Siegel Shepherd - Disruptive Play : The Trickster in Politics and Culture

Sometimes play can disrupt how people see the world.

Jackson Fackler at 8 years old

A historically panoramic examination of human playfulness as a naturally healthy and politically subversive force.Siegels thesis is philosophically provocative and original.combines intellectual rigor with a bracing optimismhe believes the history of disruptive playfulness provides empirical reasons to believe in its sociopolitical power.

Kirkus Reviews

Somebody once said, The beginnings of wisdom is a firm grasp of the obvious. Thats what came to mind as I learned about Shepherd Siegels Disruptive Play , an in-depth look at the power of play. Or maybe this work should be viewed, not as an historical review, but more as a DIY on play as an antidote to domination. Check it out, you might just see the forest.

Daniel Barrett,
Co-Creator and founder of Navigation 101,
a high school guidance and counseling program

Shepherd Siegel is looking at play in a very serious way. This book may tell us more about how to break down limitations and open creativity than all the gobbledygook self-help tomes of the past decade.

Tom Long,
The Detroit News

From the anti-war art of dada to the wit, wisdom and shenanigans of Lisa and Bart Simpson, Dr. Siegel reminds us that the play of art is always a play against power. This book is a timely and irresistible story about what play is and why artistically, politically and culturally, we should play more.

Dr. Michael Vicente Perez,
Assistant Professor of Anthropology,
The University of Memphis

I was in a better mood after I finished reading about the possibilities of play. I remembered there was a way to approach life that was based around joy and pleasure, rather than fear and drudgery. And thats a good thing!

Alex Marshall,
author of How Cities Work,
The Surprising Design of Market Economies
and Beneath the Metropolis ;
columnist for Governing magazine

Copyright 2018 by Shepherd Siegel

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-7322948-0-6

Wakdjunkaga Press
2316 41 st Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116-2060

Desolation Row, Words and Music by Bob Dylan. Copyright 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission. I Am The Walrus, Words and Music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Copyright 1967 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Copyright Renewed. All Rights Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard LLC. The Other One, Words and Music by Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir, Copyright 1968 ICE NINE PUBLISHING CO., INC., Copyright Renewed. All Rights Administered by UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORP. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard LLC. You Cant Catch Me, Words and Music by Chuck Berry, Copyright 1955 and Almost Grown, Words and Music by Chuck Berry, Copyright 1959 Isalee Music Publishing. All Rights Administered by Dualtone Music Group. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Cover by Pete Garceau.
Copyediting by Kathy Burge.
Interior Book Design by Ampersand Book Interiors.
Photo by Laura Totten.

www.shepherdsiegel.com

Print: $21.95
Ebook: $9.99

For the Rroses and The Bugs

Acknowledgements

There is a feast, a banquet of people to thank, all apologies now for the ones I may have left out! Disruptive Play is infused with the wisdom and joy shared by so many friends. So thank you for supporting me, challenging me, turning me on to new sources, and digging the project. First of all, of all people, Ruth Weinstein, resonant friend, bountiful supporter, and dutiful reader of the entire manuscript in order! And Carla Janes-Heneghan, the same. The stalwart West Seattle Writers Group: Paul, Paula, Linda, Lynn, Pam, Ann, Art. The professionals: Shepherdess Beth Jusino, Chris Matthias, Kathy Burge, Pete Garceau, Laura Totten, Colleen Sheehan, Katie Mulligan. The Play Scholars, Tony Perone and Thomas Henricks and all the folks at The Association for the Study of Play. Roger Shattuck. Brian Garrett. Marian Donly, Alison Reilly, Laurie Garrett, Dan Barrett, Marla Barrett, Alex Marshall, Alan Armstrong, Sandi Armstrong, Victoria McGilvray, Atticus George-Andrijeski, Bill Scheinman, Carla Bradshaw, Dan Eisenberg, Todd Snider, Dan Beederman, Ron Pomerantz, Jane Weed-Pomerantz, Dean Smith, Dina Cherin, Ed Dennis, Erik Sackstein, Hannah Chavez, Colby Cronn, Bob Huven, Kirsten McCory, Kim Reed, Jane Chadsey, Janice Roach, Matt Siegel, Deborah Caul, Nathan Siegel, Adah Siegel, Syvia Siegel, Albert B. Siegel, Jared Mitchell, Jeremy Carey, Kate Mageau, Elizabeth Pew, Kevin Halloran, Kirsten Halloran, Laurie Garrett, Linda Jurca, Mark Lindquist, Michael Perez, Joaquin Perez, Shan-e-Zahra Alavi, Mike Arenson, Fatima Bahloul, Stan Barnes, Natalie Siegel, Natalie Zilverberg, Paul Pazzo Mehling, Tom Long, Tammy Massey-Long, Phil Moser, Ruth Moser, Shira Firestone, Tom Edminster, Patrick Sand, Tracy Record, John Littel, and the rest o yas.

Disruptive Play:

THE TRICKSTER IN
POLITICS AND CULTURE

The Difference Between
Playing and Playing Games

INTRODUCTION

Play as Politics...
Its Not a Game

Play is the exultation of the possible.

Martin Buber

Twickster! Youre the wabbit!

Elmer Fudd

I remember the first time I saw American Beauty. In this Sam Mendes film, Ricky Fitts is the kid who compulsively videotapes everything around him and invites the teenage girl next door into his antiseptic neat white electric-light teenage suburban bedroom. He asks her if she would like to see the most beautiful thing Ive ever filmed. She agrees. In his minutes-long clip, wind plays with a plastic shopping bag, tossing it back and forth on the sidewalk, always staying in range of the camera. Its just minutes away from snowing, and theres this electricity in the air, he says. This bag was just dancing with me, like a little kid begging me to play with it.

He talks about the beauty of it, that the wind is able to catch this bag and show its nature as it plays with the flimsy, filmy piece of discarded plastic. I reacted along with the girlthis somewhat scary, voyeuristic weirdo is perhaps only silly. But as I viewed the video, I found myself taken with it. It is beautiful how the wind plays with the bag. And I was taken with him, fascinated. I discovered that what once was quirky now connects. That I was more like him than I realized. His strangeness came home to me; I saw that it was a sensitive response to the universe. Fitts then describes himself as someone who finds unbearable beauty in the world, more than he can possibly take.