“A fatal question—what are people reading these days? Never mind what people are reading these days. What should I be writing about is the fundamental question.”

Two months ago, when I first arrived in this township just short of the border, I resolved to guard my eyes, and I could not think of going on with this piece of writing unless I were to explain how I came by that odd expression.

“Everything, for me, has to be put in diagram or spatial form. The chart is a means of remembering.”