I need to move on to something else. I'm thinking of reading the bio of Louis XIII by Petitfils because I wanted to read something in French and I can only read so much of Le Livre Noir de la Revolution Française at any one sitting. Even so, I ended up reading 100 pages of a 230-page short book on 1608-1618 and an analysis of the usual stated causes of the Thirty Years' War. I guess I'll finish that first...

Rites of Spring was interesting. I found it a good complement to, rather than rehashing of, Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory. The primacy of "expression" and "action" over "competency" and "contemplation" is not necessarily something that is new to humanity in the last 100 years, but certainly it presented a change from the Nineteenth Century, where competency and contemplation were valued more. I have to say that I fervently hope that at some point the obsession with novelty for novelty's sake will give way to a more discerning interest in culture.

I also wasn't entirely convinced by the "kitsch" component thrown in near the end. I don't think kitsch is a product of the same forces; rather, I think it's just an expression of low-brow tastelessness which, given the rising living standards in the West, creates a lucrative market for those willing to pander to it.