In previous weeks, we talked about definitions of childhood. During morality, we discussed how children are either good or evil, and need media to assist them. We have also discussed how they are blank slates, and need to be filled with information. This week, the week of play, we talked about how childhood doesn't really have a definition. Childhood is plural.

Structuralism is the idea that everything belongs to some over-arching structure. Signs and signifiers are within these structures, and are where we derive meaning. Signs and signifiers aren't set in stone. They are loose and subject to change. When we make changes, or change how something is perceived, that is called play. "Playing" is what defines childhood. When we think of children, or of our own childhood, we immediately think of playing. Children are the original meaning-makers, because their understanding of signs is so fluid and subject to change. They don't know about any existing structures.

Intertextuality is an example of play, because it is the actual manipulating of signs, and signs relying on other signs. Intertextuality is when a text relies on other texts. We watched a clip from Rango, which was absolutely full of references to other texts. The Heroes exhibit in the Museum of Art is also full of examples of Intertextuality. One of my favorite works in the exhibit was a painting called "Anakin Padawan." This painting formally looked like traditional portraiture. The subject stands in the middle, holding some object. The background is often a landscape, and there is a larger object in the foreground at the subject's feet. "Anakin Padawan" followed all of these formal techniques, except that it was a painting of a young jedi, instead of a young 17th century aristocrat. The background is obviously not a traditional French or English countryside, but Tatooine instead. This painting relies on Star Wars, and also on traditional portraiture to make sense, or to be considered funny.

Children are sort of the originators of intertextuality. Kids are always mixing their toys when playing, they put themselves into different contexts when playing "pretend games," etc. When I was about 8, I wrote a 30-notebook-page book about myself attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Kids like role-playing, and putting themselves into other worlds. This fills in gaps that we feel are missing in our real lives. It is also good inspiration for creating new things. There is so much fan art and fan fiction, and I think it's great that other texts inspire people to just produce new creative things.

We played the game Ni No Kuni in class. Video games are interesting, and playful, because you get to put yourself into a story, especially in the case of role-playing games. I hadn't ever really played a video game like this before. You are the character Oliver, and you are determining what happens to him. There is an over-arching plot, but the player is choosing the character's course.

The Velveteen Rabbit fits into our discussion nicely. In the book, the Rabbit asks the Skin Horse what it means to be real. The Horse says, "Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you then you become real... Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." Play is important, because we are inserting part of our souls into something else. Children are good at playing, and play a lot, because of their ability to make things "Real," as well as let themselves become "Real."