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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Serieuze beklimming, dit boek. Heel wat steile stukjes en gelukkig af en toe en leuk uitzicht en prachtige afdalingen. Medische-filosofische uitspattingen die de hele tijd spelen met tijd en ruimte, taal, de liefde en het leven. Een aanrader voor wie nood heeft aan een leesuitdaging.
Mann adviseert om dit boek 2 keer te lezen en ik snap wel waarom. Je bent zo overdonderd door het filosofische steekspel in dit boek dat je er nog eens door zou moeten.
Waar je wel al kunt van genieten, is de portrettering van de personages, een mooie staalkaart van mensen binnen de microkosmos van een sanatorium. Hans Castorp zou je dan liever weer af een toe wakker schudden, maar je bent niet alleen.
Ik denk dat ik het boek al eens gelezen heb toen ik 18 was, maar ik vraag me echt af of ik daar toen door geraakt ben en of ik daar überhaupt iets van gesnapt heb :) Ik zet hem alvast nog wel eens op de leeslijst. Ooit. Als ik tijd heb.
Mann adviseert om dit boek 2 keer te lezen en ik snap wel waarom. Je bent zo overdonderd door het filosofische steekspel in dit boek dat je er nog eens door zou moeten.
Waar je wel al kunt van genieten, is de portrettering van de personages, een mooie staalkaart van mensen binnen de microkosmos van een sanatorium. Hans Castorp zou je dan liever weer af een toe wakker schudden, maar je bent niet alleen.
Ik denk dat ik het boek al eens gelezen heb toen ik 18 was, maar ik vraag me echt af of ik daar toen door geraakt ben en of ik daar überhaupt iets van gesnapt heb :) Ik zet hem alvast nog wel eens op de leeslijst. Ooit. Als ik tijd heb.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
I read The Magic Mountain as part of a read along. Even without the reading schedule it would have taken me ages to finish this novel. There's just so much going on that it made sense to read it in big chunks and then take breaks in between--mostly to absorb it but also to have a vacation from it.
This book surprised me with how funny it could be (and at times, crass). I appreciated Mann's lampooning of the health resorts of the time, as well as the slow change in our man Hans Castorp as he spent his years "up here". But good god, some sections were an absolute chore. Not because I found the ideas uninteresting, but the presentation felt like sitting through a dry lecture. I get that we, the audience, were meant to feel, perhaps, the same confusion as Herr Castorp, but some of the exchanges between Settembrini and Naphta were so long that I almost gave up several times. It was interesting as a look at Europe before WWI, but straight up pedagogy does not make me want to keep reading. Mann tries to put in all the things and I think the book suffers for it despite having some poingnant parts.
I'm happy I persevered however -- the winter scenes were some of the best in the book -- I just wish I could get some of my precious time back (or at least for it to have gone by in a flash like in the book, hah).
Anyway, ignoring that and some silly things about love, this classic is still worth a read. Maybe I will try it again in the future and see if a second reading changes my mind.
This book surprised me with how funny it could be (and at times, crass). I appreciated Mann's lampooning of the health resorts of the time, as well as the slow change in our man Hans Castorp as he spent his years "up here". But good god, some sections were an absolute chore. Not because I found the ideas uninteresting, but the presentation felt like sitting through a dry lecture. I get that we, the audience, were meant to feel, perhaps, the same confusion as Herr Castorp, but some of the exchanges between Settembrini and Naphta were so long that I almost gave up several times. It was interesting as a look at Europe before WWI, but straight up pedagogy does not make me want to keep reading. Mann tries to put in all the things and I think the book suffers for it despite having some poingnant parts.
I'm happy I persevered however -- the winter scenes were some of the best in the book -- I just wish I could get some of my precious time back (or at least for it to have gone by in a flash like in the book, hah).
Anyway, ignoring that and some silly things about love, this classic is still worth a read. Maybe I will try it again in the future and see if a second reading changes my mind.
I was tempted to rate this lower solely because of the formatting of my epub copy. Paragraph and page breaks in the middle of dialogue (or in some cases mid sentence), the whole book was also set as one chapter, and a few other things ballooned the page count and made the reading experience ten times worse. However I know that's not the fault of the author, but it did color my opinion.
