Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dave
Guest: Tim Beasley-Murray
Book Discussed: Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life (Manchester UP, 2025)
Date: October 25, 2025

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Dave interviews Tim Beasley-Murray about his new book, Critical Games, which explores the entanglement of play and seriousness in academia, literature, and everyday life. The conversation covers theoretical frameworks, the ethical complexities of playful and serious modes, examples from contemporary culture and literature (notably the work of Emmanuel Carrère), and the performative risks of academic writing itself. The discussion is rich in literary examples, self-reflection, and meta-commentary on both academic and fictional games—making it especially relevant for scholars, students, and anyone intrigued by the boundary between play and gravity in intellectual life.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Play and Seriousness? (02:11–05:32)

• Intertwining of Play and Seriousness: Beasley-Murray argues these aren’t opposites; play can be deeply serious, as seen in Freud’s psychoanalysis and in children’s play.

• Play in Contemporary Life: The boundaries between play and seriousness are blurred in fields like politics (citing Trump and Johnson’s performative backgrounds) and in mediating experiences with fiction, fake news, and virtual realities.

• Quote:

  “When you see a child, right, immersed in play, you realize there's a real seriousness with which they build an imaginary world around them.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (03:22)

• Idea: Our era is one where both fiction spills into reality (fake news, virtuality) and seriousness loses its traditional gravity.

2. Ethical Dimensions of Play (06:24–09:50)

• Types of Play:

  • “Playing at” (distancing, lack of responsibility, e.g., ‘it’s just a game’)
  • “Playing with” (involving others, possibly unethically or manipulatively)
  • “Full play” (immersive, responsible, losing oneself in play)

• Critique of Play Theorists:

  • Challenges Huizinga and Caillois’ view that play must be voluntary; in real life, people often find themselves as unwilling participants in others’ games.

• Quote:

  “When we merely play at something... we're saying that we weren't fully in the acts that we performed in play. So we're sort of claiming that we are ethically not responsible, right? That it’s just a game and it doesn't really matter.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (06:44)

• Personal Motto: Draws from “Point Break”—play as losing and finding oneself.

3. Academia as a Game: Its Seriousness and Absurdity (11:08–14:11)

• Dual Nature:
  • Academia is serious yet often playful, pleasurable, even ludicrous or ridiculous.
  • The double meaning of “academic” (serious/scholarly vs. unimportant) and “trivial” (from ‘trivium’ to ‘triviality’).
• The Humanities Under Attack:
  • Context of ‘culture wars’; need for honest acceptance of pleasure and play as part of academic life, without aligning with anti-intellectual critiques.
• Quote:

  “It's a war on culture... we would better [serve] owning up to what is ludic about what we do and perhaps playing more fully.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (12:39)

4. Can the Game of Academia Be Won? (14:49–17:22)

• Winnability of Academia:
  • Winning is ambiguous—one might “win” by leaving the field (becoming an administrator, celebrity, or quitting in failure).
  • The point is less to win than to play (and pass on the game), especially by impacting students.
• Quote:

  “We win by transmitting that game to them and they're learning to play it better than we've been able to play it...”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (16:43)

5. Literature’s Game and Emmanuel Carrère (20:22–24:46)

• Book Structure:
  • First half: Academia as a pretendedly serious game needing more play.
  • Second half: Literature as a pretendedly playful game that can become dangerously serious.
• Carrère’s Importance:
  • Famous French writer known for blurring fiction and nonfiction, notably by “intervening” in real lives with literary techniques.
  • This is portrayed as a literary game gone “out of hand,” with ethical ramifications once fiction entangles with real people.
• Quote:

  “In the first half... we should allow the game of academia to get out of hand [and become serious]. Whereas... [in] literature... I'm warning of... the consequences of literary games getting out of hand in real life.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (23:34)

6. The Ethics of Literary Games (25:41–30:14)

• Literature as Playground:
  • Fiction suspends ordinary ethical rules, enabling exploration of moral complexities without “real” consequences.
• The Problem with Creative Nonfiction:
  • When authors use real people as material—especially without consent—fiction’s “innocence” disappears.
  • Cites a Dickens anecdote: a real person thinks she’s been fictionalized, showing real-world impact.
• Self-Reflective Criticism:
  • Beasley-Murray allows his own criticism to “get out of hand,” interrogating the ethics of his interventions.

