M117 verismissimo
Good luck with 'Doctor Faustus'! It certainly isnt light reading, but I think you'll be glad you made the effort. I would describe it as German high art: Mann didnt waste time on small themes. As the cover blurb says, "the discord between genius and sanity". It really is very dark stuff: madness, syphilis, the doom of the German nation, the Allies bomb Germany to rubble as Zeitblom tells his terrifying tale.
Apologies if I've already posted this story on these threads, I'm sure I wrote it somewhere recently and have forgotten where, but I couldnt resist an opportunity to repeat it. Mann and Arnold Schoenberg both ended up as exiles in California, where they werent the best of friends. With some justification, Schoenberg took exception to the book on two counts: first because he didnt have syphilis and second because Mann pinched his musical theories and ascribed them to the fictional composer Leverkuhn without acknowledgment. I think he may have threatened to sue, and in subsequent editions Mann was forced to add a rather sniffy tribute which starts:
"It does not seem superogatory to inform the reader that the form of musical composition delineated in ch 22, known as the twelve-tone or row system, is in truth the intellectual property of a contemporary composer and theoretician, Arnold Schoenberg. ..."
This is the only time I have ever seen anyone make use of the word "superogatory".
And Schoenberg was apparently prone to remarking loudly to acquaintances when he bumped into them in the street or local supermarket: "I DO NOT HAVE SYPHILIS!"
Good luck with 'Doctor Faustus'! It certainly isnt light reading, but I think you'll be glad you made the effort. I would describe it as German high art: Mann didnt waste time on small themes. As the cover blurb says, "the discord between genius and sanity". It really is very dark stuff: madness, syphilis, the doom of the German nation, the Allies bomb Germany to rubble as Zeitblom tells his terrifying tale.
Apologies if I've already posted this story on these threads, I'm sure I wrote it somewhere recently and have forgotten where, but I couldnt resist an opportunity to repeat it. Mann and Arnold Schoenberg both ended up as exiles in California, where they werent the best of friends. With some justification, Schoenberg took exception to the book on two counts: first because he didnt have syphilis and second because Mann pinched his musical theories and ascribed them to the fictional composer Leverkuhn without acknowledgment. I think he may have threatened to sue, and in subsequent editions Mann was forced to add a rather sniffy tribute which starts:
"It does not seem superogatory to inform the reader that the form of musical composition delineated in ch 22, known as the twelve-tone or row system, is in truth the intellectual property of a contemporary composer and theoretician, Arnold Schoenberg. ..."
This is the only time I have ever seen anyone make use of the word "superogatory".
And Schoenberg was apparently prone to remarking loudly to acquaintances when he bumped into them in the street or local supermarket: "I DO NOT HAVE SYPHILIS!"
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