JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS

I sit playing solitaire by the window,
Just waiting, seasons change.
Aha, you’ll see,
One day these dreams will pull you through my door.

I spend quite a lot of time playing solitaire on my phone. I don’t enjoy it. It isn’t fun. It isn’t interesting. It isn’t exciting.

It is just itself.

I normally play it if I’m on a train or waiting for a bus or something like that. It is a wholly unsatisfying way of passing the time. It is nothing more than that. It is like entering into a state of suspended animation until some other activity presents itself.

It is a game which never ends. Whether you win or you lose, you play again. It is a game which expands itself exactly to fill the time available. You will never reach a point where you say “Well, having won this game, I don’t need to play it again”.

No moves left.
Sorry…
Do you want to start new game?

The answer to this question is always yes.

Sometimes, as the computer deals out a fresh set of cards, the “No moves left” message flashes up immediately, or after I’ve only moved one or two cards. These are my favourite moments of the game. When I have been robbed of the opportunity to make any decision at all, where I immediately lose regardless of what I do. These moments highlight the pointlessness of the game. It is the game’s own way of laughing at the player. “You cannot beat me” the game says, “I am eternal”.

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