Games, Tales and Legends, and Perhaps Films?

Games, Tales and Legends, and Perhaps Films?
In The Practice of Everyday Life, de Certeau discusses the idea of the game and how in each society games give rise to spaces where moves are proportional to situations. An important aspect of the game is the formulation of rules organizing moves and memory, which stores and organizes the schemas of actions articulating replies with respect to circumstances. (p. 22) Furthermore, accounts of particular games reinforce a succession of combinations of moves, and in essence, record the rules and the moves simultaneously. The intrigue of a game is in part reinforced through the element of surprise to which the player responds based on the repertories of schemas of action between partners that are learned through repetition (playing the game) or talking about the game and its strategies. Thus, such “mementos” teach the tactics possible within a given (social) system.(p. 23)

De Certeau sees this model as analogous to the role of tales and legends. Like games, the activity of repetitive, ritual storytelling in the form of tales and legends take place outside of the time and place designated for labor and rely on such aspects as the past (in games, the continuation of the schemas of action and the series of tactics), the marvelous (in games, the element of chance), and the original (in games, each new situation calls for the recollection of new strategies). Like the game, tales and legends are moves dressed up in gods or heroes that can be used as models for everyday strategies and tactics. Frequently reversing the relationships of power, tales and legends reinforce the formality of everyday practices and “ensure the victory of the unfortunate in a fabulous, utopian space. This utopian space protects the weapons of the weak against the reality of the established order.”(p. 23)

In contemplating the idea of the game as it relates to tales and legends and how we respond to institutional strategies with tactics, I see parallels in contemporary society with how we process and react to popular culture movies. Just as tales and legends have a bigger agenda than mere story-telling for entertainment sake, movies are viewed in a time and place that are outside of and isolated from daily competition and if not premised in the past, they more often than not are within the realm of the marvelous and original. In the most popular of films, the reversal of the relationships of power (exemplified in such films as Nine to Five, Slum Dog Millionaire, Pretty in Pink, etc.) and the formality of everyday practices is clearly evident. We are entertained while learning lessons on how to subvert the system, or allow ourselves to believe that we can rise above our station in one form or another, or at least for a time be in control of our lives as we relate to others. Films, like games and tales and legends, teach us how to react to situations, expose the hierarchies among people and institutions, and reveal tactics through the actions of the characters to appropriate for our own everyday lives. We project ourselves into the plot of the film, identify with the characters, or at least fantasize that we can be like them or attain relationships with them. Whether the strategies presented have any relevence in our lives, as we watch films, we are compiling a reservoir of potential tactics that carry over in our "real lives."
-Julie Sasse