NOTES ■ 263
Alan Bloom (1987, esp. pp. 68—81) provides a spirited defense of
Plato and an indictment of modern music, presumably because it has an
affinity for Ionian and Lydian harmonies.
112 Lorin Hollander’s story is based on conversations we had in 1985.
113 Eating. For instance, ESM studies show that of the main things adult
Americans do during an average day, eating is the most intrinsically
motivated (Graef, Csikszentmihalyi, & Giannino 1983). Teenagers re
port the second highest levels of positive affect when eating (after social
izing with peers, which is the most positive), and very high levels of
intrinsic motivation—lower only than listening to music, being involved
in sports and games, and resting (Csikszentmihalyi & Larson 1984, p.
300).
114 Cyrus the Great. The information comes from Xenophon’s (431 b.c-
350 B.C.) Cyropaedia, a fictional account of Cyrus’s life. But Xenophon
is the only contemporary who had actually served in Cyrus’s army, and
who has left a written record of the man and his exploits (see also his
Anabasis, translated as The Persian Expedition, Warner 1965).
115 Puritans and enjoyment. On this topic see the extensive history by
Foster Rhea Dulles (1965), Jane Carson’s account of recreation in colo
nial Virginia (1965), and chapter 5 in Kelly (1982).
CHAPTER 6
page Reading. In the interviews conducted by Professor Massimini around
117 the world, reading books was the most often mentioned flow activity,
especially in traditional groups undergoing tnodernization (Massimini,
Csikszentmihalyi, & Delle Fave 1988, pp. 74-75). See also the study by
Nell of how reading provides enjoyment (1988).
Mental puzzles. The Dutch historian Johann Huizinga (1939 [1970])
argued that science and scholarship in general originated in riddling
games.
“Works of art.. .” is from Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson (in press).
119 The normal state of the mind is chaos. This conclusion is based on
various lines of evidence collected with the ESM. For example, of all the
things teenagers do, “thinking” is the least intrinsically motivating activ
ity, and one of the highest on negative affect and on passivity (Csikszent
mihalyi &. Larson 1984, p. 300). This is because people say they are
thinking only when they are not doing anything else—when there are
no external demands on their mind. The same pattern holds for adults,
who are least happy and motivated when their mind is not engaged by
an externally structured activity (Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi in press).
