One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment.

I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that never was a greater artist than now.

His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked. “What’s happened to me?” he thought. It wasn’t a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table – Samsa was a travelling salesman – and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine.

“I try as much as possible to give you a great basic product and what comes out, I feel, is really amazing.”

Learning from failure

The European languages are members of the same family. Their separate existence is a myth. For science europe uses the same vocabulary.

• Get yourself comfortable.
• Manage your workspace and organize your desk.
• Keep In touch with your co-workers.

The new common language will be more simple and regular than the existing European languages. It will be as simple as Occidental; in fact, it will be Occidental. To an English person, it will seem like simplified English, as a skeptical Cambridge friend of mine told me what Occidental is. The European languages are members of the same family.