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Play, Life and Imagination: Essays on Gender, Sex, Games and Self book cover

1st Edition

Play, Life and Imagination Essays on Gender, Sex, Games and Self

By David Seelow Copyright 2027
272 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

272 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

Play, Life and Imagination is a wide-ranging and deeply human exploration of play as one of the most powerful, misunderstood, and transformative forces in contemporary culture. Drawing on philosophy, psychology, literature, film, comics, and everyday life, David Seelow argues that play is not a distraction from serious thought but one of its most vital expressions: a way of making meaning,... Read more

A Play Pioneer: Homage for Bernie DeKoven (1941–2018)

Overture

Introduction: My Field of Dreams

Part I Play and Festivity: Being in the World

Chapter One: The Playful Self: Psychoanalysis, Creativity, Cure, and Destruction

Chapter Two: Play and the Free Spirit: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Chapter Three: Play, Screw, Eat, and Pray: The Carnival of Life

Interlude: Aesthetic Play: Cinema and Video Games

Chapter Four: You Play, I’ll Watch: On the Value of Critics for Games and Film

            In Memory of Roger Ebert (1942–2013)

Part II Gender Play and Sex Play: Identity and Modern Culture

Chapter Five: The Stud at Play: Poker, Masculinity, and Modern American Culture

Chapter Six: Playing the Black Widow: Poker Queens Take a Seat

Chapter Seven: Playing with Gender: Empowerment and Community through Cross Gender Play and Performance

Chapter Eight: Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair: Fair Play, Justice, and Trans Athletes

Chapter Nine: Playboy in the Wake of #MeToo

Part III Keep Playing

Chapter Ten: Superheroes and the Playful Imagination

            In Memory of Stan Lee (1922–2018)

Conclusion: Roderick and Me: Hope, Gratitude, and the Promise of Interspecies Play

Biography

David Seelow received his Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from Stony Brook University and Master of Arts degree in English from Columbia University. He was founding Executive Director of the Center for Game and Simulation-Based Learning at Excelsior University. He has authored two previous books, Radical Modernism and Sexuality: Freud/Reich/D.H. Lawrence & Beyond and Games as Transformative Experiences for Critical Thinking, Cultural Awareness and Deep Learning, while editing two others: Lessons Drawn: Essays on the Pedagogy of Comics and Graphic Novels and Teaching in the Game-Based Classroom: Practical Strategies for Grades 6–12. Dr. Seelow has taught in higher education for over 25 years. He loves tennis, reading, and the Irish countryside. Roderick, who made the author’s later life a joy of simple beauty, passed in 2024.

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