3.1265 play, cont. (133)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Thu, 5 Apr 90 22:32:58 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1265. Thursday, 5 Apr 1990.


(1) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 01:34 EDT (17 lines)
From: Michel LENOBLE <LENOBLEM@UMTLVR.BITNET>
Subject: Accidental Discoveries,...

(2) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 02:43:41 EDT (11 lines)
From: Rich Mitchell <MITCHELR@ORSTVM>
Subject: Play and Creativity

(3) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 10:00:00 EDT (7 lines)
From: EIEB360@UTXVM
Subject: 3.1260 serious play (157)

(4) Date: 5 April 1990, 12:43:19 EDT (31 lines)
From: Sheizaf Rafaeli (313) 665 4236 21898MGR at MSU

(5) Date: 5 April 1990, 13:38:40 EDT (13 lines)
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Serendipity and walking

(6) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 19:09:15 EDT (15 lines)
From: Brian Whittaker <BRIANW@YORKVM2>
Subject:

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 01:34 EDT
From: Michel LENOBLE <LENOBLEM@UMTLVR.BITNET>
Subject: Accidental Discoveries,...


Gerald Ford, former President of the US accidentally discovered that he
could walk and chew a gum at the same time! Quite a progress for
someone who could not get off a plane without falling from the stairs.
But this has probably nothing to do with your very serious on the
subject.

Humourously yours,

Michel Lenoble
Litterature Comparee
Universite de Montreal
E-mail: lenoblem@cc.umontreal.ca
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------18----
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 02:43:41 EDT
From: Rich Mitchell <MITCHELR@ORSTVM>
Subject: Play and Creativity

"Mountain Experience" (University of Chicago Press, 1983), in its
concluding chapters, argues that a generous hospitality toward newness,
the unknown, a willingness to juggle the modalities of perception and
feeling, are prerequisite to creative acts of all sorts - art,
scientific exploration, and compelling personal relationships. Josef
Piepers excellent essay "Leisure as the Basis of Culture" makes a
similar point.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 10:00:00 EDT
From: EIEB360@UTXVM
Subject: 3.1260 serious play (157)

Humanists might also be interested in Gerald Holton, _Thematic Origins of
Scientific Thought, Kepler to Einstein_, rev. ed. (Harvard UP, 1988).
John Slatin
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------36----
Date: 5 April 1990, 12:43:19 EDT
From: Sheizaf Rafaeli (313) 665 4236 21898MGR at MSU

Willard (and other ludenic HUMANISTS):

I have referred to the role of play (frivolous and otherwise) in several
computerized contexts:

You may want to check-out

S. Rafaeli (1990) "Interacting with Media: Parasocial interaction and
Real interaction", _Information and Behavior_, vol. 3, 125-181 (Ruben
and Lievrouw, eds.)

S. Rafaeli (1989) "SOAPWARE: The fir between software and advertising"
_Information and Software Technology_, vol 31:5, 268-75.

S. Rafaeli (1988) "Interactivity: From new media to communication",
_Sage Annual Review of Communication Research_, vol 16, 110-134.
(Hawkins, Weimann and Pingree, eds.)

S. Rafaeli (1986) "The Electronic bulletin board: A computer driven mass
medium", _Computers and the Social Sciences_, Vol. 2:3, 123-136.

You should of course also consult earlier works by Papert (on LOGO -
MINDSTORMS, and in the collection edited by Ron Rice titled _The New
Media_.

I would love to hear what you plan to do with this. I think the playful
aspect of using computers for serious purposes is underinvestigated.

(5) --------------------------------------------------------------16----
Date: 5 April 1990, 13:38:40 EDT
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Serendipity and walking

Thanks to the person (sorry, I don't have the file handy for checking)
who quoted Housman on serendipitous walking. Which makes Housman into
someone who practiced peripatetic serendipity, which we all ought to do
more often, walking being good for the valves and joints and spirit.
Housman was probably also practicing paraphasia (if not paraphilia)
which indicates that if one can combine Greek and Latin scholarship with
walking, and Housman did just that, one will gain health in mind and
body, and write very good poetry as well. Roy Flannagan (who would
love to walk the Cornish coast someday)
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 19:09:15 EDT
From: Brian Whittaker <BRIANW@YORKVM2>
Subject:

I have a distant memory of reading that Goethe perfected his poetic
rhythms by reading his poetry aloud after love-making and gently tapping
out the beat on his mistress' bare bottom. I believe that Goethe tells
the story in his autobiographical _Dichtung und Wahrheit_.

Perhaps this method could be used to revive student interest in the
study of scansion. This method is, I would hasten to add, entirely non-
sexist, since it can be practised by a poet or student of any gender
with an assistant of any gender... bottoms are not gender-specific.

Brian Whittaker.