Game points
C. Northcote PARKINSON
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture Johan Huizinga (Temple Smith cloth 45s, Paladin paper 12s) Johan Huizinga published Homo Ludens in 1938, his life and ideas much overshadowed by the coming of World War II. The book was translated into German in 1944 and the author himself made an English translation just before his death in 1945. The book under review was prepared from these two editions by a translator who has aimed and no doubt achieved 'a reasonable synthesis'. The fact that Huizinga made his own English version at the age of seventy-two is proof that the theme was one, to him, of the first imponance. The fact that no English pub- lisher has printed a translation until now sug- gests that the theme is not of self-evident im- portance to readers in this country. The book over which publishers have hesitated for over thirty years is unlikely, perhaps, to have the widest appeal.
Why is this? Huizinga's eminence as a European historian was recognised as early as 1919, the year in which his masterpiece appeared. The Waning of the Middle Ages was and is regarded as a considerable work. It came from Huizinga's pen during World War I, soon after his election to the Chair of History at Leyden. He had previously been professor at Groningen where his father had been professor of medicine. His was a purely academic background but one not purely his- torical for he had been an orientalist at one time and a student of Sanskrit. From Leipzig, where he studied Indo-European philology, he returned to Holland with an interest in language and with, possibly, a Germanic con- viction that an historian should have a philosophy of history.
Such a philosophy he certainly had, first revealed in 1903, further explained in 1933 and finally embodied in Homo Ludens. Such a philosophy is something which few British historians possess or see occasion to acquire, but Huizinga's work is at least a stimulus to thought. It centres upon the idea that 'genuine, pure play is one of the main bases of civilisation'. Play, in this sense, is made to include all types of game, contest, ritual and drama, all activities governed by rule and of no very obvious use. Huizinga's aim was `to integrate the concept of play into that of culture.' He brought to his task a wealth of learning and insight, remarking (for example) that no other modern tongue has a word equivalent to the English word 'fun'. He is happiest, not surprisingly. in Chapter 2 where he deals with the play- concept as expressed in language. He is less convincing in Chapter 11 where he argues that 'The nineteenth century seerqs to leave little room for play', and less convincing still in his conclusion (Chapter 12) that games, in the twentieth century, have .given place to 'sport'.
In his very perceptive introduction, Dr George Steiner quotes Pieter Geyl as attribut- ing to Huizinga 'an obsession with decline and ruin' and a refusal to consider the toiling masses of mankind. His own criticism is based, however, on other grounds. He feels that Huizinga's work is weakened by its lack of reference to Freud and to more recent work in psychology and sociology. Nor did the author take note of 'the theory of games', even though it was available to him, at least
in outline„ from as early as 1928. There is a sense, then, in which this book was dated even when first published and is still more dated, of course, by the time of its present re-publication in English. The question arises whether the present edition is justified? It would seem to be justified at least as an example of scholarly thought with (as Geyl admits) a fascination that 'is by no means spent'. Its quality may be judged by Huizinga's own summary on page 238: 'So that by a devious route we have reached the following conclusion : real civilization cannot exist in the absence of a certain play- element, for civilization presupposes limita- tion and mastery of the self, the ability not to confuse its own tendencies with the ulti- mate and highest goal, but to understand that it is enclosed within certain bounds freely accepted. Civilization will, in a sense, always be played according to certain rules, and true civilization will always demand fair play. Fair play is nothing less than good faith expressed in play terms. Hence the cheat or the spoil-sport shatters civilization itself. To be a sound culture-creating force this play- element must be pure. It must not consist in the darkening or debasing of standards set up by reason, faith, or humanity. It must not be a false seeming, a masking of political purposes behind the illusion of genuine play- forms. True play knows no propaganda; its aim is in itself, and its familiar spirit is happy inspiration.'
Huizinga was a scholar whose views we may not blindly accept. He was one, never- theless, whose works we should do wrong to ignore.
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