5 July 2008

Letter 2.28

As regards the book publishing, I have more or less cut myself off from any further editorial work (one purpose of my Colombo trip was to cut those strings); it's simply not very important to me since the whole project has nothing to do with my reason for being in Ceylon (although the contents of the work have a great deal to do with my being here). Anyway, there is no reason to regret having dropped another project (another hang-up), since it is another step forward in my project of dropping projects (which project itself will necessarily be the last project to be dropped).

Our monkey -- a young black-faced (silver-furred) male which was dumped on the island several weeks ago by an unknown party -- is tied to a post now, since he became rather aggressive: alone and apart from his tribe among strangers this was understandable, but, as he attacked several people, he had to be tied-up. (I was sitting down, minding my own business, when he came up behind me and jumped on my back. He didn't bite, but his claws tore my robe. He has bitten a few people, though never seriously and seemingly more from nervousness than from anger, more from fear than aggression.) Anyway, tied-up now, he is very peaceful, and will allow himself to be scratched and fed bits of food -- but is very fussy about what he eats. He will eat the light part of bread if it has been dipped in milk-tea, but will not eat the crust; he will not eat some fruits, nor rice (and I know that his wile brothers love rice) -- all in all a still rather neurotic monkey who would probably be better off if he were taken back to the mainland and left to rejoin his own people -- but that is not within my province to do anything about.

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