7. Scandal and Play: Emmanuel Carrère’s Blurred Boundaries (31:05–34:52)

• Key Example—A Russian Novel:
  • Carrère goes to Russia, seeking a story among locals. When tragedy strikes (the murder of Anna and her son), he is “horrified and excited” to have found material for his book—showing the problematic joy in literary “findings.”
• Narcissism:
  • Carrère’s repeated self-insertion into his own narratives—both compelling and ethically troubling.
• Quote:

  “He’s incredibly excited because now his project has a story. So this is a really good example... of the way in which the literary sensibility... would be fine, writing a fictional story—here is a form of enthusiasm... about the murder of a young woman and her child.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (33:01)

8. Playing Games in Criticism—Personal Risks (35:10–38:22)

• Autoperformative Criticism:
  • Performs what he critiques: engages directly with Carrère, tells personal stories, and blurs lines between fiction, criticism, and reality.
• Real-Life Effects:
  • Example: After discussing an academic’s controversial “porno vandalism” piece, the person removes all references online.
• Carrère Encounters:
  • Recounts dinners and meetings, reflecting on the generosity and dangers of such interventions.
• Quote:

  “I... play him at his own game, that try to hoist him on his own petard in various ways. And... try to come to a conclusion... that tries to be generous.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (37:28)

9. What Next? Writing Beyond Games (39:33–41:19)

• Towards a New Writing:
  • The book author embarks on an ambient silences project, seeking the unspoken—not the unsayable due to repression or ineffability, but that which simply “isn’t said.”
  • Hopes to retain stylistic risk and lively engagement learned from Critical Games.
• Quote:

  “What it’s given me... is another way of writing, a riskier, but... perhaps more engaging way of engaging in my academic work and in writing.”
  — Tim Beasley-Murray (40:19)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Play and Seriousness:

  “Play has lost something of its innocence and perhaps seriousness has lost something of its gravity.” (05:12, Tim Beasley-Murray)

• On Academia’s Playfulness:

  “...I didn't want to align myself with these cultural warriors of the right. But I think the argument I making is that we shouldn't overestimate our importance.” (13:30, Tim Beasley-Murray)

• On Literary Ethics:

  “When real people get caught up in that, in that sphere, something uncomfortable comes about whereby those ethical rules seem to have been suspended, but real people are bearing the consequence.” (28:52, Tim Beasley-Murray)

• On Taking Risks:

  “The idea is it performs what it's talking about... So I have a sort of uncomfortable sense thinking about that.” (35:13, Tim Beasley-Murray)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:11 – Introduction to play/seriousness, and the blurring boundaries
• 06:24 – Differentiating types of play, ethical stakes
• 11:08 – Academia as a game, pleasure and risk, “culture wars”
• 14:49 – "Can this game be won?" (Academia as a field)
• 20:22 – Overview of book structure, introduction of Emmanuel Carrère
• 25:41 – Ethics of literary games—when fiction impacts real people
• 31:05 – Carrère’s Russian Novel—example of ethically fraught storytelling
• 35:10 – The author's performative criticism and its real-world effects
• 39:33 – Closing thoughts on future projects and modes of writing

Conclusion

This episode of New Books in Critical Theory invited listeners deep into the entanglements of play, seriousness, and responsibility—whether in scholarly, literary, or everyday contexts. Beasley-Murray’s book and the discussion here urge us to reflect on how the games we play, seriously and playfully, shape our work, our writing, and our lives. The episode provides fertile ground for further thought about the ethics of academia and literature, all wrapped in a conversation as lively, risky, and thought-provoking as the subject it explores.