PoP Book 06.2s MidRes - Flipbook - Page 27
shot with a rubber band”, not to mention the arm of any good snowman.
He points out the best thing about it: “that there aren’t any rules for its
use.” Someone from a games background immediately bridles at this;
but that’s because they’re looking at the toy too much, and not enough
at its user. What the description of the stick’s possibilities tells us, really,
is that it’s just a lever. One that operates the freest, most abstract toy
of all — the one with no built-in constraints. The imagination.
Before we head off to anywhere as mysterious as that, though, it’ll really
help if we try to understand how play has been defined up to this point.
And to do that we need a brief tour around some classic play scholars
to see the fun they’ve had tussling various conceptual arguments, with
themselves and each other. As with some other parts of this exploration,
it’s quite possible you’ll feel we’ve gone all heavy and left your idea of
play far behind, but I promise it’s essential scaffolding to support even
the lightest and silliest behaviour.
1.19
What is Play? / Almost Nothing
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