Ripening Presuppositions
What does it mean, how is it supposed to look like? It points at assumptions that presuppose familiarity with what are pointed at and pointing itself. One can say that the grass is green without knowing what grass or green is while showing familiarity with what the statement represents by pointing. When one says something, they do so by pointing at things which are related to words that represent concepts. To say something about grass is to relate this representation to different ones. It assumes familiarity with concepts of living things, plants, colors and habits about how relating one to another are interpreted. Relating one concept to another presupposes familiarity with the concept itself which forms the basis of doing things to concepts, such as ordering and organizing them into categories.
What does Kaile Hultner of No Escape blog presuppose when they relate videogames to maturity? Familiarity with both concepts and the intricacies of our language to call for wide array of associations in response. To answer this call on relating the concept of maturity to videogames, I shall focus on the former. To become mature is to have the ability to fulfill one’s civic duties as a citizen in democratic society. It’s a legal concept that establishes a relationship between the state and its citizens. It marks a turn of age from childhood to adulthood that comes with responsibilities and privileges when compared. An adult may purchase property, consume alcohol and carry a gun to murder people in countries that value property over persons’ lives. Videogames accentuate the latter. Is this what maturity looks like? This legal doctrine treats people as uniform entities to be introduced to the labor market. It differentiates to infantilize people growing up to mold them into adults less reluctant to question this process of homogenization.
Before considering toys, playing or anything as something, one should ask themselves what this statement about anything and something presupposes. What mode is the concept of maturity operates when contrasted with activities described as frivolous? To get away from this virtuous lens capable only seeing through values presupposed by history, I propose to look at maturity without baggage, as baggage and as transformation. Strip it from the concept of time that frames it as aging and coming of age, fold it into itself to investigate it as socioeconomic reality or create a distance from its spatiotemporality. If maturity is ripening akin to a seed coming to fruition, then appreciate the seed, the plant and its decomposed body as distinct motifs: the seed for its curves, the plant for its growth and the cadaver for the space it leaves behind. Beauty lies in the plurality of associations.
