Essay - Defining Play Material Defining Play to Define What it Means...

Defining Play material

***** Play

To define what it means to 'play,' I first turned to the dictionary. Immediately, when I looked at the entry for "play" given by freedic*****nary.com, I was confronted with a seemingly limitless list of different definitions of ***** word "play." To play can mean to act in "jest or sp*****t," or "to occupy oneself ***** amusement, sp*****t, or other recreation." The noun "play" can also mean a dr*****ma or comedy on the stage, and the verb to ***** can mean to play a part a w*****k of **********ter. A play can mean to employ a particular maneuver during a game, or to play a particular position in a sp*****t. These definitions suggest responsibility rather than the apparently free and discursive nature of play.

As someone who has *****ed football in college, I appreciate the sense that ***** can be both fun ***** serious work. I *****gan playing sports for recreation, like most children, and gradually grew more serious about the pursuit as I played at a more competitive level, finally becoming the kicker ***** the University of Miami. Pr*****essional athletes commanding salaries in the millions must play their games ***** even ***** deadly seriousness, while nonprofessional athletes consider the same sport*****g ***** a ***** way to unwind after a h*****rd day. No one is a 'recreational' doctor or lawyer, but you can be a recreational athlete. Yet *****ing activities ***** playing a sport can ***** a job, or feel like work, and sometimes *****ing on a challenging problem at a ***** can feel like fun.

This uncertainty of what it means to play is evident in the title of Brian Sutton-Smith's essay on "Play and Ambiguity." Sutt*****-Smith suggests *****re are different kinds ***** ***** 'scripts,' what he calls seven rhetoric types of play. Sutton-Smith says that ***** type of play is "play as fate," which ***** ***** a game of chance, like the lottery. This is not necessarily play ***** fun, and certainly ***** ***** as hard work. Another type of play is "play as power" where play shows someone's status—for example, by being the best on a ***** team gives someone status, even if the individual is not having playful ***** at the moment. Then there is "play ***** identity," like celebrating a family or a religious ritual. Celebrating Christmas as a ***** is ***** just fun, it is a way ***** coming home and saying '***** love you' to your relatives. In contrast, "imaginary *****' is a kind of esc*****pism, like reading a book or watching television in a w*****y that takes you out of *****r sense ***** personal ident*****y.

***** is also play "applied ***** the self," ***** totally escapist play like engaging in a personal hobby and totally "frivolous play," ***** play*****g a joke on someone. But the question *****rises, however, what do all of these kinds ***** play have in common? What does watch*****g ***** have in common with *****ing blackjack? Perhaps the only uniting idea is all these *****