Homo Ludens

The Concept of Play in Modern Society

Ramiro Corbetta 03/29/05

In the second half of Homo Ludens, Johan Huizinga continues his argument for the importance of play to human culture, especially in its formative years. “The spirit of playful competition,” says Huizinga, “is, as a social impulse, older than culture itself and pervades all life like a veritable ferment.” (pp. 173) Just as he does to many other facets of human society, such as religion and philosophy, Huizinga examines how art is influenced by play. He quickly finds that dance and music are very much like play, which “lies outside the reasonableness of practical life; has nothing to do with necessity or utility, duty or truth.” (pp. 158) He has a hard time, however, finding a necessary connection between play and plastic art. While he sees music as a performance-based display of aesthetic mastery, he claims that the solitary nature of the creation of plastic art goes against the idea of play. He also points out that “The man who is commissioned to make something is faced with a serious and responsible task: any idea of play is out of place.” (pp. 167) Perhaps if Huizinga were writing his book in 2005 and analyzing some of the art that is created now-a-days, he would have a different point of view. First of all, artists who create pieces with the purpose of analyzing the boundaries of the medium they are working with seem to be removed from the serious and utilitarian tendencies that, according to Huizinga, separate plastic art from play. Moreover, contemporary art[1] introduces another form of art-creation that is intrinsically connected to play: playful art, such as certain forms of internet art[2]. Video game development can also be a form of playful art, not because it creates an object that can be played with, but because while video games must be created within specific, formal limitations, their very creation can be its own game without a necessary, utilitarian goal.

Huizinga eventually reaches the conclusion that, in the 20^th century, many of the activities that we see as play have become serious; they have become too utilitarian to be called play. When criticizing the seriousness of modern organized sports, Huizinga says, “Really to play, a man must play like a child.”

Ultimately, Huizinga finds play in the least likely locations: business and international law. While organized competitions have moved away from playfulness, business has moved towards an agonistic ideal- international organizations make a strong effort to beat each other in numbers of units sold and other benchmarks, even when these competitions are not good for the company’s profit. He gives the example of a shipping company creating the biggest possible ship even when smaller ships are more efficient. Strong elements of play may also be found in the laws that govern international relations. Even though these laws can be easily broken, they are like the magic circle in a game: as long as every player follows the rules, the system works. Once one player successfully deviates from the system, international relations shift from the realm of play to the realm of seriousness. As Huizinga writes his text, in the late 1930s, he is sad to note that international relations quickly swing from a diplomatic game to a very serious war. On the question of whether war is serious or a game, Huizinga concludes, “It is the moral content of an action that makes it serious. When the combat has an ethical value it ceases to be play.” (pp. 210)

This text is based on:

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955. pp. 105-213.

[1] I wish the term modern art wasn’t already taken. The idea that modern stands for something other than “what is happening right now” is bothersome to me.