
Once prison was reform, now it is anti-recidivist and a source of income.
These two things (great conditions and to be pentitent) are irrelevant, and may lead people to thinking committing a crime isn't a big deal, because prison isn't too bad anyway.
It started out as an attempt to reform individulas but even now the corruption and evolution of corruption is visible in the empty space.
It might be easier or safer for some of them to stay in jail.
The original idea of build such prison is good. But the truth is, it overlook the prisoners' crazy behavior.
I disagree with the way prison is ran by today, but I'm quite confused whether as before, far more strict, is better because less people were imprisoned or if today's system, a better sustained prison life is a better alternative yet having more prisoners.
![Cathy Zhou's picture Cathy Zhou's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1256.png)
Marriage as a company
Marriage as a company
When I started reading NW, I ‘m interested in the relationship between Leah and Michel and I think it would be interesting to apply economics in their marriage.
Leah and Michel decided to get married after they had multiple sexes, and their rely for each other is based on sex:“It was hard to get used to the fact that the pleasure her body found in his, and vice versa, should so easily overrule the many other objections she had, or should have had, or thought she should have had.”It seems like a random decision, but the consequence of their marriage is satisfying: They became an accepted couple by the society and their own families. As an immigrant, Michel got a social position wit his marriage with a white woman, and with Michel’s job, Leah is also enabled to release the pressure in her life. Basically they are satisfying each other’s needs socially and sexually. The marriage did improve the productivity of them. When they get married, it’s more than the sex relations they have, they start to share social connections, take care of each other, and inevitably, influence each other. Getting married is like setting up a little company--- each of the family members have different functions, and they came together to maximize their efficiency. And it was efficient at first, the problems followed up with their likely successful business.
![nightowl's picture nightowl's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1260.jpg)
Randomness as Pattern
Zadie Smith’s novel NW does not have a distinct structure; it tries to mimic the randomness of real life. The novel does this in its presentation of words, sentences, chapters, themes and overarching plot. In the novel the lack of clear structure and closure in the ending left the majority of my classmates and me feeling slightly agitated and disorientated. This disorientation is possibly a manifestation of Zadie Smith’s intent to make us aware of our human instinct to put the world into simple patterns that don’t account for exceptions. A New York Times article on putting meaning into randomness says that, “Believing in fate, or even conspiracy, can sometimes be more comforting than facing the fact that sometimes things just happen.” (Belkin, 1) When humans hold on to the comfort of relaying on their faith in a mixture of patterns and coincidences, they prepare themselves to ignore things that could possibly contradict that faith.
![Amy Ma's picture Amy Ma's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1254.jpg)
Friendship over age
Co-authored with Yancy
How do people become friends? It occurs to me (Amy) that I don’t intentionally make friends, but just become friends with certain people after living, studying or doing other things together for a while. It is one personality that chooses another personality. So choosing friends is actually a subconscious process. The principle of making friends is “Let it be.” If two are meant to be together, they will finally be together. From NW, it is obvious that Leah and Keisha are very good friends from childhood to adolescence, but their bond became weaker as they grew older. Is it because of they are different initially or they become different as they grow up? How does their relationship change during time? Is it because of age? Is it because of different experience?
“In childhood, friendships are often based on the sharing of toys, and the enjoyment received from performing activities together.”(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship) Leah Hanwell was a person willing and available to do a variety of things that Keisha Blake was willing and available to do.(NW. Zadie Smith 209) That is how they become friends initially. Children have less concern of attitudes and values, and care more about if they can play together.
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Death and Taxes
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have said, to which Will Rogers added: “The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
In his March 2012 Budget Statement, UK Chancellor George Osborne said, “My goal is a tax system where the lowest paid are lifted out of the tax altogether, while the tax revenue we get from the richest increases.” This introduces the debate over a person’s change in behaviour as a labourer – and earner of income – when there is more or less incentive to achieve more in one’s job. According to AngloInfo, the global expat network in London, “The UK operates a system of independent taxation. In determining an individual’s liability to UK tax it is first necessary to consider their residence and domicile status.” Natalie Blake is a resident of the UK and calls London home, so she is subject to the national income tax system. By attending university, becoming a successful lawyer, and marrying a man who comes from a wealthier family and who also earns income, Natalie may be moving into a higher income tax bracket. In UK’s progressive tax system (demonstrated in the table below, where greater income earned places the earner in a higher bracket, thus yielding a higher rate of taxation; Source: AngloInfo),
Bands |
2013/14 |
2012/13 |
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Inter-species Relationship
For thousands of years, people have been coexisting with animals for the mutual material benefit of both. Whether we are talking about the herding of sheep and cows for meat or the cultivation of micers and rat-chasers, humans insisted for years on the usefulness of other creatures. Yet, somewhere along the course of history, people began to keep animals for companionship, forsaking utility, and they thus created what modern society calls pets. In Zadie Smith’s NW, Leah owns the solitary pet in the entire novel, a dog named Olive, but her relationship with her dog is not simply about utility versus companionship. Rather as Barbara Smuts says in her essay about inter-species relationships, the bond between Leah and Olive is about transcending “the narrow set of assumptions about what [animals] are capable of, and what sort of relationship it is possible to have with them” (Barbara Smuts 115)
![Taylor Milne's picture Taylor Milne's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1272.jpg)
Socioeconomics and Identity Definitions
When Zadie Smith came to speak at Bryn Mawr, she discussed how we as people are able to view others and see who they are as a person, but when we look back on ourselves, we are unable to place who we are as a person, which can be frustrating and disconcerting to those who are unable to accept this as a general fact of existing. This struggle with identity can be seen in Zadie Smith’s novel NW, through the characterization of Keisha/Natalie, who throughout the novel battles with who she is as a person, who she wants to be, and how she wants others to view her. Keisha’s battles with her identity stem from her shame in coming from a working class family in north west London, leading her to change her name in order to leave her previous life behind and start anew, however, the new Natalie is never able to leave Keisha behind. Another identity crisis that Natalie struggles with is her obsession with needing to create identity that she can see, and that others can look up to, rather than accepting who she is as an individual. Throughout her childhood, we are able to see both Keisha’s mimicking of people who are more privileged than herself, and also her desire to move into a higher social class. She has grown up trying to become the ideal person that she has formed based on her perceptions of other people and what she views as fitting for a successful life, and she unsuccessfully does this by taking fragmented bits of wealthier peoples lives and attempting to create a life of her own.
