Sunday, August 05, 2012
On the Use of a Book as a Weapon
E.R. Dodds, "Memoir," in his edition of Journal and Letters of Stephen MacKenna (London: Constable & Co Ltd, 1936), pp. 1-89 (at 33):
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MacKenna had entered a barber's shop to have his hair cut. Confronted with the great lock of raven hair which in those days hung over MacKenna's eyes or floated behind him on the wind, the barber demanded permission to prune it. MacKenna was reading Plotinus in the tonsorial chair. "Laissez ça," he said, and went on reading. The barber expostulated tactlessly: "mais ça a l'air vraiment ridicule," he observed with a simper. The next moment his client leapt from his chair and brought down Plotinus with all his force on the critic's head. There was a fracas. The barber and his assistant fled from the shop, adroitly locking their berserk customer inside, and returned presently with two gendarmes. MacKenna was haled before the juge de paix, and in due course paid twenty francs for the privilege of chastising insolence.Related posts:
