2 9 8 D O C . 3 7 9 T R A V E L D I A R Y O C T O B E R 1 9 2 2 10th Oct. This morning sailed past the Stromboli on the left-hand side. Clouds of steam.[8] Magnificent in the morning sun. Mild, intoxicating air. Steel-colored sea. Italian suggestion of solid ground dif- fusely cloudy. Japanese women crawling about with children. They look rosy and bedazzled, almost as if schematic stylized. Black-eyed, black-haired, large- headed, pattering. Yesterday, was still shaken by reading Kretschmer. Felt as if grabbed between thongs. Hypersensitivity transformed into indifference. During youth, inwardly inhibited and alienated. Pane of glass between subject and other people. Unmoti- vated mistrust. Paper alternate world. Ascetic impulses. I am so thankful to Oppen- heim for the book.—[9] Splendid passage through the Strait of Messina at midday. Bald, forbidding mountain landscape on both sides. Towns likewise forbidding, predominance of the horizontal. Low, flat white houses. Overall impression: oriental. Temperature relentlessly rising. I’m convinced that the Greeks and Jews of classical antiquity lived in a less sluggish atmosphere. It is no coincidence that the zone of active intel- lectual life has since moved northward. The pleasanter for vegetating. The quest for contentment is here more easily satisfied, because it is already almost too hot even for lively wishing. 11th Oct. Sunny day. Whitish sky. Sea somewhat restless. I now think that sea- sickness is based on orientational dizziness, not directly on the apparent gravita- tional changes in direction and magnitude. 12th Oct. Radiant day. Sea quiet, almost windless. Atmosphere completely transparent. Distinct horizon. Almost calm. past 7 o’clock in the morning, rocky mountains of Crete visible, falling steeply into the sea. In the evening, wonderful sunset—purple with finely illuminated narrow wind-swept clouds. Then, sparkling [p. 3] [p. 3v] 1 2 -- -