Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter. I very much respect and try
to understand the manner in which you identify your interests
and indeed yourself with political causes. So did Margrit.
I acknowledge that my disinclination to politics is a badge
of inadequacy, too late now to remedy, and perhaps not
even worth analysis. From the perspective of the biologist,
the instinct for association with and fusion into a society
seems to me a characteristic by which the fittest survive.
They who are incapable of merging with the group are destined
for extinction. Nonetheless, the counter-currents are very
powerful.

I've been reading snatches of the Winter's Tale, not for
didactics, but from curiosity how my understanding of the
play might have evolved in the past fifteen years. I spent
more time with a critical essay about the play by the most
prominent German Shakespeare scholar named Friedrich Gundolf,
whom I had much admired. His writing is studded with many
rare and unusual expressions with which I thought I might
enlarge my vocabulary. Gundolf has a unique literary style
which seemed worth exploring. In the end, to make sure I
understood, I translated about two pages; but when I read
my translation, the glamour of the criticism faded. It seemed
to be more about Gundolf than about Shakespeare, and about
Leontes, Hermione, Camillo, Polixines, Archidamus barely at
all. I'm pleased to be relieved of the obligation of reading
the entire book.

It's raining. The mounds of snow have almost melted away.
The snowdrops are in full bloom. I've spent two days 
incometaxing.  I'm becoming more and more convinced
that the officials who draft the laws and regulations
themselves do not understand them.  The "law" that is
enforced is "the way we always do it," as on Nantucket
laws and regulations are translated into the local idiom:
"This is how we do it on Nantucket." Under the circumstances,
the ability to read puts one at a disadvantage.

I'm sanguine about Monday's inspection, preparing my mind
to deal with the circumstance that the Town will try to
condemn my plumbing via the back door of inspection, so
to speak, since the Appeals Court ruling securely locked
the front. I anticipate, not entirely without some muted
enthusiasm, months if not years of protracted litigation.
I'll report to you Monday night or Tuesday.

Jochen