octipus rex 8

(A Letter from Herbert to Martin after Moving into the Hotel Nicholas)

dearest martin,
how are the banana trees of your mind getting along?
well, as you know we have moved out of the hughes manor apartments. this morning after waking up i finished packing my books, records, cd's and clothes. i was sad to leave the hughes manor apartments and at the same time i was looking forward to moving into the hotel nicholas.
we had already moved joy, andre-richard and john into their abodes. it took us about us about an hour to bring my things up to my room. i told the others that i wanted some time alone to accustome myself to the new surroundings; I will have to dig a new wine cellar, so that i shall have one as i did in my old apartment building. after unpacking my things i decided to have a look at the room behind mine. we did not go into this room when we came to see the hotel last week. upon entering i was astonished by the number of books, records and cd's  present. all four walls were covered with shelves, on three there are books and on the other there are records and cd's. gertrude stein, jean-paul sartre, albert camus, ana maria moix, samuel beckett and eugene ionesco are among the authors represented, and there are recordings of music by many composers. i was leafing through the first volume of the complete theatre of ionesco when a black came in and asked what cat taught me how to read. he thought that humans did not know how to read unless taught how to do so by a cat. after explaining that the room we were in was his, he introduced himself as vaclav. he continued to comment that ionesco in using absurdity in his writing showed the absurdity of, whereas sartre, paradoxically, used logical rationality to show the same absurdity.
he then offered me a cup of tea as he put a recording of a piece by a french composer on his turntable. we talked for awhile and drank tea.
i shall be glad when you return and can see the hotel nicholas. i am sure that you will love it. the design of my room was inspired by paintings by picasso, i am sure that you will agree that it is a wonderful room.
love,
herbert