I read Magic Mountain in college, around 1975. My experience was like the one you quoted. I don't remember a lot about it, but I do remember the discussions, the young curious man, the old wise ones. I remember people wrapping themselves up in carpets to stay warm and I remember someone who died and their body was taken down the mountain on a sled. I read a lot of big books like that when I was going to college--Remembrance of Things Past, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Invisible Man, As I Lay Dying, The Tenants. As you say, they are novels of ideas that humanize us.
Some are now just titles, some snippets of incidents, some are stories now vague. But all of them I remember as a pall of wonder around me as I was in them.
I like to think they all imparted something to me. I think they did. One thing for sure, they all inspired me to write, and I have.
Thank you for your well done review of Magic Mountain!
I love The Magic Mountain. "Boring" it may be, but it's a real contender for the most philosophically rich novel I've ever read, and almost certainly the most prescient. Naphta and Settembrini's final dual, to me, predicts the rest of the 20th century. The radical anti-liberal movements-- whether communist or reactionary-- ultimately self-destruct, while the humanist tradition lives on, shaken by the bloodshed and badly in need of a foundational renewal, but still: surviving. Because at the end of the day Settembrini wouldn't shoot first.
Magic Mountain I will read in the fall with a book group. I am looking forward to it even more after reading this post! I love the idea of a Novel of Ideas. There is so much to learn and enjoy within ideas. Thank you for this!
i think "patriotic americans" a.k.a. us citizens ; in contrast - may choose too be patriotic towards the revolution via the constitution or nothing else genuinely, so, from my perspective i could care less if our literary space is chinese or indian or african or native american or anything. because i think if you view the current events and value that independence is a form of wealth which isnt subject too alias, you immediately see that the humanities and the world of the study of books have either neglected some task or intend upon dystopian paranoia based literacy. because you see that someone has too be independently communicating about the merit of these things or under the independence of the modern estates of power their can be no value over the independence and force of the press. there's no basic value in assaulting the information which returns from the past through literacy based on time or place currently, because internet. but internet doesnt break the finance or commerce laws. or the government or speech laws.
I read Magic Mountain in college, around 1975. My experience was like the one you quoted. I don't remember a lot about it, but I do remember the discussions, the young curious man, the old wise ones. I remember people wrapping themselves up in carpets to stay warm and I remember someone who died and their body was taken down the mountain on a sled. I read a lot of big books like that when I was going to college--Remembrance of Things Past, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Invisible Man, As I Lay Dying, The Tenants. As you say, they are novels of ideas that humanize us.
Some are now just titles, some snippets of incidents, some are stories now vague. But all of them I remember as a pall of wonder around me as I was in them.
I like to think they all imparted something to me. I think they did. One thing for sure, they all inspired me to write, and I have.
Thank you for your well done review of Magic Mountain!
I love The Magic Mountain. "Boring" it may be, but it's a real contender for the most philosophically rich novel I've ever read, and almost certainly the most prescient. Naphta and Settembrini's final dual, to me, predicts the rest of the 20th century. The radical anti-liberal movements-- whether communist or reactionary-- ultimately self-destruct, while the humanist tradition lives on, shaken by the bloodshed and badly in need of a foundational renewal, but still: surviving. Because at the end of the day Settembrini wouldn't shoot first.
It might just be my favorite novel
Magic Mountain I will read in the fall with a book group. I am looking forward to it even more after reading this post! I love the idea of a Novel of Ideas. There is so much to learn and enjoy within ideas. Thank you for this!
i think "patriotic americans" a.k.a. us citizens ; in contrast - may choose too be patriotic towards the revolution via the constitution or nothing else genuinely, so, from my perspective i could care less if our literary space is chinese or indian or african or native american or anything. because i think if you view the current events and value that independence is a form of wealth which isnt subject too alias, you immediately see that the humanities and the world of the study of books have either neglected some task or intend upon dystopian paranoia based literacy. because you see that someone has too be independently communicating about the merit of these things or under the independence of the modern estates of power their can be no value over the independence and force of the press. there's no basic value in assaulting the information which returns from the past through literacy based on time or place currently, because internet. but internet doesnt break the finance or commerce laws. or the government or speech laws.