A review of Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga.
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Johan Huizinga was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.
In 1938 he built up the theory that humans playing in one way or another is primordially important to giving birth to culture and society, although not singularly important, but essential.
The author puts under the microscope the notion of play through the lenses of language, civilization, law, war, knowledge, literature, poetry, philosophy and art.
The point he wants to make is that play contributes to all of these, in a core way, but that also we need to open our mind to what play actually means. He expands upon the baseline definition used today, to allow play to mean not only that which brings us joy or is painless, but boils it down to five characteristics:
1. Play is free or one may even say freedom
2. Play is not normal day to day life, not ordinary
3. Play differs from "ordinary" life in terms of both locality and duration
4. Play is structured and orderly, it has rules
5. Play is not related to material profit
He argues that play predates humans entirely, after all don’t animals already instinctively play with one another as they grow?
The author says, quote, PLAY is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing, end quote.
The book emphasised how play contributes to teaching our children as they grow, to entertain us with global competitions and works of fiction, and to give us the freedom to express ourselves in art.
Being in the court of law is seen as a competition where lawyers play to win, by defending their client, with the judge and jury as game masters.
Poetry and literature are considered to be words at play, where authors may infuse texts with new meaning, or use imagination to create new worlds. Isn’t that what we see in our children as play?
Science itself is shown as individuals playing, experimenting, entering a state of exploration and curiosity for the world, characteristics which are essential to play.
Good or bad is taken out of the scope of the word play, hence even rituals of mythical origins are candidates for human society in a state of play, of make-belief in order to explain and interact with the world.
While we need to be careful not to confuse the core definition of play of the book in comparison to the everyday use of the word, I found it cathartic to understand history and society through play. And I have learnt that there are many hugely important elements of human kind which have shaped who and what we are. As similarly powerful essays could be written on music, language or love.
Homo Ludens is a grossly underrated and unknown book to the public at large. I wanted to pay my homage to the author Huizinga and empower you to read on play and how it has contributed to who you are today.
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