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1Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens; Freud, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle."
2Supposedly there is a range of recreations so that everybody can be competent at something. Indeed these recreations are not mere whimsical gestures, but are social exercises. Skating: having wheels under your feet creates a standardized challenge in balance and moving, which is physically hygienic, and pleasurably kinetic to many people. Dancing is a mating ritual. Etc. All standard recreations are sugar-on-the-slate exercises.
3It's sad that I was so desperate for support that I cited this lame attempt at a fable. John E. Canaday, Embattled Critic (1962), pp. 177-80. A caveman starts out collecting pebbles as a hobby. Others join him, for various motives, and eventually museums and dealers are born. In 1963 I was so desperate for encouragement that I failed to notice that a pebble collection is already objectified, already a possession of objects--the activity was never brend.
4"Preliminary Concepts"
5mutually obstructing, mutually nullifying purposes
6i.e. competition for the sake of competition without any other content or reason
7i.e. that they be different people
8That's a desperate stretch. Canaday is writing about collecting, and his conclusion is that the institutionalization of art manages to be edifying after all.
9Evidently a version of "Primary Study."