I’m a 27 year old blue state bureaucrat with a BA in urban planning. I’m also autistic. For the past 5 years, my special interests have been a) Buddhism, b) the Marxist tradition, and c) drugs. That’s a rather intense trifecta through which to interpret, navigate, and relate to the world. My wife is very pleased that, through these fine blokes, I’ve added a superficially more approachable and socially acceptable 4th lens to the repertoire. Now, when random in-laws ask me about my interests, I can say “Game Studies!” rather than staring blankly into the void, or dropping “mycology” with a saccharine wink.
While my wife is pleased with the social utility of this addition, she’s growing tired of my constantly pointing out the entanglement and sublimation of all joy, recreation, and artistic expression with and into capitalist extraction and replication. Apparently my brain can only derive happiness through hyperawareness of its own exploitation.
P.S. The Play of the World is just Dogen-style non-duality for continental philosophy geeks.
P.P.S. Thank you to Michael and Cameron for making the academy so accessible and enjoyable for pedigreeless stiffs like myself. You’re doing the work, and you’re doing it well.
