Dear Marion,

Thank you very much for your letter. Its concluding paragraph
attesting to the apparent absence of serious illness from your
life is by far the most important. But I'm also much appreciative
of your accounts of the film "Wagner and me" as well as of the 
cinematic interpretation of Pieter Breugel's painting: "The
Procession to Calvary." Again, I'm impressed by the catholicicity
of your interests, and by the extent to which they enlarge my
horizon. I fear I cannot do them justice, but I'll try.

"Der Fall Wagner" has many dimensions, the music, the libretti 
which Wagner wrote himself, the response of the audiences,
Nietzsche ambivalent relationship to him, Wagner's nationalism
and "anti-semitism", the endorsement of Hitler and the Nazis,
the retroactive repudiation of Wagner because of that
endorsement, the historical and ethical significance of the
demonization of Nazism, and the need for and problems created
by political correctness. I'm not competent to comment on any
of these topics, I don't know where to begin my irresponsible
discourse.

I haven't listened to enough Wagner, I haven't familiarized myself
with his libretti. They're not as silly as Schikaneder's Zauberfloete,
not as Shakesperean as DaPonte's Cosi fan tutte. What is of concern
to me about the Wagner guilt by association discussion - was mir nahe
geht - is the meta-ethics of the demonization of National Socialism
and specifically the satanization of Adolf Hitler. This demonization
esconces fear on a pedestal, and distorts efforts to prevent repetition.
It's my hypothesis that the devil is invented and re-invented by us
to justify our inhumanity. Whatever we are, whatever we may do, it's
not as bad as the devil or the hell over which he reigns.
Again writing from ignorance - I've never had the stomach to read
the Inferno, - I hypothesize that the fascination with and the
implicit indifference to pain and suffering which Dante's poem
exhibits is the foundation on which the terrible and terrifying
dungeons and torture chambers of the Middle Ages are built. The
circumstance that this litany of savagery is extolled as the greatest
literature of the Middle Ages, speaks for itself. George Bush
justified his atrocities with the argument that they were "not as bad
as Hitler" but were directed against someone "as bad as Hitler."
Nothing is so frightful to me as legions of saints marching against
the devil and his allies.

My own attitude grows out of an epiphany as a six or seven or
eight year old child. The place which I remember vividly even
today: the east side of das Wendenwehr - a bridge across the moat
of the Oker built to encircle medieval Braunschweig. I remember
consoling myself with the thought that since we were not afraid
of lightning or thunder there was no occasion to be afraid of the
government because the government was also an expression of nature.
Today I would rephrase more generally, that society is inseparable
from and integral to human nature. Wagner's antisemitism, no
different from the antisemitism of anyone else, strikes me as
a stigma of limited intelligence, limited sensitivity, and 
limited historical perspective. So what else is new? Whether
such spiritual limitation precludes the composition of potentially
edifying music is a question that has, if any, an acoustic rather
than an ideological answer.

It's getting too late for comments on the Breugel "Procession to
Calvary" for pontification about which I'll take a rain check.

So far as my Nantucket litigation is concerned, the big news of
the day is in my head. Considering the Appeals Court's footnote:

"FN13. The inspection of Meyer's work must be one of integrity and
fairness.  A report of any deficiencies must have the substantiation of
specific and detailed findings and reasoning. Any decision resting
upon the inspection will remain subject to review by the Superior
Court and appellate courts under the standards of the Administrative
Procedure Act, G.L. c. 30A, § 14(7)(a )-(g )."

in the context of Shakespeare's jurisprudence:

PORTIA. Tarry a little; there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood:
The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh.'
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

I've decided that unless the Appeals Court backs down, which in light
of the blatancy with which Nantucket is trying to frustrate its ruling
seems unlikely, "the substantiation of specific and detailed findings
and reasoning," will be required not only for the six or eight or ten
purportedly unforgivable defects described and catalogued by the inspectors,
but "the substantiation of specific and detailed findings and reasoning,"
is required for the purported deficiency of _every_ fitting and pipe that
Nantucket wants to destroy. Moreover, the demand of Nantucket that the
plumbing be destroyed without the evidence required by the Appeals Court
can be construed as a malicious deprivation of civil rights under color
of law, for which damages may be sought pursuant to 42 USC 1983.
Maybe it's all a pipe dream, but I've told Margaret that I didn't expect
to have any pressing legal work immediately after the June 16 hearing
and that she and I might be free to return to Konnarock unless we chose
to go to Nantucket to complete the wiring.

I conclude that Nantucket cannot destroy my plumbing without
specific and detailed findings and reasoning for each item it wishes
to destroy. Aside from the absence of objective cause, the cataloguing
of all the fittings, all the joints would take not hours but days.
With Footnote 13, Justice Vuono seems to have effectively scotched
Nantucket's dreams of vandalism. This having been said, I pinch myself
to be reminded of the circumstances that both the trial and the appeals
courts have no hestitation of ignoring the law or ignoring their own
prior rulings when it suits their purposes. It's important to be prepared
for all eventualities, - as I am.

Jochen