Fell Running and Voluptuous Panic - On Caillois and Post-Sport Physical Cultures - Michael Atkinson

Oct 15, 2026

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Explores how fell running in the United Kingdom reframes classic theories of play by Roger Caillois, focusing on existential pleasure and embodied disruption. Using two years of ethnographic fieldwork with fell runners, the author argues that the sport’s vertigo and panic fits align with Caillois’s “voluptuous panic” and connect runners to experiences of time, space, and elements. The study positions fell running as a willful, highly pleasurable challenge to bodily and mental control.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

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Fell Running and Voluptuous Panic

On Caillois and Post-Sport Physical Cultures

Getting [Theoretically] Stuck in the Fells

Fell Running and Voluptuous Panic On Caillois and Post-Sport Physical Cultures Michael Atkinson As many cultural groups in Western societies have become disaffected with mainstream sports cultures and their logics of practice, sociologists of sport and physical culture have turned their attention to the existential beneﬁts of play and games. Thereis growing interest in revisiting and exploring the classic theories of play in society, including those of Roger Caillois. The author considers the increasingly popular practice of fell running among a group of enthusiasts in the United Kingdom as an activity that playfully embraces and celebrates the voluptuous panic of ilinx activities. He argues that fell running is not a pure form of ilinx as deﬁned by Caillois but that the sport’s willful—and highly pleasurable—disruption of the mind and body through vertigo and panic ﬁts Caillois’s description of the beneﬁts of play and games. Using ethnographic data about fell runners collected during two years in the United Kingdom, the author suggests that they make existential connections with time, space, and the elements through the voluptuous panic and animal mimicry described by Caillois and others. Keywords: Roger Caillois; fell running; ilinx; physical-cultural studies; post-sport physical culture; voluptuous panic Getting [Theoretically] Stuck in the Fells To think, let alone write , about the connection between so-called high-performance athletics and existential pleasure is almost antithetical in academic work. I speak quite regularly with colleagues in sport and exercisescience programs who unabashedly admit that elite-level or “serious-leisure”(Stebbins 2006) sports bear little resemblance to the pursuit of physical health or to the experience of emotional pleasures (besides those, perhaps, stirred by the vanquishing of an opponent). High-performance sports and athletic cultures are typically characterized by a small range of human emotions and experiences (Kerr 2004). But many people engage in the willful abandonment of personal control through intense, sports-like physicality and by placing themselves in athletic contexts that stir doubt, uncertainty, thrills, and anxiety. The literature 100 American Journal of Play, volume 4, number 1. © 2011 by The Strong. [Contact Michael Atkinson at michael.atkinson@utoronto.ca](Contact Michael Atkinson at michael.atkinson@utoronto.ca) of so-called risk or “edge” sports clearly attests to the psychological beneﬁts of adventure-based athletic practices—to the experience of physical pleasure and of emotional release provided by dangerous sports. But few inside or outside of the academy examine common sports or athletic pastimes as potential zones of self-discovery through edge experiences. I am puzzled that theorists of physical cultures so rarely refer to authors like Roger Caillois (1967), who long ago articulated the beneﬁts of experiencing a “voluptuous panic” in sports, leisure, and play. Recently, I studied the physical culture of British fell running, an activity partly aimed at the playful pursuit of vertigo, dizziness, uncertainty, and personal disruption (Atkinson 2010a). To get a notion of fell running, picture yourself atypical running enthusiast, then imagine running over the roughest ground and in the worst weather possible. Taking to expansive, rugged, inclement highlands or mountains, fell runners typically come from Britain’s upper working classes or middle classes, and they range in age from thirteen to well over sixty years old. The term fell derives from the Norse fjall, meaning mountain. Whether recreation or a competitive race, a fell run traverses meadows, crosses rivers and waterfalls, shoots up and down steep hills, staggers across rocky terrain, lumbers through thickets, meanders over bogs, and sometimes dodges animal herds. Fell runs range from two to forty or ﬁfty miles—and occasionally more. Fell runners make up only a small group in the burgeoni

FAQs

What concept from Roger Caillois is used to interpret fell running?

The article applies Caillois’s idea of “voluptuous panic” (ilinx) to explain how fell running produces pleasurable disruption through vertigo, dizziness, and panic.

How does the author support the argument about fell running?

The author uses ethnographic data collected over two years from fell runners in the United Kingdom, including observations and conversations during runs and afterwards.

Why does the author compare fell running with high-performance “risk” sports and academic discussions?

The author notes that literature often emphasizes psychological benefits of adventure-based risk sports, yet fewer studies examine common sports as zones of self-discovery through edge experiences, including through Caillois.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by McGucket