17 Quotes by Mary Flanagan

A group’s preference for specific activities is one important way values emerge in a culture. The leisure habits of the rich are framed as activities to see and to be seen at. They prove exercise, but no exertion; they are a courtly site of sociality and pleasure.

Critical play is characterized by a careful examination of social, cultural, political, or even personal themes that function as alternates to popular play spaces.

For many game players, games exist for entertainment, for passing the time, for fun.They are a diversionary activity, meant for relaxation or distraction—a “not- work” space where players are free to engage in fantasy narratives, amazing feats, and rewarding tasks. But what if certain games have become something more?

Play is, by definition, a safety space. If a designer or artist can make safe spaces that allow the negotiation of real-world concepts, issues, and ideas, then a game can be successful in facilitating the exploration of innovative solutions for apparently intractable problems.

Birds cough out their lungs, fly with regret to places where their feet no longer freeze in ice. Birds start falling. Bees lie dying.

everyone knows it's not safe togo out on a brimstone nightespecially with you

Words will never oxidize

The city is courting bites, asks me to polish silver, making sounds fit for no one's ears.