Dear Mariko
Long time no see. Is everything okay?
Time flies so fast.
Thinking of meeting at Yan's house last year, almost a year has passed.
Now I am on a business trip to Tainan City, Taiwan, which is the oldest city in Taiwan.
Since archaeological researchers have recently excavated the remains of a 17th-century city and castle here, my company was commissioned to plan a temporary museum here.
During my spare time on my business trip, I read French philosopher Gilles Deleuze's literary criticism of Franz Kafka's novel "The Castle".
I like Franz Kafka's novel "The Castle". Have you read it?
In the novel, the tortuous journey from the village to the never-reachable castle creates a strange fable.
Reading Gilles Deleuze's article reminded me again of the worldview created by the repeated tracks in Jun Machida's novels, between Yan's hut and the river, the forest, the hut and the railway, the grassland, and the train station.
What would it look like if we drew a map of Yan's travel tracks? (Or has it been drawn?)
I am writing this letter in a hotel near the old Anping Canal in Tainan.
The hot summer seems to be ending and the weather is finally getting cooler.
I hope you are doing well and will visit you again at Yan's house soon.
Jinda
