"Play it as it lays" or "play it as it lies"

The title of Joan Didion's book Play It as It Lays has thrown me off since I first heard it. Shouldn't it be Play It as It Lies?

I have read through a related post on the subject of lay vs. lie and I find no justification in the accepted answer -- "lay is transitive, lie is intransitive." The use in the title is intransitive, so it seems lies should be used.

Solution 1:

Language Log's Arnold Zwicky addressed the strained grammar of this golf idiom[?, see edit]:

Fixed expressions, from tightly constrained idioms through more open formulas, sometimes require features from non-standard or informal varieties; they just can't be elevated. How's the boy? 'How are you? How are you doing?', as a conventional greeting to a man, has to have a reduced auxiliary. And play it as it lays totally resists the standard verb form lies.

He gives some other examples of grammatically deficient idioms and concludes:

If you don't want to sound like someone who would ever use non-standard [grammar constructs], then you'll have to forgo this bit of conventionalized irony and manufacture your own irony from the raw materials available in the language [...] Play it as it lays, or get out of this game.

A trusty Ngram shows play it as it lies (red) may have come first, but play it as it lays (blue), superceded it in print use—most likely as a result of Didion's choice of title:

So I guess the answer to your question is yes, and no.

[Edit]

Well, I'm confused. @mmyers' comment prompted a more careful search that indicates these phrases may be unrelated. As mentioned in my comment, I found no golf-related uses of play it as it lays prior to Didion's novel. Those appearing afterward seem to be influenced by the novel's title or used in attempts to explain the phrase. Some argue the title is a cardgame/gambling reference. Several gambling references in the novel support this. I'm not sure I can unpack it all, so I offer these links for any other attempts:

D Magazine's take on it
Beyond the Zeitgeist's two cents
Yahoo! Answers' "resolved" question

Solution 2:

From informal research it appears that "Play it as it lays" is from playing craps--a gambling game both in casinos and in places hopefully secluded from the police.

If you believe (as I do) that correctness is situational, then lays is correct in this context, meaning "Deal with it" or "Play the hand you have been dealt [and don't complain]."

On the other hand, lies is correct for golf: "Play it as it lies" is SAEE (Standard American Edited English) and is probably used by wealthy and perhaps those with higher educational status.

One researcher I read suggested entering "Play it as it lies" in a search engine, so I did, and found golf references. I am an English professor, retired, and I can't afford to play golf. I don't gamble either--so I would use the phrase with lays in the metaphorical sense of "Deal with it.". I have no reason to use "Play it as it lies" except in a discussion such as this.

Regarding Joan Didion's novel title, she is clearly making use of language which is standard in context but would not be considered SAEE. The word edited (saEe) is important--distinguishing written vs. spoken language as well as other aspects of situation. Yes, Didion is a writer, but this is a novel and not non-fiction. Unless it is Creative Non-fiction, non-fiction tends to require SAEE unless quoting dialogue.

Solution 3:

I agree with The Raven [comment made above] that "lays" sounds better, because of the assonance with the word "play." The question of that idiom is also addressed in an interesting article . I note that "lay, lady, lay" has the same problem of being incorrect, grammatically speaking, but many feel that it sounds better.

I think some poets and writers consciously or unconsciously choose not to use the word "lie" for the intransitive verb meaning "to recline," because of the other "lie" as in "telling a falsehood."

If I want to convey a pure meaning, I would prefer not to use a word that has another meaning that might cloud my intention.

In the case of the Dylan title "lie, lady, lie," those words might lead some to believe he is urging her to tell a falsehood on his big brass bed. The lyricist, to avoid confusion, prefers to violate a grammar rule rather than to muddy his meaning. After all, we know what he means, and we know what Didion was implying, and "lay" sure has a nice sound, doesn't it?