Sunday! It is the fifth
day of our friend Hans on the mountain. People dress smartly for Sunday. There
is a holiday atmosphere hanging over the Berghof, Music is playing.
- Bildung
“Ah Bravo…Beer,
tobacco and music…behold the fatherland”. Settembrini observes a patriotic mood
in Hans. Ironic? Does S want to say to Hans, I can see that you enjoy these things;
you can have that everyday in your normal world.
“Don’t you enjoy
Music?” “Not when I am ordered to do so”.
Music plays an
important role in the book. I am not taking it into detailed account in this
reading, but there is a whole symbolic world out there: from the popular porno polkas
through the classics and the military or funeral marches. Anybody willing to
study it for us ?
S does not like music
because it is planned ( every second week and only on Sundays ) and because it
is organized for medical reasons. He wants independence in his enjoyment of
music (what, when and where)
S sees his attitude as
a rebellion against the strict order of the Berghof. He annoys Joachim with a “you’ve
learned the trick of keeping your pride, even in slavery”
S compares Music to
Writing and remarks that there is something dubious, irresponsible and
indifferent about it. (this is how I would characterize nature instead of the
earlier “evil”.) … S seems to expect this comment “nature can be clear as well-
but what good does that do us?”
“My distaste for Music
is Political”
It can be positive and
then S likes it: awakening our zeal, a power that draws the mind upward and
forward. Literature must precede it. S means probably the words, the text.
Negative, by itself
music cannot draw the world forward, music is dangerous
Joachim: “it fills the
hours, it gives the empty hours content”. A piece last 7 minutes...
S reacting: “Bravo,
Music awakens time”, “a moral element in the nature of music”. Music is good
when it awakens! But what if like a drug in numbs you, puts you to sleep, counteracting
activity and progress. Music like Opiates is a Devil’s tool, creates dullness,
rigidity, stagnation, slavish inertia…”
Music is ambiguous and
dubious and thus political suspect.
Dangerous Music!
Music as a drug:
Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Music that makes us
move forward
- Eros
There is flirting in
this spring weather
- Time
“spring-like day”: By the
time that the first week has passed, Hans will have experienced the four
seasons. Arrival in Summer, then quickly following: fall and winter ( is your
summer over ?) and now spring-like weather
- Notes
The boy with the
fingernail… A boy sent to the sanatorium for a short stay and who became ill
and had to stay… beware Hans beware !
Cigar tastes better
after four days.
