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A review by illinalta
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga
5.0
There are some things to know about before reading this book:
1) It's an older book, it's written like an academic essay, and it's a translation. This all lends to it being quite dense. I was occasionally re-reading and looking up terms.
2) Due to the age, there is some language use and there are topics that aren't sensitively approached. As an example, the word "savage" is used a lot in describing cultures. You can also expect some pretentious takes that are best ignored, like his criticisms of modern dance and reverence for ballet.
3) Akin to [b:Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience|66354|Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432253110l/66354._SY75_.jpg|64339], the initial chapters (I'd say 1-3) hold the primary points of the authors arguments, and many of the subsequent chapters are focused only on how this argument applies to various topics. I think it's a bit harder to skip topics in this book than in Flow, since some key arguments are embedded in these topical chapters, but still, I wouldn't worry too much if you'd prefer to skip a chapter or two.
All that aside, the book is very well written, and coherently argues it's definition of play or "the play-state", and applies those concepts neatly to many cultural components. There are countless interesting observations of ancient cultural development from the play perspective. It had me consistently pausing, processing, and appreciating one of these observations in the midst of my reading. I'd say the price of admission here is worth it, just to train yourself to view aspects of your life in reference to play.
1) It's an older book, it's written like an academic essay, and it's a translation. This all lends to it being quite dense. I was occasionally re-reading and looking up terms.
2) Due to the age, there is some language use and there are topics that aren't sensitively approached. As an example, the word "savage" is used a lot in describing cultures. You can also expect some pretentious takes that are best ignored, like his criticisms of modern dance and reverence for ballet.
3) Akin to [b:Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience|66354|Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432253110l/66354._SY75_.jpg|64339], the initial chapters (I'd say 1-3) hold the primary points of the authors arguments, and many of the subsequent chapters are focused only on how this argument applies to various topics. I think it's a bit harder to skip topics in this book than in Flow, since some key arguments are embedded in these topical chapters, but still, I wouldn't worry too much if you'd prefer to skip a chapter or two.
All that aside, the book is very well written, and coherently argues it's definition of play or "the play-state", and applies those concepts neatly to many cultural components. There are countless interesting observations of ancient cultural development from the play perspective. It had me consistently pausing, processing, and appreciating one of these observations in the midst of my reading. I'd say the price of admission here is worth it, just to train yourself to view aspects of your life in reference to play.