Deeply moving tunes from my music system. The novel that defined my life on the table. Sribbles for my new paper on my lap. My daughters sleeping upstairs.
I don't really care, my friend, says Death, smiling at me. All this is extraneous. You had your time. It's over. Come with me now.
Not yet, please. Please.
Alright, he says, I am very busy elsewhere, so perhaps not now. But I will be back when it suits me. Be ready.
Happy Birthday, Thomas Mann.
Reposting here an earlier post of mine, pointing to a wonderful reading of all of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain.
Yes, all of it. In 114 half-hour episodes.
The reading took place on the stage of a Hamburg theatre during the 2020 lockdown, by actor Sven Walser, who died in 2023.
It is a nuanced and faithful reading, and it is fresh, without the grandfatherly pomposity of some of the audiobooks.
(In German, so it helps if you know a little German,)
https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/110641959268298713
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #MagicMountain #SvenWalser #HansCastorp #audiobooks
Interesting.
Thomas Mann's writings have been my constant companions since I was 16. The Magic Mountain is the one book I'd take to my Desert Island. I've read it an uncountable number of times. As a young man, I was seen in Berlin coffee houses exclaiming loudly, "I am Hans Castorp".
I have read many Mann biographies and long ago decided that I could close down the biographical side and just keep reading this great writer's novels. But having read Daniel Kehlmann's congenial review of this new biography, it seems I was wrong. I will make sure to read Tilmann Lahme's Mann biography.
(Kehlmann himself is of course an accomplished novelist. I enjoyed his early "Ich und Kaminski" and his "Die Vermessung der Welt".)
Thanks for the link!
#ThomasMann #TilmannLahme #DanielKehlmann
#MagicMountain #HansCastorp
Als ich für die Rezension "Der Zauberberg, die ganze Geschichte" von Norman Ohler wieder in die Welt von Thomas Manns "Der Zauberberg" eintauchte, konnte mich dieser Klassiker der Weltliteratur nicht mehr so bezaubern, wie in meiner Jugend. Dieser Spur wollte ich nachgehen. #aktuell #DerZauberberg #HansCastorp #Interpretation #Kritik #Rezension #ThomasMann #Zusammenfassung
https://schreibblogg.de/der-zauberberg-thomas-mann-rezension/
