Comments on: Memoirs of Play: Any Ideas?

By: vonbladet

vonbladet — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:53:54 +0000

Any or all of the Arthur Ransom “Swallows and Amazons” series would surely fit the bill.

By: Rana

Rana — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:21:32 +0000

They’re not exactly memoirs, but have you considered things like Boy Scout manuals? Or the various “boy’s books” about how to be Indians in the woods, make your own fishing pole, and the like?

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:52:15 +0000

Jennifer Price is an interesting idea, Dave. I’ll track down the article version–is it embedded in one of the chapters in the book? (I think you’ve recommended the pink flamingo essay to me before, so I’ve read just that one.)

Little Women for sure. I actually think that whole mid-19th Century moment is where “child’s play” is most visible as a cultural novelty or new idea in a lot of fictions and personal narratives.

By: maldenized

maldenized — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:30:02 +0000

There are some great scenes in Little Women. In at least one scene they put on a play for their family and friends, and in others they act out scenes from Pilgrim’s Progress.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 04:02:27 +0000

Did Jennifer Price’s “The Unbearable Whiteness of Skiing” make the cut? (Unfotunatley it was renamed from dissertation to book, but an article of the same title appeared in either Western Historical Quarterly or Pacific Historical Review).

By: William Benzon

William Benzon — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:32:26 +0000

You might want to take a look at Eiko Ikegami’s Bonds of Civility. It’s about artistic circles in Tokugawa Japan. I does have some discussion of flower arranging, which comes under hobbies. And of course, the whole book comes under the broader understanding of play that Huizinga advocates. FWIW, this is my number one “must read book in humanities” for 2006. Here’s my short review:

http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/tokugawa_blogging_best_of_2006/

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:52:42 +0000

What about one of Gary Soto’s memoirs? (I think the one that has stories of playing in the garden and running around Fresno is _Black Hair_.) There’s also some stories about childhood play in Cisneros’s _Woman Hollering Creek,_ and _George Washington Gomez_ might be good too … no wait, those are kinda tangential episodes.

I’m sure there’s good stuff in novels/memoirs by the Native Americans of the Southwest but I’m blanking right now — I remember some poems about play in Luci Tapahanso’s _The Women are Singing._

I can think of As Am writing from CA and the Southwest too but it sounds like you already have that covered.

By: Alan Baumler

Alan Baumler — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:47:49 +0000

Not to be a pest, but if you are looking for something on contemplation and leisure in China at least they spell that “travel” a good book is

Strassberg, Richard E. 1994. Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China. University of California Press.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:27:48 +0000

Occasionally there are things that are so perfect to a purpose that fail for reasons of practicality. In my Production of History class, I once tried assigning Delaney’s Neveryon books (the first one) since it seems so perfect for how memory and history interact. Too diffuse. Gormenghast would be an awesome vehicle for talking about childhood and play in my mind, but…too long, too oblique a point.

It almost makes me think of an entry on beautifully apt but unteachable books…

By: Tom Scudder

Tom Scudder — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:30:39 +0000

There’s a chapter in the Screwtape Letters that talks about play… (ech, found it, it’s a single sentence: “Children, until we have taught them better, will be perfectly happy with a seasonal round of games in which conkers succeeds hopscotch as regularly as autumn follows summer.”

I’m also thinking of the bit in Brave New World involving the “Electric Bumble-Puppy” which expresses the same sort of conservatism.

There’s also a completely different bit in either Gormenghast or Titus Groan involving a classroom game, in which the kids somehow hurl themselves out a window and if they do it right manage to bounce straight back in the way they came. But described in very close detail.