Tolkien once remarked to me that the feeling about home
must have been quite different in the days when a family had
fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six
generations, and that perhaps this was why they saw nymphs
in the fountains and dryads in the woods-they were not mis-
taken for there was in a sense a real (not metaphorical) con-
nection between them and the countryside. What had been
earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in
them. We of course who live on a standardized international
diet . . . are really artificial beings and have no connection
(save in sentiment) with any place on earth. We are synthetic
men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours.

I saw once a jaguar in zoo, behind a
glass, so that all the bugs in hueman form could gawk at it and humiliate it. This
animal felt a noble and persistent sadness, being observed everywhere by the
obsequious monkeys, not even monkeys, that were taunting it with stares. He
could tell—I saw this! He could tell he was living in a simulated environment
and that he had no power to move or live. His sadness crushed me and I will
always remember this animal. I never want to see life in this condition!

Chimp in state of nature never jerks off, but in captivity he does, wat does
this mean? In state of nature he’s too busy, to put plainly. He is concerned with
mastering space: solving problem of life in and under trees, mastering what tools
he can, mastering social relations in the jockeying for power and status.
Deprived of this drive to development and self-increase he devolves to pointless
masturbation, in captivity, where he senses he is in owned space and therefore
the futility of all his efforts and all his actions.