project rednoW - Let's Play...

"Concepts create idols, only wonder grasps anything."

- Gregory of Nyssa

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Let's Play...

The Absurd General
Written by Gabe Knipp
Saturday, 06 October 2007
Description The Absurd Title: Play, Spirit + Character Artist: Stuart Brown Type: Video Play is anything that is spontaneously done for its own sake. At least, that's how Stuart Brown defines it. Often, it appears purposeless. Yet, he works as president for the National Institute of Play. Now if you're like me, you're thinking, "There's a national institute...of play? Do I pay taxes on that? And he works for the institute? What?" Also, if you're like me, you really don't spend a lot of time playing. You work all day and then have dinner in order to connect with your wife and read in order to relax and...is there anything we do with no purpose at all? Do you feel bad when you spent an hour wasting time, just playing? In his NPR interview, Stuart Brown said that when lab rats are stopped from playing, they can't identify friend from foe and have trouble developing relationships (Not that lab rats ask each other out for coffee...but you get the idea...they don't know how to act around each other like 'normal' rats). Stuart Brown is serious about play. He's serious about how the need for play is evident all around us, written in the DNA of nature. Although Brown realizes the need for play, he can't quite describe how it works. Only that is all around us, and that maybe we should take a second look at how important play is... � � Bookmark or Share This Article Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Website Title Comment

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About "The Absurd"

When we think of the wondrous and the mysterious we often think of the deep and the profound. The deep and the profound obviously create a sense of wonder in us and move us in ways that we can't explain. But there is another aspect of wonder that often gets overlooked-the ABSURD. In the same way that there are things that move us because of their profundity and beauty, there are other things that move us to a joy that cannot be intellectualized, a sense of enjoyment that has no explanation. The author G.K. Chesterton describes this inability to explain these things that move us to joy as the "problem of pleasure."

"Why is sex fun? Reproduction surely doesn't require pleasure: Some animals simply split in half to reproduce, and even humans use methods of artificial insemination that involve no pleasure. Why is eating enjoyable? Plants and the lower animals manage to obtain their quota of nutrients without the luxury of taste buds. Why are there colors? Some people get along fine without the ability to detect color. Why complicate vision for all the rest of us?"

It is this pleasure and joy that we cannot begin to explain (why the lip gloss song is so catchy, why Strong Bad's randomness is so funny, why Sufjan's costumes and inflatable props make the concert so much more than a concert, etc.) that we hope you can experience in the Absurd section of this site. There are many times when exploring mystery and wonder expand our understanding... but there are also times when we must revel in the absurdity and let a piece of art, a song, a video, etc. simply be what it is and to enjoy it at that level.

Welcome to the Absurd section of rednow.