I was not a fan.
Deep Play was written by Dianne Ackerman, published April 1999 by Random House. In chapter six, she mentions that poetry is where she started and you can tell. Words are her medium and she wields the brush with a heavy hand. Because of that, I did not enjoy the book. I am not a fan of heavy prose and a verboseness due to the author’s love to play with words and imagery.
I felt like the book wasn’t about deep play but was a product of deep play for the author. I definitely knew all about her loves by the end of it… bicycling, poetry, nature… and her fears… growing older, destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
It didn’t follow the structure of most nonfiction books that I’m used to where you briefly state your hypothesis, you provide facts or arguments to support your hypothesis and then you summarize. In the books, the author just seems to state her opinions as fact, i.e. poetry reflects the heart and soul of people; with nothing to back up her statements. This is annoying to me.
I don’t feel like you can make absolute statements. I had a professor teach me this in one of my classes. Absolute answers on tests were easy to disprove and usually not the correct answer. Ever since then, when I see absolute or sweeping statements, I get the urge to disprove them. Because this author started to annoy me, thanks to Google and a little research, I was able to disprove several of her statements and various things in her book.
I guess it’s good to read a book on occasion that you don’t agree with or that annoys you. It’ll allow you to explore the basis of your disagreement, the why of it, and you might learn more about yourself or delve into the subject a bit more than you would have. Even though she didn’t argue deep play in a manner that satisfies me, she definitely motivated me to think on it more and come to my own conclusions.
The meandering of the author’s thoughts as she passed through her discussion and thoughts on deep play made the book tedious for me. It made me wish I DNF books, but I always finish books that I start. I did give it 2 stars out of 5 because she did get me thinking and philsoposizing even though I didn’t agree with her on many points she makes. She did elicit a reaction and feelings for me, and it’s that what a lot of authors/creators strive for?
I don’t recommend this book unless you like flowing language, prose, or verbose poetry.
For Popsugar, it doesn’t really fit any of the prompts.
My husband finished his 4th book earlier today and this is my 4th so we’re still tied… 4-4.
Happy Reading!!
Charlotte on Books 