The Play of the Structure

I, too, approached this reading prepared to have most of the material be over my head, and was surprised when I was actually able to grasp a decent portion of the chapter. Granted I don’t have a very firm grasp on all the ideas and concepts presented thus far, I understand the very (very!) basic gist of what Galloway attempted to convey. I felt that the majority of my struggle dealt with digesting unfamiliar words. Once I had an idea of what a word meant, I was able to get the basic gist of the sentence or passage that the word was used in. I employed this process countless times throughout the chapter, and each time (for the most part), I would realize that Galloway was referring to something maybe not so complex, but describing it in a complex way.

However, I was not able to use my two-step process successfully on pages 26 and 27. These pages deal with The Play of the Structure, and quite honestly, there was not a single line I could comprehend. How does play explain the nature of language? “As soon as it comes into being and into language, play erases itself as such.” (27) Uh… what? As I was reading, I felt like Galloway had switched gears here, and all too suddenly, since I was just getting more comfortable with the idea of diegetic and nondiegetic. But somehow, as Galloway says, “it comes full circle.” Once Galloway went back to discussing nondiegetic acts, I was able to get back on track.