Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Humour and Play-Fullness: Essential integrative processes in governance, religion and transdisciplinarity
The lengthy, and intricately-linked draft of an article "Humour and Play-Fullness: Essential integrative processes in governance, religion and transdisciplinarity" begins with the following observation: "The following exploration follows from a concern that modern civilization is boring itself to death trying to manage change -- and compensating for its inadequacies with respect to the challenge by indulgence in distractions and substance abuse. There is a need for radical reframing -- of a playful nature. Essentially the argument is that 'no play equals no engagement' -- at least of any sustainable form."
That should give you a good taste of the significance and sobriety to ensue. But don't let that dissuade you. Scattered throughout the density of this article are gems of theological, philosophical and political insight. In the section on "seriousness and humorlessness," for another example, you will find this wonderful quote from a section of copyright law, no less: "If the point of law is to tame the state of nature, the point of copyright law, surely, is to make it fun to live there. Copyright law is not just about money -- it is about creating the things that make life worth living. One of those things is parody, a known antidote to modern life. But now US copyright owners seem intent on creating a vast new humour-free zone in America, by pursuing parodists through the courts. Each of the last two presidential elections spawned a big anti-parody lawsuit, but the phenomenon is not just limited to political jokesters: the sense of humour failure on the part of copyright owners has hit literary parodists as well."
On and on, through implication after implication, including, oddly enough, a section on "Potential of humour in communication with extraterrestrials, aliens and terrorists," a startling, but illuminating concatenation in and of itself.
Well, before I talk myself silly, I must admit that I found the article more useful as a stimulus to thought than as a "good read." And, in many ways, I think that is Anthony Judge's purpose - to make us think. What the article made me think about most was the connection between humor and playfulness, because for me, it helped unbundle the concept of humor from that of comedy, comics and comedians, and bring it back to something far more central to those of us who follow the Playful Path - humor and playfulness (or, as Judge has it, "play-fullness") as aspects of the same intelligence or sensibility. Judge diagrams this out for us in his "Integrative framework of humour-playfulness." See especially his notion of "mutually enhancing humour."
Thanks for this find go to Dr. Timothy Wilken.
That should give you a good taste of the significance and sobriety to ensue. But don't let that dissuade you. Scattered throughout the density of this article are gems of theological, philosophical and political insight. In the section on "seriousness and humorlessness," for another example, you will find this wonderful quote from a section of copyright law, no less: "If the point of law is to tame the state of nature, the point of copyright law, surely, is to make it fun to live there. Copyright law is not just about money -- it is about creating the things that make life worth living. One of those things is parody, a known antidote to modern life. But now US copyright owners seem intent on creating a vast new humour-free zone in America, by pursuing parodists through the courts. Each of the last two presidential elections spawned a big anti-parody lawsuit, but the phenomenon is not just limited to political jokesters: the sense of humour failure on the part of copyright owners has hit literary parodists as well."
On and on, through implication after implication, including, oddly enough, a section on "Potential of humour in communication with extraterrestrials, aliens and terrorists," a startling, but illuminating concatenation in and of itself.
Well, before I talk myself silly, I must admit that I found the article more useful as a stimulus to thought than as a "good read." And, in many ways, I think that is Anthony Judge's purpose - to make us think. What the article made me think about most was the connection between humor and playfulness, because for me, it helped unbundle the concept of humor from that of comedy, comics and comedians, and bring it back to something far more central to those of us who follow the Playful Path - humor and playfulness (or, as Judge has it, "play-fullness") as aspects of the same intelligence or sensibility. Judge diagrams this out for us in his "Integrative framework of humour-playfulness." See especially his notion of "mutually enhancing humour."
Thanks for this find go to Dr. Timothy Wilken.
Labels: playfulness
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