Tim Anderson

“To play together is to commit to one another, to affirm that these moments spent together (in what are often the silliest of endeavors) are valuable.”
― Thomas S. Henricks, Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression

“As Huizinga (p. 10) puts it, “The arena, the card table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc., all are in form and function playgrounds, i.e., forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, within which special rules obtain.”
― Thomas S. Henricks, Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression

“Huizinga first defines play and then attempts to show how this activity was institutionalized in such aspects of early social life as language, games, law, war, philosophy, poetry, mythopoeisis, and art. In his view, the previous centuries of world history were marked by socially fixed occasions in which people competed with one another publicly. Such high-spirited and symbolically charged wrangling by prominent individuals was the way in which significant ideas were tried out, refuted, and reformed. In Huizinga’s judgment, history is not only the accounting of technological progress or political and economic movements but also the analysis of cultural interchange and development. Thus, tennis courts, courts of law, debating and scientific societies, song duels, parliaments, potlatch festivals, and philosophical bantering find their places as crucibles of social change. For Huizinga play is not to be sought within some separate institution of society. Rather it is a distinctive form of relationship that stands at the center of public imagination and conduct.”
― Thomas S. Henricks, Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression

“In play, people are aware that they are doing something temporary and different. Even for children, play has a strong “only pretending” quality.”
― Thomas S. Henricks, Play Reconsidered: Sociological Perspectives on Human Expression