Read/Reading

Huizinga, J. Homo Ludens:A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. 1944. New York: Roy, 1950.

Did you know that the odds on Anne Boleyn’s brother Rochford’s acquittal were ten to one? Regarding the previous Homo book I wrote about:

I know of no sadder or deeper fall from human reason than Schmitt’s barbarous and pathetic delusions about the friend-foe principle [. . .] “war is the serious development of an emergency.” (209-10)

Am also reading The Book of Evidence. Rivals Burgess for earliest (though not least expected) use of the word “catamite.” Huizinga seems to have been something of a snob himself, but no one does snobs like Banville.