Parkour is the metaphor
In a previous post I tried to explain my obsession with movement using skateboarding as a metaphor. What I've realized since then is that parkour is a much better metaphor, and I think I've figured out why it didn't occur to me at the time. In my head now, there are really three different uses of the word parkour that make sense:
- the original literal sense, involving movement with the body.
- "parkour" in video games (minecraft, titanfall, whatever).
- parkour as a metaphor for any kind of movement.
What I realize is that I was likely way more exposed to that second sense of the word and until recently hadn't considered the other two nearly as much.
what changed
In a conversation that happened to be about the video game type of parkour, someone mentioned it reminding them of Chase Tag. Not having heard of it, I looked it up and watched a set. I've had a good amount of time to think about parkour (the literal sense) since then and I've decided that it's Fucking Awesome.
Parkour is the metaphor
I think of parkour now as a capability that certain movement systems have. A system of movement provides an implementation that parkour works off of, or put a better way, the movement system is not parkour, parkour is what you do with it. So, at least in my opinion the metaphorical sense of the word parkour is the most useful one, and the other two describe instances of it.