![Phoenix's picture Phoenix's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1269.jpg)
Smith Meets Kierkegaard: Existentialism in NW 2
Phoenix
Mlord
Play in the City 028
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Smith Meets Kierkegaard: Existentialism in NW
Chapter number 138 in the section titled Host, in NW by Zadie Smith, is titled with a long URL. The URL, when typed into the web address bar of a browser, is merely a Google search on Søren Kierkegaard. The chapter itself is not about Kierkegaard at all. It is short, only 60 words:
Such a moment has a peculiar character. It is brief and temporal indeed, like every moment; it is transient as all moments are; it is past, like every moment in the next moment. And yet it is decisive, and filled with the eternal. Such a moment ought to have a distinctive name; let us call it the Fullness of Time. 303
What exactly this moment is, is somewhat unclear. The preceding chapter talks about the difference between a moment and an instant, but does not mention any particular type of moment that Smith might be describing now. If ‘Such a moment’ is all moments as opposed to instants, then it might describe the “special awareness” that beauty invokes in Natalie. “The fullness of time,” on the other hand, is rather easier to understand and to relate to the title: it references a Bible verse, Galatians 4:4.5, describing the timing of God sending Jesus to Earth.
![tflurry's picture tflurry's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1274.jpg)
Time and Chapter Titles
Although at first glance the chapter naming system in NW, by Zadie Smith, seems almost arbitrary, there is an underlying intent behind the chapter-nomenclature. This paper intends to examine how the Natalie and Leah’s reactions towards their pasts are revealed through the chapter titles within their sections of the book: Visitation and Host.
The first section, Visitation, focuses on Leah, who desires very much to appear ordinary, and would like nothing so much as to stay still, living in a certain point in time. Of the 27 chapters within the section, they are organized in the very typical, traditional Arabic number system, with only four exceptions; there are four separate occasions where the numbering system skips a chapter; instead of the chapters lining up 17 – 18 – 19, they instead read 17 – 37 – 18. These chapters 37 seem to correspond with chapters wherein Leah attempts to forestall the future.
The first chapter 37 is between chapters 11 and 12, and is only a page long. Therein Leah remembers a former true love telling her that humans are naturally drawn to the number 37, and that it will keep showing up; then the scene shifts to contemporary Leah, frozen with indecision or fear, as she considers approaching the people squatting in Number 37 Ridley Avenue. Leah can not convince herself to confront these new intruders, to admit that something has changed; much safer, much simpler, to go on as if it had never been, and to absorb her self with the past.
![Frindle's picture Frindle's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1262.jpg)
The Self and The Other: Identity and Existentialism in NW
Co-authored by Muni
Zadie Smith begins and ends her novel, NW, with each half of a friendship. The novel opens with Leah, grown up and on her own, listening to a radio that at some point mentions what it is to define oneself. The novel closes with Keisha (now Natalie), going through an existential crisis. A large portion of the middle of the novel is devoted to the events that lead to the beginning and the end of the novel, toward the adulthood of these characters. In this way, the book appears to almost grow from the inside out, which parallels the theme of existentialism throughout the novel. Existentialism is the idea that one is defined through one’s own actions; what one chooses to do internally is observed by an “Other,” who then is able to define the other. In this way, one cannot be defined without an Other (in this case, a close friend). When one loses their Other, they also lose a large part of their identity and fall into despair, which leads to an existential crisis. This can cause one to try to find meaning in sources apart from their Other or to abandon the search for identity completely.
