Personal development

Saturday, May 5th., Rue de Calais, Paris.

I have been in Paris for a week now. I said I would return in time for the 'May Day troubles' and I did. I found nothing but a Sunday calm.

La Theatre Antoine

Tonight at Antoine's, "The Wild Duck". An interesting experience to see how one's ideas have developed! There was something after all in the old cry against Ibsen that he was parochial. The play still seems clever; it is sometimes brilliant. But it never strikes one as beautiful. And it does seem fearfully Norwegian. The symbolism is simply deplorable, even in its ingenuity. If anyone had hinted such ideas to me about Ibsen 15 years ago I should have accused them disdainfully of inability to appreciate a masterpiece. Yet now I am pretty well convinced that Ibsen is not a writer of masterpieces. And he is stagey! He who was supposed to have rejuvenated the entire technique of the stage, has become stagey in 15years! I was several times bored by the play, but nevertheless, a most interesting evening of historical retrospect.
 
One of those nights last night when I slept heavily, and only rose once, but woke up feeling more tired than when I went to bed. I have taken to mental arithmetic recently as a means of getting back to sleep. The problem I find is that if my mind gets into a negative pattern of thought then sleep becomes impossible. Tricky mental arithmetic breaks the pattern. Last night I was working up in my head through the Fibonnaci sequence. I can't remember how far I got!