A review by j_m_alexander
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 A beautifully written philosophical slog of a novel exploring the ideas of humanism, nihilism, perceptions of time, and reason set in a hermetic environment, an allegory for pre-World War I Europe.

“It is remarkable how a man cannot summarize his thoughts in even the most general sort of way without betraying himself completely, without putting his whole self into it, quite unawares, presenting as if in allegory the basic themes and problems of his life.”

Indeed, it is remarkable, Herr Mann - how one can bob and weave one's argument around and around one's self, twisting into an allegorical knot of philosophical debates, saying so much with so many finely rendered words and yet before you know it undercut the previous statements with further statements of similar sentiment without casting off or swearing off of those previous, all is relevant and adds to the former, as well as the latter, and yet the sum of the elaborate equation may very well be null. My head swims with it all. I get lost in the words, am convinced of some meaning in them and then it slides out of my grasp.

“Consciousness of self was an inherent function of matter once it was organized as life, and if that function was enhanced it turned against the organism that bore it, strove to fathom and explain the very phenomenon that produced it, a hope-filled and hopeless striving of life to comprehend itself, as if nature were rummaging to find itself in itself - ultimately to no avail, since nature cannot be reduced to comprehension, nor in the end can life listen to itself.”

The most dwelled upon theme was probably that of time, a cyclical pondering on our own immeasurable perceptions of time. Mann excelled in showing the reader how time can slow to an imperceptible crawl with a good 500+ pages of regulated, repetitive writing on barely changing routine, before introducing some sudden catalysts of change that thus propulsively hurdled the reader to a close of the book. I would say that Mann first told us then showed us - touché, Herr Mann, touché.

“Time drowns in the unmeasured monotony of space. Where uniformity reigns, movement from point to point is no longer movement; and where movement is no longer movement, there is no time.”

There is much to value in these pages, but (1) I think I am likely not clever enough to pick up on all of the threads, and (2) simply did not care quite enough to work at it at this time (there it is again, time [let's not even talk about free will]). An impressive book that requires some dedication and work from the reader. I can appreciate it without loving it. A clever book of ideas that also manages to hide humor in irony aplenty, but is it worth the slog? I honestly do not know... I am not sure that I know anything... or that anything matters (damn you Naphta).