Interesting. When W first knocked on R's door at Cantab, he refused to speak German, and his English was so bad that R lost the 45 minutes that he needed to prepare for his lecture.
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Also -- a key early debate twixt the two -- whether the statement that "there is no rhinoceros in the room" is true. Ionesco, prhps? He was reading obscure philosophy at the time. Perhaps a motif.