![Muni's picture Muni's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1297.png)
The Self and The Other: Identity and Existentialism in NW
Co-authored by Frindle
Zadie Smith begins and ends her novel, NW, with each half of a friendship. The novel opens with Leah, grown up and on her own, listening to a radio that at some point mentions what it is to define oneself. The novel closes with Keisha (now Natalie), going through an existential crisis. A large portion of the middle of the novel is devoted to the events that lead to the beginning and the end of the novel, toward the adulthood of these characters. In this way, the book appears to almost grow from the inside out, which parallels the theme of existentialism throughout the novel. Existentialism is the idea that one is defined through one’s own actions; what one chooses to do internally is observed by an “Other,” who then is able to define the other. In this way, one cannot be defined without an Other (in this case, a close friend). When one loses their Other, they also lose a large part of their identity and fall into despair, which leads to an existential crisis. This can cause one to try to find meaning in sources apart from their Other or to abandon the search for identity completely.
![lksmith's picture lksmith's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1263.jpg)
Keisha Blake Defining Her True Essence
Existentialism is a philosophical movement focused on the “analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad.” (Existentialism) This particular movement deals heavily with the idea that human existence is as it is perceived and there is no general human experience, just individual’s experiences. (Crowell) A significant philosopher and proponent of this idea was Jean-Paul Sartre who first created the idea that “existence precedes essence.” (Crowell) This means that humans are not born with any predefined essence or nature, it must be created through their actions and decisions.
In the book “NW” by Zadie Smith, all of the main characters go through their own form of identity crisis, however, none quite as explicitly or extensively as Keisha Blake. From very early age Keisha had trouble figuring her identity and how her own perception of herself was related to how other saw her. As she continued thought her life, this crisis followed her, even after she changed her first name to Natalie in an attempt to leave her past behind her. She spent her whole life trying to cover one identity with another only to end up with a completely different identity that she did not want to have.
![mmanzone's picture mmanzone's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1265.jpg)
The Representations of NW
The Representations of NW
While reading NW something didn’t ring true. The story did not feel real; it was too exaggerated. Having never been to the area, however, I accepted the descriptions of the people and places to be realistic depictions. I accepted Willesden as an area where whites are the minority, everyone smokes and most people are from modest backgrounds. But I realized that these characteristics are representational. According to a report on the public health of Brent County in London, more than half of Willesden residents are white and about 70% of all people in London are as well (Willesden). This report goes on to show that “at least a fifth of the population… smokes” and in all of the separate sections of Willesden, for men and women, unemployment ranges from 3.4% to 7.4% which is about 50% higher than that of all of England; the report does not, however, indicate the actual socioeconomic statuses common in Willesden. Though just numbers, these statistics paint a much different picture of the citizens of Willesden.
![pbernal's picture pbernal's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1261.jpg)
Keeping It Real or Selling Out?
Jessica Bernal
ESEM- Play in The City
As I was growing up, every achievement I'd receive whether it was in school or with anything really, my mother never failed to say, Nunca te olvides de donde vienes ni quien eres, Never forget where you’re from or who you are. After a while, you get tired of hearing it and I never really understood why she would always get so serious and make deep eye contact as she’d say it. To be honest, I didn’t care, I thought it was just one of her silly dichos.
Anywhere you live, whether we’d like to acknowledge it or not, defines us as individuals. It either speaks for your race or your socioeconomic status in society. In NW, Zadie Smith splits the book into three major parts, Visitation, Guest, and, Host, each section focusing on a different main character, Leah, Felix, and Natalie (Keisha). Each one of them has a story of their own to share. But Natalie and Felix both have one particular thing in common, they’re both trying to get out of either their social, or economic status stagnation in life. They feel trapped and unsatisfied with themselves. Through the lens of a minority myself and other examples like rappers, NW’s Natalie, Felix, and Zadie Smith herself we determine whether race and socioeconomic status ultimately determine you’re success and setting in life or whether you really can escape stagnation.
![Clairity's picture Clairity's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1275.jpg)
The Reality of Social Mobility
"I just don’t understand why I have this life"(Smith 399). Leah says.
"Because we worked harder...We were smarter...We wanted to get out...they didn't want it enough...people generally get what they deserve"(400). Natalie replies.
I paused at this paragraph towards the end of Zadie Smith's NW, thinking.
"People generally get what they deserve" is a common assumption, or a faith, that almost everybody, including me, accepts. It is such an American dream that if people work very hard towards their goals, they will get what they are striving for, even rising to a higher class. However, is this a practical depiction of how things work in the real world? Looking through the stories of the characters in NW, I am in search for the reasons and meanings of their social mobility.
![clarsen's picture clarsen's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-1258.jpg)
Biculturalism in NW
Zadie Smith’s novel NW is very much a story of struggle that explores dilemmas between several couples and friends. Two marriages Smith focuses on are Leah and Michel’s and Natalie and Frank’s. One of the most influential aspects between the couples is their biculturalism. Nearly all characters face an identity crisis but none so much as Frank and Leah which has a great deal to do with the barriers in each relationship put up by communication problems. Both Frank and Michel are described in the novel as being “very European” and having a drastically different upbringing. Due to this large difference, they often have difficulty expressing themselves and understanding others.