![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSo I'm reading (and loving) Arika Okrent's nifty book In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language. I'll have more to post about this book later, once I'm done.
But for now, there's nifty fact I learned that has nothing to do with the core topic. As a kid, I loved the board game Careers. I had at least two different versions, and enjoyed it a lot before moving on to more strategy-heavy games like Stratego and chess.
I didn't know, however, that it was designed by James Cooke Brown, then a professor at the University of Florida, specifically to help advance his Socialist views by encouraging young people to think about more than just money when planning their lives. Hunh. As with William Moulton Marsten or Heddy Lemar, it's one of those weird cases where you see creations in disparate fields from the same person.
For all my liberal (but not Socialist) views, I can't say the game indoctrinated me any more than Life made me love the '50s Ozzy and Harriet model or Monopoly turned me into a slumlord. But it's fascinating to learn of the story behind a game I enjoyed so much.
But for now, there's nifty fact I learned that has nothing to do with the core topic. As a kid, I loved the board game Careers. I had at least two different versions, and enjoyed it a lot before moving on to more strategy-heavy games like Stratego and chess.
I didn't know, however, that it was designed by James Cooke Brown, then a professor at the University of Florida, specifically to help advance his Socialist views by encouraging young people to think about more than just money when planning their lives. Hunh. As with William Moulton Marsten or Heddy Lemar, it's one of those weird cases where you see creations in disparate fields from the same person.
For all my liberal (but not Socialist) views, I can't say the game indoctrinated me any more than Life made me love the '50s Ozzy and Harriet model or Monopoly turned me into a slumlord. But it's fascinating to learn of the story behind a game I enjoyed so much.