Rationally Answering an Irrational Phenomena

This'll be a quick hash-over of the paper's themes.

Johan Huizinga, in Chapter 1 of Homo Ludens, attempts to answer the question 'what is play?'  Huizinga begins this insurmountable task by addressing and dismissing how modern science views play. There is one common error in the scientific approach which invalidates their pursuits and that is that "they all start from the assumption that play must serve something which is not play, that it must have some kind of biological purpose (2)."  It is the fun of playing which resists all analysis, he says and that is what trounces the then contemporary scientific hypotheses (3).

Huizinga continues on to describe three characteristics of play.  The first characteristic of play is that it is free and voluntary; it is an act which is partaken out of enjoyment, not inherently out of social obligation like so many other human activities. The second is that play is not a part of 'ordinary life'; it is an interlude from the ordinary, a creation of a new world separate from our daily lives.   The final characteristic of play is that it is limited, in both time and space.  Play is in effect during a certain time frame and "all play moves and has its being within a playground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of fact (10)." Other notable aspects of play include the tension play creates as well as the order play puts forth.  Order is particularly important, as Huizinga goes on to say that "into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, a limited perfection (10)" and that "...as soon as the rules are transgressed the whole play-world collapses (11)."  Furthermore, play has a tendency to create social groups around said function.

Huizinga goes on to show how play is ritual.  He boldly says that "the ritual act has all the formal and essential characteristics of play which we enumerated  above, particularly in so far as it transports the participants to another world (18)."   To reinforce this point, he references occurrences, like feasts and holidays, where all the aforementioned characteristics of play occur within what he calls  archaic societies... And yeah...

There are definitely some egocentric undertones throughout the entire piece, but Huizinga's logic and conclusion are intriguing nonetheless.