discussion-MonSep12

Discussion Questions for Monday, September 12 After reading the questions below and deciding which one(s) you want to respond to (you're expected to respond once every three classes, on average), click on the appropriate thread to write your response as a reply. If you have not yet registered an account with wikispaces and requested to join this site, you will need to do so to post a response (see the How to Wiki page for instructions).

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 * 1) As Nick Paumgarten mentions in the piece we read last week, Roger Caillois's //Man, Play, and Games// was written as a conscious response to Huizinga's //Homo Ludens//. What connections can you find between Huizinga's and Caillois's concepts of "play"? Do they overlap in significant, mutually reinforcing ways? Or are they unrelated or even opposed ideas? Be sure to quote from both texts in your response.
 * 1) What sense would Caillois make of EITHER the kind of uploaded re-enactments on YouTube that we have been looking at OR Anna Deavere Smith's //Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992//. How do they illustrate (or not) his notion of "pure waste"; his categories of //agon// (competition), //alea// (chance), //mimicry// (simulation), and //ilinx// (vertigo); or his continuum between the modes of //ludus//, “the taste for gratuitous difficulty,” and //paidia//, “the power of improvisation and joy.” Be sure to 1) quote directly from Caillois's writing in your answer and 2) to refer to specific YouTube videos or characters/scenes from //Twilight//.