Review Jeremy Sampson’s generous-spirited, wide-ranging—and, yes, at times playful—'Being Played' offers a useful primer, especially for students interested in the philosophy of comic literature. Across eight chapters and a conclusion, the book offers what Sampson calls an “ontology of play”. The method possesses a sound basis in philosophical inquiry, including illustrative excurses into poetry and literature—from Shakespeare to Gerard Manley Hopkins—as the instantiation of the ludic temperament. Registering in a variety of ways how this temperament persists as a touchstone for modern philosophy, culminating in the work of Gadamer, its finest and most thoughtful proponent, marks Sampson’s signal achievement. Being Played bears the lightest of scholarly touches throughout; the gravity of its underlying message will be keenly felt.Stuart Christie Professor and Head Dept of English Language and Literature Hong Kong Baptist University This wide-ranging book is a masterful adaptation and extension of Gadamer’s aesthetic theory of playfulness. Jeremy Sampson employs a new hypothesis, which he calls the fundamental “ludicity of Being”, as a tool for interpreting the metaphysical, religious, and existential meaning of three very different, yet highly influential, literary dramas by William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde.  Peppered with a playfulness well-suited to its title, the book nevertheless offers an impressive depth of insight that will transfix any reader who joins the author in a lifelong search for the enduring meaning of human life in a post-modern world.Prof. Stephen Palmquist Dept. of Religion and Philosophy Hong Kong Baptist University About the Author Jeremy Sampson has recently graduated with a doctorate in Hermeneutics and Literary History from the University of Chichester, United Kingdom. He is also a freelance writer who has worked for The Times Higher Education Supplement and Oxford University Press. Amongst his forthcoming publications is Envisioned Lands (2020). Currently he lives and works in Hong Kong.
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