His favourite spot, the
bench in the meadow near the brook, where Hans had his nosebleed is a place
which seems to conjure up memories and reminiscences. Hans thinks about “the
many and varied impressions and adventures” he had since his arrival. He has a
name for this mental occupation “playing King”
His Maria Mancinis have
acquired their good old taste again, a sign that he has fully adapted to the
atmosphere of the Mountain. HC still orders them from his favourite shop Hamburg
His Clawdia infatuation
is said to have calmed down – he has no more visions –
We do not believe it,
because he always carries with him a “naked” picture of Clawdia with the pale
halo of the flesh HC “tasted” on Mardi-Gras.
This picture from “beyond
the grave” is a morbid relic. Love and death in one image. (He could have asked
her after all for a lock of hair or some lingerie, no?)
He pits dualities
against each other like the “rebel grandfather vs the faithfull servant”, the
two sides of analysis, military vs civilian, Naphta vs Settembrini.
Settembrini lost his
first fight over Hans soul against the power of“atavistic love”. Will he stand
his ground against Naphta, now that the clash remains in the realm of the
intellectual?
HC is interested by the
idea of the “Homo Dei”, the human God and agrees to visit Naphta.
“Lukacek Ladies Tailor”
(the name on the plate beside the bell). It is more than just a detail. The
character of Naphta is heavily based on Gyorgy Lukacs, who was a major
communist theorist in German universities at the moment Mann wrote the
Mountain.
Naphta
lives in luxury and has made his apartment “cosy” à la Baroque. How Jesuit !
The
most startling decoration of the room is a polychrome medieval wooden statue, a
naïve pieta, a strong grotesque image of suffering and torture. It is “frightfully
good” according to HC.
Naphta:
-
The beauty of the body is abstract. Only inner beauty of
religious expression possesses true reality.
-
The nameless Artist. Typically it an anonymous communal
work. There cannot be another Mr Individual Creator. See parallel between this
medieval thought and Islamic art. There is only one creator.
-
This depiction of “suffering and the weakness of the flesh”
is not “…glossed over and prettified…” We are in dark, religious medievalism here…
-
Sign of
Mortification ( killing the flesh, humiliate, abase )
Thank God, Settembrini
interrupts this exhibition of terrible ideas…
Our friend the
pedagogue is worried about the cousins and does not want them in the hands of
Naphta.
Naphta vs Settembrini
-
Spirit vs
Body
-
Middle ages against
Graeco Roman heritage
-
Independent
Scientific truth vs whatever profits Man is true
-
Freedom vs
obeying
Settembrini mentions the
Konrad von Marburg as an example of where Naphta’s idea’s lead to.
Naphta
refers to “the mad exterminations of the Jacobins”
Naphta
argues that torture that is done to save souls of eternal damnation is
acceptable. Only if it does not arise from a belief in the next world it is
bestial.
The
catholic stupidity at its extreme: denying the heliocentricity.
Faith
is the vehicle of understanding, the intellect is secondary.
Naphta
“ What our age needs, …is terror” ( notice the flash of his glasses, like the
flash of a knife, a sable, a guillotine”. Naphta is ready to do it to create a
totalitarian religious – communist state. Fundamentalist statement.
The
discussion goes on and on, demonstrating Naphta’s and Settembrini’s skills in
this kind of conversations. Often we are not sure anymore who says what and at
the end more confusion comes out of it.
Settembrini
stops the discussion and invites the cousins to ( oh irony ) his monastic cell.
How different from Naphta’s lodgings.
S
warns the cousins “ keep your relation with Naphta within its prudent limits”
Naphta
is a half fanatic half malicious humbug. Your minds and your souls are in
danger.
The
wealth of Naphta is of course supplied by his Jesuit order. It debunks the sincerity
of his communist claims. It also undermines the sincerity of the Jesuits. But
that is not all.
The
pseudo Jesuit priest Naphta, is according to Settembrini a voluptuary, only interested
in luxury and sensual appetites:
Settembrini
reiterates his earlier warning;
-
if you separate death from life in a dualistic way, you
create Detah as an idea.
-
Death becomes a force in competition with Life
-
It becomes a seduction.
-
Its kingdom is lust, because it delivers, it is an evil
deliverance from morals and morality, it delivers from discipline and self
control, it liberates for lust…
Got
that Hans?
…
Up
to the next chapter where something unexpected will happen!
