"If Ja had pressed McClellan in White Oak S," Francesca said. "If Longstreet had proceeded vigorously on the first day at Seanassas. If we had had the 40,000 pairs of shoes we needed wheered Maryland. If Bloss had not found the envelope taining the two cigars and the copy of Lees Secret Order No. 191 at Frederick. If the pneumonia had not taken Ja. If Ewell had secured possession of Cemetery Heights on the first day of Gettysburg. If Picketts charge. . . If Earlys marto the Valley. . . If we had had suffit food for our troops at Petersburg. If our atta Fort Stedman had succeeded. If Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee had not indulged in a shad bake at Five Forks. If there had been stores and provisions as promised at Amelia Court House. If Ewell had not been captured at Saylors Creek together with sixteen artillery pieces and four hundred wagons. If Lee had uood Lin -- his mind, his larger iions. If there had been a degree of peten our civilian administration equal to that exhibited by the military. Then, perhaps, matters would have been brought to a happier clusion."
"Yes," I said.
Francesca is slightly obsessed. But one must let people talk about what they want to talk about. One must let people do what they want to do.
This m in the mail I received an abusive letter from a woman in Prague.
Dear Greasy Thomas:
You ot uand what a pig you are. You are a pig, you idiot. You think you uand things but there is nothing you uand, nothing, idiot pig-swine. You have not wisdom and you have no discretion and nothing be dohout wisdom and discretion. How did a pig-cretin like yourself ever wriggle into life? Why do you exist still, vulgar swine? If you dont think I am going to inform the gover of your inappropriate tinued existence, a stain on the trys face. . . You expect Federal Marshals in clouds very soon, cretin-hideous-swine, and I will laugh as they haul you away in their green vans, ugly toad. You know nothing about anything, garbage-face, and the idea that you would dare "think" for others (I know you are not capable of "feeling") is so wildly eous that I would laugh out loud if I were not sick of your importunate p, egregious fraud-pig. You are not even an ho pig which is at least of some use in the world, you are rather an o of pig-dip poisoning everything you touch. I do not like you at all.
Love,
Jinka
I read the letter twice. She is certainly angry. But one must let people do what they want to do.
I work for the City. In the Human Effort Administration. My work sists of processing applications. People apply for all sorts of things. I approve all applications and buck them upwards, where they are usually disapproved. Upstairs they do not agree with me, that people should be permitted to do what they want to do. Upstairs they have different ideas. But "different ideas" are weled, in my particular os.
Before I worked for the City I was ied in ging behavior. I thought behavior could be ged. I had a B.A. in psychology, was w on an M.A. I was into sensory deprivation. I did sensory deprivation studies for a while at McGill and later at Prion.
At McGill we inhabited the basement of Taub Hall, believed to be the first building in the world devoted exclusively to the study of hatred. But we were not studying hatred, we were doing black-box work and the hatred people kindly lent us their basement. I was in charge of the less intelligent subjects (the subjects were divided into less