Rosenstock-Huessy finds himself “hurt, swayed, shaken, elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted,” and incapable of refraining from speech: “To write a book is no luxury. It is a means of survival.”

Behind Rosenstock-Huessy stands Hamann, and behind Hamann is Elihu of the book of Job, whose words Hamann uses as the epigram for his Aesthetica in Nuce : “Behold my heart is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is ready to burst. I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.”