Mason Hartman

“Who can say when subversive play will subvert its own rules? Sometimes a jester's wit might cut too close to the bone and the king would lop off his head. The uncertainty — that straddling of the boundaries of real and unreal — is a source of the peculiar emotional power of subversive play.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“The central argument is not that higher education is all wrong, but that it is only half right. Our predominant pedagogical system — rational, hierarchical, individualistic, and well-ordered — often ignores aspects of the self relating to emotion, mischievous subversion, social engagement, and creative disorder.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“From time to time,' Turner explained, most people seek to discard their customary clothing and status markers and 'don the liberating masks of a liminal masquerade.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“Senior scholars, insulated by tenure, pawn undergraduate instruction onto overburdened adjuncts and unprepared grad students. Beleaguered instructors ward off student resentment by offering fluff courses, assigning little work, and bestowing As with glad-handed largesse. This 'non-aggression' pact enables students to enjoy the social aspects of college without the inconvenience of doing much academic work, and it allows professors to focus on research (or carpentry or yoga) unencumbered by pestering students.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College