The Ludic Turn

Well, the new year is off to a pretty good start, I think. I rang it in in traditional fashion with my oldest and closest friends and got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with my parents. The past week has been bizarre. I had no idea how incapable the area is of dealing with ice and snow. It was cute at first, but then it got old pretty quickly. I did enjoy the walks to Andrew's or even just down the street to get me out of the house for a while. And I do love winter. But I'm finding that I'm increasingly growing tired of Atlanta. There's still nothing I can specifically put my finger on, but it just isn't me. In Missouri and Kansas, though, I instantly knew that that was where I belonged at that very moment. Someday, maybe.

But! I am still happy to be back with the people here and I am eager to get the semester started. I think teaching logic will go well. Here's hoping, at least! I bought some paperwhite bulbs for my desk, too. They likely won't bloom until the ones outdoors do since I have poor timing, but it's still something encouraging to look at. I started reading Sutton-Smith's The Ambiguity of Play and was incredibly excited because he refers to the concept of the ludic turn that he seems happening withing art and literature in the twentieth century. In my mind I've been calling my project a characterization of the ludic turn in philosophy, which is contemporary with where Sutton-Smith identifies it in other disciplines, so I'm stoked to have resources and perhaps a more crystallized sense of direction. I have to defend a dissertation prospectus at the end of August. BARF.

The thing is, though, is that I'd like this to be a sort of ludic turn for myself, too. For being so fascinated with the subject, I am not especially good at it. But as I've discovered thus far, usually the people who are experts on a topic are not experts on it in practice. Still, though, I'd like to shift away from insissting that the spectator holds this esteemed and necessary position. I mean, it is true. But a I've used it to rationalize for too long and a spectator need only be a spectator. For one thing, I just committed to joining this blogging group: French Fridays with Dorie. Mary got me Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table for Christmas and I've already made and photographed a  few of the recipes, so there's nothing keeping me from blogging about it, too. I read thousands of blogs everyday and never comment and never post, so it's about damn time I jump in. And now that I've said it out loud, I'm held to it. It will be fun! A start, at least. The recipe for this week is a double chocolate mousse cake. I don't think anyone will complain about that.