So, The Magic Mountain. Wow, what a slog. Thomas Mann really, really enjoys using words. I've read many books written in the same time frame (published 1920s-1930s) and this really stands out as far, far too long. The length is exacerbated by the fact that there really isn't a plot here. It's not a traditional story where things happen, it's more a slice of life that was 760 pages of the main character just having things happen to him and he goes with it. It kind of picked up in the last 25% (the last two chapters) but not really. I had to skim so much just to finish it.
As a woman in 2023 reading it, there were large parts of it, particularly regarding the "love interest" our main character is obsessing over made me deeply uncomfortable. In some passages it felt like satire, but not nearly enough to make it easier to read. When you try to contextualize it as "of the times" it's hard because there are really no descriptions of when this story takes place. There are a few throwaway lines about the outside political climate, there's not much else to place a timeline.
This reads as fictional non-fiction. Since there's really no plot, it's like reading reference material; the diary of a fundamentally boring person who does one interesting thing, and then tries to tell others about it but can't make it interesting.
If you decide to give this book a chance, reframe it as a case study in first vs third person narrative - or a secret horror novel. That ultimately was the only way I could finish it.
So, The Magic Mountain. Wow, what a slog. Thomas Mann really, really enjoys using words. I've read many books written in the same time frame (published 1920s-1930s) and this really stands out as far, far too long. The length is exacerbated by the fact that there really isn't a plot here. It's not a traditional story where things happen, it's more a slice of life that was 760 pages of the main character just having things happen to him and he goes with it. It kind of picked up in the last 25% (the last two chapters) but not really. I had to skim so much just to finish it.
As a woman in 2023 reading it, there were large parts of it, particularly regarding the "love interest" our main character is obsessing over made me deeply uncomfortable. In some passages it felt like satire, but not nearly enough to make it easier to read. When you try to contextualize it as "of the times" it's hard because there are really no descriptions of when this story takes place. There are a few throwaway lines about the outside political climate, there's not much else to place a timeline.
This reads as fictional non-fiction. Since there's really no plot, it's like reading reference material; the diary of a fundamentally boring person who does one interesting thing, and then tries to tell others about it but can't make it interesting.
If you decide to give this book a chance, reframe it as a case study in first vs third person narrative - or a secret horror novel. That ultimately was the only way I could finish it.
This book was a lot of work and I am not sure if I am glad I struggled through it or not. The final 200 pages has more action/conflict that the rest of the book though so it was easier going.
Lots of philosophical issues in the book. Mann kept hitting the theme of time.
Lots of philosophical issues in the book. Mann kept hitting the theme of time.
This book taught me a lot of things, but the only thing I learned that I can tell you about without crying is that I can read a lot more French than I initially thought I could.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
79th book of 2024.
4.5. My flat-land predecessor, polyglot, female (believed by handwriting), age unknown, though I’m inclined to think young because perhaps she studied the text, has written hundreds of remarks and comments in the margins of my copy of The Magic Mountain. These comments are in English, German and French, seemingly without any order other than the language she felt like writing in at the time. I doubt she has ever been “horizontal”, though so few people have been these days. Here is a selection of writings by my predecessor [all mistakes are my own in transcribing]:
‘Death’s relation to Life’; ‘Time of Storytelling’; ‘Time not natural’; ‘Úngeist’; ‘Paradox’; ‘die er damals offen gesehen’; ‘No distance from or concealment of feelings’; ‘too much Asia! ‘up here’; ‘Another lesson from Hans’; ‘spirit vs body’; ‘INTELLECT above all’; ‘Hans’ career — a matter of chance’; ‘Water!’; ‘Life is the same as Dying’; ‘The fall from spirit to matter’; ‘TIME!’; ‘love’; ‘music of death’; ‘bowler hats!’; ‘Language of Death — medieval pre-humanistic Latin’; ‘!’; ‘Homer!’; ‘Time & Human Progress’; ‘Compare Mann’s own narrative!’; ‘Dante!’; ‘Engl. gesellschafts lehre’; ‘Red and Green’; ‘strandspaziergang’ . . .
