# Homo Ludens Ils 86  Author:: J. Huizinga ## Highlights > Play cannot be denied. You can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play. ([Location 144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=144)) > Animals play, so they must be more than merely mechanical things. We play and know that we play, so we must be more than merely rational beings, for play is irrational. ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=149)) > In the making of speech and language the spirit is continually “sparking” between matter and mind, as it were, playing with this wondrous nominative faculty. Behind every abstract expression there lie the boldest of metaphors, and every metaphor is a play upon words. Thus in giving expression to life man creates a second, poetic world alongside the world of nature. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=164)) > Play lies outside the antithesis of wisdom and folly, and equally outside those of truth and falsehood, good and evil. Although it is a non–material activity it has no moral function. The valuations of vice and virtue do not apply here. ([Location 204](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=204)) > First and foremost, then, all play is a voluntary activity. ([Location 220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=220)) > Play is superfluous. The need for it is only urgent to the extent that the enjoyment of it makes it a need. Play can be deferred or suspended at any time. It is never imposed by physical necessity or moral duty. It is never a task. It is done at leisure, during “free time”. Only when play is a recognized cultural function—a rite, a ceremony—is it bound up with notions of obligation and duty. Here, then, we have the first main characteristic of play: that it is free, is in fact freedom. ([Location 228](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=228)) > A second characteristic is closely connected with this, namely, that play is not “ordinary” or “real” life. It is rather a stepping out of “real” life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own. Every child knows perfectly well that he is “only pretending”, or that it was “only for fun”. ([Location 232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=232)) > This is the third main characteristic of play: its secludedness, its limitedness. It is “played out” within certain limits of time and place. It contains its own course and meaning. Play begins, and then at a certain moment it is “over”. It plays itself to an end. While it is in progress all is movement, change, alternation, succession, association, separation. But immediately connected with its limitation as to time there is a further curious feature of play: it at once assumes fixed form as a cultural phenomenon. ([Location 259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=259)) > Play casts a spell over us; it is “enchanting”, “captivating”. It is invested with the noblest qualities we are capable of perceiving in things: rhythm and harmony. ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=279)) > The element of tension in play to which we have just referred plays a particularly important part. Tension means uncertainty, chanciness; a striving to decide the issue and so end it. The player wants something to “go”, to “come off”; he wants to “succeed” by his own exertions. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=281)) > All play has its rules. They determine what “holds” in the temporary world circumscribed by play. The rules of a game are absolutely binding and allow no doubt. ([Location 290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=290)) > The exceptional and special position of play is most tellingly illustrated by the fact that it loves to surround itself with an air of secrecy. Even in early childhood the charm of play is enhanced by making a “secret” out of it. This is for us, not for the “others”. What the “others” do “outside” is no concern of ours at the moment. Inside the circle of the game the laws and customs of ordinary life no longer count. We are different and do things differently. ([Location 315](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=315)) > Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary” life as being “not serious”, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means. ([Location 330](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=330)) --- Title: Homo Ludens Ils 86 Author: J. Huizinga Tags: readwise, books date: 2024-01-30 --- # Homo Ludens Ils 86  Author:: J. Huizinga ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Play cannot be denied. You can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play. ([Location 144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=144)) > Animals play, so they must be more than merely mechanical things. We play and know that we play, so we must be more than merely rational beings, for play is irrational. ([Location 149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=149)) > In the making of speech and language the spirit is continually “sparking” between matter and mind, as it were, playing with this wondrous nominative faculty. Behind every abstract expression there lie the boldest of metaphors, and every metaphor is a play upon words. Thus in giving expression to life man creates a second, poetic world alongside the world of nature. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=164)) > Play lies outside the antithesis of wisdom and folly, and equally outside those of truth and falsehood, good and evil. Although it is a non–material activity it has no moral function. The valuations of vice and virtue do not apply here. ([Location 204](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=204)) > First and foremost, then, all play is a voluntary activity. ([Location 220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=220)) > Play is superfluous. The need for it is only urgent to the extent that the enjoyment of it makes it a need. Play can be deferred or suspended at any time. It is never imposed by physical necessity or moral duty. It is never a task. It is done at leisure, during “free time”. Only when play is a recognized cultural function—a rite, a ceremony—is it bound up with notions of obligation and duty. Here, then, we have the first main characteristic of play: that it is free, is in fact freedom. ([Location 228](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=228)) > A second characteristic is closely connected with this, namely, that play is not “ordinary” or “real” life. It is rather a stepping out of “real” life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own. Every child knows perfectly well that he is “only pretending”, or that it was “only for fun”. ([Location 232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=232)) > This is the third main characteristic of play: its secludedness, its limitedness. It is “played out” within certain limits of time and place. It contains its own course and meaning. Play begins, and then at a certain moment it is “over”. It plays itself to an end. While it is in progress all is movement, change, alternation, succession, association, separation. But immediately connected with its limitation as to time there is a further curious feature of play: it at once assumes fixed form as a cultural phenomenon. ([Location 259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=259)) > Play casts a spell over us; it is “enchanting”, “captivating”. It is invested with the noblest qualities we are capable of perceiving in things: rhythm and harmony. ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=279)) > The element of tension in play to which we have just referred plays a particularly important part. Tension means uncertainty, chanciness; a striving to decide the issue and so end it. The player wants something to “go”, to “come off”; he wants to “succeed” by his own exertions. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=281)) > All play has its rules. They determine what “holds” in the temporary world circumscribed by play. The rules of a game are absolutely binding and allow no doubt. ([Location 290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=290)) > The exceptional and special position of play is most tellingly illustrated by the fact that it loves to surround itself with an air of secrecy. Even in early childhood the charm of play is enhanced by making a “secret” out of it. This is for us, not for the “others”. What the “others” do “outside” is no concern of ours at the moment. Inside the circle of the game the laws and customs of ordinary life no longer count. We are different and do things differently. ([Location 315](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=315)) > Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside “ordinary” life as being “not serious”, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means. ([Location 330](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B36QB1BQ&location=330))