Literature is Play

The rules of genre and of prosody, often so arbitrary, so fantastically elaborate, the terrain of profound yet somehow enfranchised seriousness on which the poet manoeuvres, suggest that he is playing a game–albeit the noblest, most consequential game man has so far devised. To the extent that it is language in a condition of autonomy, that it operates within conventional, non-utilitarian rules, all literature is play.

George Steiner, ‘Introduction’, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture, by Johan Huizinga (London: Paladin, 1970), pp. 9-16 (p. 12).