It goes on, and on. The same words appear over and over: death, suffering, life, form, east vs west . . . all the themes in the book.
And it is a magnificent book. I’ve withheld a single star for Settembrini talking slightly too much at times. Some of their discussions were fascinating, but if it was something I wasn’t interested in, then I wanted Hans to be off on another walk in the snow, or being ‘horizontal’, or reflecting on time itself. As many have said, the final chapter is astounding, and I read the final paragraph out several times to the empty room to sound it. It’s better than Buddenbrooks in that it is mature, insanely wise, complex (but simple! It’s 700 pages about death!), etc., etc.; I am glad I read it despite the time it took to do so. I’ve put Knausgaard aside just to read Mann and it’s taken me just under a month to read, which is a long time with a single book for me. It’s funny, too, warm. Life is the same as death. I fear death, sometimes for others more than myself. I can’t say The Magic Mountain has cured me of my affliction. Perhaps I need to go ‘horizontal’ for a period of time. I hate to use this, but I did find Mann’s dissection of nothing, no-time, very apt and even understandable from lockdowns during COVID. Without work, the days became short, but also impossibly long, and now time is damaged, perhaps permanently damaged, for everyone. Next year, 2020 will be half a decade away. Whatever you say about Time, it keeps moving; it will never wait for you or anyone else.
4.5. My flat-land predecessor, polyglot, female (believed by handwriting), age unknown, though I’m inclined to think young because perhaps she studied the text, has written hundreds of remarks and comments in the margins of my copy of The Magic Mountain. These comments are in English, German and French, seemingly without any order other than the language she felt like writing in at the time. I doubt she has ever been “horizontal”, though so few people have been these days. Here is a selection of writings by my predecessor [all mistakes are my own in transcribing]:
‘Death’s relation to Life’; ‘Time of Storytelling’; ‘Time not natural’; ‘Úngeist’; ‘Paradox’; ‘die er damals offen gesehen’; ‘No distance from or concealment of feelings’; ‘too much Asia! ‘up here’; ‘Another lesson from Hans’; ‘spirit vs body’; ‘INTELLECT above all’; ‘Hans’ career — a matter of chance’; ‘Water!’; ‘Life is the same as Dying’; ‘The fall from spirit to matter’; ‘TIME!’; ‘love’; ‘music of death’; ‘bowler hats!’; ‘Language of Death — medieval pre-humanistic Latin’; ‘!’; ‘Homer!’; ‘Time & Human Progress’; ‘Compare Mann’s own narrative!’; ‘Dante!’; ‘Engl. gesellschafts lehre’; ‘Red and Green’; ‘strandspaziergang’ . . .
It goes on, and on. The same words appear over and over: death, suffering, life, form, east vs west . . . all the themes in the book.
And it is a magnificent book. I’ve withheld a single star for Settembrini talking slightly too much at times. Some of their discussions were fascinating, but if it was something I wasn’t interested in, then I wanted Hans to be off on another walk in the snow, or being ‘horizontal’, or reflecting on time itself. As many have said, the final chapter is astounding, and I read the final paragraph out several times to the empty room to sound it. It’s better than Buddenbrooks in that it is mature, insanely wise, complex (but simple! It’s 700 pages about death!), etc., etc.; I am glad I read it despite the time it took to do so. I’ve put Knausgaard aside just to read Mann and it’s taken me just under a month to read, which is a long time with a single book for me. It’s funny, too, warm. Life is the same as death. I fear death, sometimes for others more than myself. I can’t say The Magic Mountain has cured me of my affliction. Perhaps I need to go ‘horizontal’ for a period of time. I hate to use this, but I did find Mann’s dissection of nothing, no-time, very apt and even understandable from lockdowns during COVID. Without work, the days became short, but also impossibly long, and now time is damaged, perhaps permanently damaged, for everyone. Next year, 2020 will be half a decade away. Whatever you say about Time, it keeps moving; it will never wait for you or anyone else.