Once upon a time, soft toys were for babies. Now they're taken for granted as a feature of adult life. Brian Sutton-Smith More Quotes by Brian Sutton-Smith More Quotes From Brian Sutton-Smith The opposite of play is not work. It's depression. Brian Sutton-Smith designoppositesplay The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression. To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed as if one is assured of one’s prospects. Brian Sutton-Smith committedoppositesplay Play is a subset of voluntary behaviour involving a selective mechanism which reverses the usual contingencies of power so as to permit the subject a controllable and dialectical simulation of the moderately unmastered arousals and regulations of everyday life, in a way that is alternatively vivifying and euphoric. Brian Sutton-Smith everydayusualplay We study play because life is crap. Life is crap, and it’s full of pain and suffering, and the only thing that makes it worth living — the only thing that makes it possible to get up in the morning and go on living — is play. Art and play. Brian Sutton-Smith painmorningart It is my opinion that the 21st century will be the century of play, and the heteroglossic activity of artists in the 20th century has been the forecast. Brian Sutton-Smith opinionartistplay The parent who gets down on the floor to play with a child on Christmas Day is usually doing a most remarkable thing -- something seldom repeated during the rest of the year. These are, after all, busy parents committed to their work or their success in the larger society, and they do not have much left-over time in which to play with their children. Brian Sutton-Smith The main point for me is that toys are incredibly more important than we realized. Brian Sutton-Smith moremetoysimportant A toy is seen both as a bauble and as an intellectual machine. Brian Sutton-Smith toymachineseenintellectual The connections in the brain fade away unless used. We know that early stimulation of children leads to higher cognitive scores. Brian Sutton-Smith fadeknowbrainchildren Adults spend $500 billion on games and leisure activity each year, and some adults lament that kids get $15 billion for toys. Brian Sutton-Smith someyearleisuretoys I keep trying to understand the phenomenon of why adults are so literal when children are so imaginative. Toys are a caricature of reality. Brian Sutton-Smith understandtoyschildrenreality Children who play regularly with their peers are most likely to achieve the highest levels of adjustment as adults. Brian Sutton-Smith whoachieveplaychildren Play begins as a major feature of mammalian evolution and remains as a major method of becoming reconciled with our present universe. Brian Sutton-Smith presentuniverseevolutionplay Despite the efforts of some parents, children still tend to act out the traditional sex roles of our culture. The child's peer group may have more of an influence over this than the parents. Brian Sutton-Smith parentsculturechildrensex What many teachers observe as violent behavior is often really just playful aggression. Brian Sutton-Smith teachersjustaggressionbehavior Play is always a fantasy, but once you get into the frame, it is quite real, and everything you do is real. You put acres and acres of real movement and real action and real belief in it. Brian Sutton-Smith youfantasyrealaction Playful stimulation probably hits all kinds of synaptic possibilities. It is all make-believe and all over the map. The potentiality of the synapses and the potentiality of playfulness are a beautiful marriage. Brian Sutton-Smith mappossibilitiesmarriagebeautiful A weakness of many of the self-oriented play theories is that they often sound too much like vain consumerism instead of being about the more passionate and willful character of human play, which involves a willingness, even if a fantasy, to believe in the play venture itself. Brian Sutton-Smith fantasyweaknesscharacterbelieve For decades, there has been this assumption that children played and adults didn't. That's rubbish. Brian Sutton-Smith beendecadesrubbishchildren Research has shown that children who play often both solitarily and socially become more creative and imaginative than those whose exposure to play and toys is limited. Brian Sutton-Smith toyscreativeresearchchildren
