The problem with play is that it’s childish. Or so people say. Play is more often than not seen as a waste of time, an activity that only immature humans partake in. Adults, on the other hand, are critical of this seemingly useless activity and are envious of a kid’s ability to play so mindlessly. However, play experts Tim Edensor et al. and Robin Marantz Henig discuss in their essays Playing in Industrial Ruins and Taking Play Seriously, respectively, that play is not limited to children. In fact, our whole definition of play is skewed. Play is not the opposite of work; the line between them is blurred such that play is as productive as work and work can be as fun as play.

Elena Luedy

Professor Cohen

E-Sem

9/25/15

Our Own Jungle

For homework we had to read both a post from one of our class mates and an article regarding ‘play’. For this paper I chose “Playing on the Wild Side” by isabell.the.polygot and “Playing in the Industrial Ruins” by Tim Edensor.

Play should be More Praised

Play is for Everyone

            Children love to play. That is an indisputable fact. Children may be unable to play in the traditional sense of the term depending on their situation but that doesn’t stop them from wanting to play, from playing anyways. Children love to have fun and play is one of the best forms of having fun. As Molly Knefel says in her piece “Kid Stuff”, “…children are primed for fun like coiled springs” (Knefel). It doesn’t matter where they are or what their situation is children love to play, to have fun, to laugh, to be silly.

Edensor, Evans, Holloway, Millington and Binnie insist on “A lack of overt regulation is a key attribute to ruins, important in relation to play since this provides a space outside the strictures of ‘healthy and safety’, systematic surveillance and material maintenance. (66)”

Thanks again to Sara Gladwin for this beautiful piece (I don't know why it posted twice but I can't fix it):

When we think back to our fondest childhood memories, we may linger on times of play. Whether this play was by ourselves or amongst others, with toys or with imagination, unstructured or guided – play is a universal pleasure that is equally yearned for between children and adults, regardless of environment. “Kid Stuff” by Molly Knefel, “Taking Play Seriously” by Robin Marantz Henig, and “Playing in Industrial Ruins” by Tim Edensor can illuminate this concept in Butterfly’s post. Stuart Brown, the President of the National Institute of Play, describes play as fundamental to the production of learning, memory, and well-being. This might explain why play is so greatly sought out by both children and adults.

When discussing play it is easy to envision scenes of small children playing with dolls, building iron fortresses of pillows or shooting laser beams out of nerf guns in an attempt to save the world from an alien apocalypse. The ease with which children’s minds wander into the realms of fantasy creates a simple and effective form of entertainment. Each activity mentioned above is a version of “pretend play” or “fantasy play1,” a type of play in which one relies largely on imagination, opposed to material objects and environments.

While the actions of play remain in the past, the vivid memories of it still linger, kept in the back of our minds for mental escape from the bleak reality of adulthood. Theladyinwhite’s post clearly defined that the fantastical world in her mind during play became a distant memory when she grew up. In Molly Knefel’s article “Kid Stuff,” it is clear that she thinks that Americans believe the difficult adult world is far removed from childhood, which the mainsteam describes as completely pure and innocent.