1. Time
Waiting can be
diverting, because it devours quantities of time without our ever experiencing
or using them for their own sake.
2. Death
Settembrini looking at
HC funereal photograph.
3. Eros
“…( in love ) is an
urge, a compulsion to reveal oneself…”
There is a lot of
flirting and love affairs at the Sanatorium…
Joachim by his cool
example dampens HC enthusiasm to expose himself more.
HC’s love for Clawdia
is now known at all tables. HC makes a fool of himself.
Clawdia’s grey – blue
eyes have turn grey – green… the light ?
Settembrini “bothers”
and interrupts HC’s dreaming about Clawdia.
We are in for a long
pedagogic chapter:
4. Bildung
a) Lesson 6 (Asia is devouring us ) is said surreptitiously, whispered
with a sense of urgency, as if there was a danger of threatening Barbarians
overhearing them.
“Asia
is devouring us. Tartar faces in every direction you look…” Settembrini warns
HC for Clawdia and for the “Asian degenerative forces” – see theories of Oswald
Spengler, which had a huge success in Europe
and which Mann was reading at the time.
Within the development of his ideas,
elements for debunking Settembrini abound. See his racist stance: “one of your
Ivanovitches”, the words barbarity, savage etc.
Check that Settembrini never laughs “One
could not even imagine his ever laughing heartily”
Settembrini looking at
HC funereal photograph: Settembrini seems to tactfully turn away to hide
his face. Why ? Hide tears at seeing a “new lost young person”. S doubts that
HC is really ill “ The decision that (HC ) is ill lies in the eye of the
beholder”
“ And so you propose to
spend the winter with us….” S is not happy because he finds that HC belongs in
the world “down there”, doing his job, doing his duty.
“ it is truly hideous
the way you throw the months away..” Settembrini urges HC to remain civilized
and not to be infected by the “idleness and barbarity” of the Mongolian
Muscovites.
“Your higher nature…”
“son of the West, the divine west”. S pits the Civilized West against the
Barbaric east. Hans attraction to Clawdia with all her un- correctness is a
metaphor of this civilization clash.
“This barbaric
extravagance in the use of Time…” is Asian says Settembrini. Today it bothers
us especially in southern, Latin people : )
Hans should “Use (his)
time in the service of Human progress”
And finally “The East
treats suffering with pity and infinite patience. We dare not , we cannot do
the same…”
b)“It is about an
encyclopedia…” S is working on a “encyclopaedia of suffering”. It is an
initiative of the ILOP, “the International league for the organisation of
Progress” ( sounds important, doesn’t it ? ). It has two principles: (1)
Humankind’s innermost natural purpose is its own self perfection and (2) it is
the duty of every person who desires to satisfy that natural purpose to
cooperate in the cause of human progress.
Its programs and
objectives are so vast and vague, that one wonders if they can reach anything
except give their members a superior attitude.
“four important
languages”… German and Italian for sure, French probably, English or Spanish
maybe…
The ILOP is preparing
an “encyclopaedia of suffering” which will order and classify all illness and
suffering. A list ! They are preparing a list ! Eco said we make lists because
we don’t want to die… it is a huge, immense and futile enterprise.
Settembrini’s task is
to list the books which contain “suffering”, so that it can serve as a TBR of
solace and advice for the people suffering. There are a lot of books about all
kinds of suffering including this one.
S explains this to HC
to show that he is not losing his time on the mountain. That he is busy with an
important and huge task to help the advance of humanity (nothing less)
S turns back to HC and
says that as an engineer, HC can only do his duty down below.
“You can only be a
European in the flatlands…”
Then comes a nice
comparison of Hans to Odysseus and the Sanatorium to the isle of Circe.
Clawdia is of course
Circe and Settembrini warns Hans “ …you are not Odysseus enough to dwell there
unharmed…”, “ you will walk on all fours…” “and soon begin to grunt…” Beware !
HC accepts the lesson
“What should I do?”. Settembrini does not answer and insists that HC comes
himself to the conclusion: “you mean leave?” “You mean that I should go back
home…”
HC says he could have
done it earlier, but that he is ill now and going down would damage his health.
HC fed up with Settembrini’s irony and challenges him: “would you take
the responsibility and send me back…” ( the battle between teacher and pupil
has been engaged )
S answers affirmatively
but does not expect the counterattack.
H understandably
concludes “…you are more cautious about yourself than you are about other
people…”
S loses his balance a
bit: he will not use the argument that he is more ill than HC but says that he
can do his duty from where he is but that HC has to be an engineer in the
flatlands.
Now we switch to a body
– spirit argument: S to Hans : is it not the body and its evil proclivities
that you all too willingly obey…? S means that HC is led by his dick ?
“What do you have against
the body ?” ( The clash becomes harsher – there is blood… - at least HC has
bloodshot eyes ). S as a Humanist has nothing against the body but favours the
spirit. Ultimately humanistic pride will see the tie between body and mind as a
“debasement” and a “curse” because the restrictions the body imposes on the
mind.
The earthquake of Lisbon
Goethe was only six
when the Lisbon Germany at the
time wakes up and tells his servant he has just experience an earthquake which later
turns out to really have happened thousands of kilometres away in Calabria
This other anecdote annoys
S.
S “ Behold the minds
enmity to nature, the right to criticize Nature and her evil and irrational
power. Nature is a power and it is servile to accept her to reconcile with her
Luckily Joachim enters
the room and we are given a break…
