The Magic Goes Away

I finished reading The Magic Mountain last night, and even after 843 pages I wanted more. That's how good this book was. Funny how if you tried to tell somebody about it in terms of the plot, there'd be very little to say. A young man goes to visit his cousin in a mountain sanitarium, and he ends up contracting an illness and has to stay there himself. That's really it so far as the main plot is concerned. But, then again, the main plot of Crime and Punishment is that a guy kills an old lady with an ax and then feels bad about it, so I guess anything can be reductio ad absurdum-ed. But The Magic Mountain is just a very different book. It's really about everything. It even anticipates Beckett at times . . . especially Waiting for Godot. I had a bit to back that claim up, but forgot to note it down and now, of course Ich hab ganz vergessen. I guess I'll have to read it again.

Speaking of which, I may do just that. If I can find another translation which is not by Ms. Lowe-Porter, that is . . . as I most certainly don't want any more of her versions of Mann. (She not only used antiquated diction and syntax, making Mann seem stiff and formal and inaccessible, but she also cut bits out of the story     . . . presumably bits that offended her, at least in part, according to one reviewer I happened upon.) But you know it was good if I'm ready to hit eight hundred pages of it all over again, right? Especially since I am in my twilight years now and only have a very limited number of books left to me.

It's also very cool how there were bits of this 93 year old book that just perfectly applied to our current political situation--for instance, this bit--

"When the moral courage to decide and differentiate between fraud and reality begins to melt away, that marks the end of life itself, of formed opinions, of values, of any improving deed, and the corruptive process of moral skepticism begins its awful work."

              --which seems like a perfect thing to say to Trump and his minions as they deny what they've said previously and refuse to acknowledge the facts of certain situations. In fact, here's another bit that fits for the same situation:

"Go ahead and despise distinctions, precision, logic, the coherence of the human word. Go ahead and despise it in favor of some hocus-pocus of insinuation and emotional charlantry--and the Devil will definitely have you . . . . "

And for those who say we should keep an open mind about Trump and see what he does before protesting against him . . . and I have to admit that I am guilty of having said that awhile back, though it didn't take long for me to change my tune . . .

“Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.”

Yep. 

I heard that sales of 1984 were popping, and I just took a look at Amazon and can see that it's listed as a #1 Best Seller. Which is great, and I love Orwell, love this book, am glad that people are reading it. But The Magic Mountain might be just as good if people are turning to 1984 for some understanding of Trump's Neo-Fascism. And it has a lot more laughs, for sure. And the sex is hotter. 

So what are you waiting for? Climb The Mountain!