Can't post links, need to sleep

[conuly]

Will post one, lest I forget:

It's been percolating in the back of my head for awhile: why is so little effort put into developing fun and games in science fiction or fantasy universes?

From dialecticdreamer

There's some interesting stuff in the comments, and the girls and I are going to get up in the morning and do things even if it kills us.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Very interesting post! But as for "Dystopian stories often deliberately exclude play from their societies", the two best-known, most-influential dystopian novels - 1984 and Brave New World - have societies which put a lot of emphasis on games in the form of team sports.

It's notable that in Star Trek, practically everybody has at least one personal hobby or special interest, often more than one. The only team sport ever mentioned is Parrises Squares, and we never see it played.

A game is extremely central to the cultural identity of the Mri people in C.J. Cherryh's <>The Faded Sun trilogy. Ursula LeGuin's characters have a variety of games, hobbies and art forms. The rabbits of Watership Down play bob-stones. A great many spacers in old-school sci-fi played either chess or poker - Freeman Lowell in Silent Running taught his little bots to play poker, and of course Asimov's I, Robot begins with a child playing hide-and-seek with her robot.

If the newer writers aren't putting much effort into developing fun and games in their fantasy/sf universes, I wonder if it's because they didn't put much effort into developing them in their own lives. School-inflicted team sports are very far from 'fun' for a lot of children - especially the sort who'd rather be reading and/or writing - and 'bored' games are called that for a reason besides the boards they're played on. The only thing more boring would be reading about a character playing a video game.

Children in hard-scrabble societies where everybody has to work all the time just to get by don't have a lot of spare time or energy to run around chasing a stupid ball. They're more likely to spend their few leisure hours on making things, which probably doesn't seem much like 'fun' to kids who've grown up being passively entertained.

EDIT: Y'know, a thought I had some time ago about The Hunger Games was: don't the children of the Districts all grow up playing 'Hunger Games'? After all, they all have to WATCH the Hunger Games every year; they see all the older children going to the Reaping, and know their turn will come soon enough.... so... wouldn't that naturally be their most constant game? Even though it's forbidden for adults to train children for the Hunger Games (except in District 1 and 2 apparently,) there'd be no possible way to stop the kids from re-enacting them on their own.

I hope your morning goes well and does not kill you! Good luck!

[conuly]

It's notable that in Star Trek, practically everybody has at least one personal hobby or special interest, often more than one. The only team sport ever mentioned is Parrises Squares, and we never see it played.

Not quite true, as you would know if you spent more time watching DS9 :P

Worf accidentally killed another kid playing soccer when he was young (which helps to explain why he's so stiff all the time), and Sisko is a huge fan of baseball, which is largely defunct, although his girlfriend's brother plays it. Oh, and on Enterprise, Archer is a fan of water polo, although that's because the actor is a fan.

'bored' games are called that for a reason besides the boards they're played on.

You've clearly never played a game of Carcassonne with me and my mom.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Correct on both points: I have watched very little of DS9, and have never played any game with you or your mom. However, as to the first, although soccer, baseball and water polo are mentioned as still existing, from what you say, it doesn't sound like Worf, Sisko or Archer actually play the sports in question as adults. Sports fandom is as passive a form of entertainment as movie fandom, but less intellectual.

As for the second point: I can't count the number of people who have similarly told me "Oh but THIS game (and/or the way we play) is different!". I have played a great many bored games, with a great many people of all different ages, skill levels, and degrees of relation to myself, because the playing of bored games is considered a socially-acceptable way to structure time with people when the conversation has run aground but the situation precludes everybody going off on their own to find something useful or interesting to do. I've been bored every time, even while acknowledging that it's far better to be bored than to get in a fight when people are trapped under the same roof.

I do play chess, but it's hard to find a good match: either i'm destroying my opponents with Scholar's Mate and such because they don't *really* play chess, or I'm getting destroyed myself, because in all honesty, I haven't *really* played chess since the 80's.

[conuly]

Sisko plays on the holodeck (and there's actually a hilarious episode where he competes in a grudgematch against this Vulcan team), and I think the only reason Archer no longer plays is because he's stuck on a spaceship.

Worf doesn't play soccer anymore, but you know, he's... Worf.

I've been bored every time, even while acknowledging that it's far better to be bored than to get in a fight when people are trapped under the same roof.

Well, I think you and I simply have different tastes, then. Lots of people do enjoy board games and don't find them tedious :)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, I would like to see a Vulcan baseball team play a grudge-match on the Holodeck. One of these winters, I may get around to giving DS9 a second look.

The people who enjoy board games are very welcome to enjoy them. My only objection to them is that all too often, the people who enjoy them insist on harassing the people who don't enjoy them into playing them anyway.

[conuly]

I hope your morning goes well and does not kill you! Good luck!

Neither my mother nor my sister seems capable of getting it into their heads that 7am is not social hour. My mother in particular seems to think my job is to function as Jenn's alarm clock, and at least once a week calls me at 7:05 to tell me to wake her up. EVERY WEEK I remind her that Jenn's alarm is set at 7:20 and I'm not gonna bug her until that time. At least I woke up early....

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

.... ??? Why does your mother not do the wake-up call to Jenn herself, instead of calling you? And why do you answer the phone at all, that early in the morning?

.... wait; don't you all live in the same house? Why is anybody calling anybody? If your Mom wants Jenn up, can't she just go kick her door or something?

[conuly]

1. Because that's when Jenn is asleep and not answering the phone.

2. If I don't, she keeps calling. And keeps calling. If I put my phone on silent, my alarm doesn't ring. Plus, there's always a chance that it's a legit problem.

3. It's a three story house. With a basement. We're scattered on three different floors, and my mother has a bad foot after a car accident 15 years ago. We frequently call each other rather than trudging up and down stairs. That's perfectly normal and not a problem... except at 7 in the morning.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, okay. But why isn't #2 true for Jenn too? Is it just that she's got an alarm clock that isn't her telephone, so she can turn the phone off when she's sleeping?

[conuly]

Pretty much. And I think she sleeps deeper than I do prior to waking on some days, because she has some really late nights.

I don't mind going down and waking her if she's actually late, I just don't like my mother waking me for this when she's not.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I can definitely understand that! So, maybe Jenn could call her every morning when she gets out of bed, to alleviate your mother's anxiety about whether she's up or not, thus leaving you out of that loop?

If she's not willing to do this, I surmise that getting up and kicking her door every time your mother calls you might persuade her. Or you could just buy a real alarm clock and turn your phone off at night, the same way she does.