Dimensions
243 x 168 x 26mm
How filling life with play - whether soccer or lawn mowing, counting sheep or tossing Angry Birds - forges a new path for creativity and joy in our impatient age
Play Anything exposes the fatal delusions at the heart of today's culture, but it also offers us a way forward. Real games are hard, but so is life: and by treating life like a game we do ourselves the great service of treating our days as seriously as most of us treat Facebook, Tetris, or even golf. We can build games in every realm of our lives: from cooks restraining themselves to a few choice ingredients, designers simplifying the goals of their projects, or anyone devoting themselves whole heartedly to a chore-be it mowing the lawn, making a commute, or washing the dishes-and thereby forcing oneself to really pay attention to the life one is living.
"Playing anything" is what we do when we fill our days with attention and discipline, devotion and love for the world as it really is, the world outside ourselves. Combining penetrating cultural analysis and rigorous philosophical inquiry, Bogost's Play Anything offers a deeply original approach to our ongoing debates about education, entertainment, and the search for the good life.
Ranging from Internet culture to moral philosophy, ancient poetry to modern consumerism, Bogost shows us how today's chaotic world can only be tamed-and enjoyed-when we first impose boundaries on ourselves.
