Thomas Mann

[Otto]

"We blew it."
(Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider")

"(.) daß es gewiß nicht die Intellektuellen, also etwa die
Universitätsstudenten waren, die zuerst Hesse entdeckten, sondern gerade die
>drop-outs<, eben die gesellschaftlichen Außenseiter. (.) Etwa um die Zeit
der neuübersetzten «Demian» Ausgabe von 1965 setzt dann die zweite Phase der
Hesse-Rezeption ein mit seiner Entdecklung durch sowohl die Geschäftswelt
als auch die sogenannte >Subkultur<. Diese umspannt die sich vielfach
überschneidenden Gruppen von Hippies, Studenten, Teenager, also dem größten
Teil der jüngeren Generation.
Seit 1963 gewinnt Hesse zudem eine neue Leserschaft unter den
>Drogen-Transzendentalisten<, infolge seiner Proklamation als Meisterführer
zum psychedelischen Erlebnis durch Timothy Leary."
Sigrid Mayer: Die Hesse-Rezeption in den Vereinigten Staaten, in: Heinz
Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Text und Kritik, Zeitschrift für Literatur 10/11
(Hermann Hesse), edition text+kritik, Göttingen und München 1977, 86-100, p.
87.


Thomas, thanks for your friendly reply.


I am/was definitely not bored by Mann because someone told me or it was
fashionable at a time when I read Hesse, Salinger, Kerouac and other stuff,
thus being simply to young to understand him. I have no doubts that you are
right in most you have written below, especially the literary "value" of
Mann and James compared to Kerouac or Hesse, but a book like "The Turning of
the Screw" makes me sick while those sixties-trendy-guys are mostly boring
to me now, but I still know and understand why I've liked them once.

I bet there were some people with curled toenails if they were forced to
watch "Easy Rider" today -- the last time I saw it on tv I liked it more
then ever. "Born to be Wild" really is an anachronism today but that nice
little song by The Fraternity of Man is still very actual.

Mann's public persona never interested me (imo Joyce, Brecht and Kafka are
far more interesting in this) but his style is simply boring to me. Insofar
the sixties view (which is a seventies view in my case) has remained in me.
What could that writer Thomas Mann have to say to me today? I had no trouble
at all getting into Döblin, Grass, Max Frisch, Werner Koch ("See-Leben"),
Hugo Claus, Beckett, and getting something out of them.

MalignD, I have to admit that I never tried "Dr. Faustus" after being
disappointed by "The Magic Mountain," "Lotte in Weimar" and "Felix Krull" --
I think three trials with one author you dislike are enough.
If I had disliked "Die Enden der Parabel" at first reading I certainly
wouldn't have read "GR," "CL 49," "V.," "Vineland" and "M&D" in both
languages. If you think I nevertheless should give it a try I'll do if you
promise to read "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatzkis. By the way, Mann's
"Joseph"-books have always been attracting me. If somebody can recommend?

Otto

>
> Otto, don't know whether we're the same generation, but we're probably not
too
> far apart:
>
> It has been fashionable to dislike Thomas Mann among German intellectuals
for
> quite some time now. I know students of German literature who are actually
proud
> of never having read one of his books. The main reason for this is
probably that
> Mann's work could not be related to the changes in society that took place
after
> the war. The aesthetics of the emerging youth culture were based upon
notions of
> freedom, spontaneity, direct expression etc. They were essentially
romantic, and
> that is why a minor late romantic writer like Hesse could become very
popular
> back then (to listen to "Born to be Wild" is as tedious an experience
nowadays
> as it would be to reread "Der Steppenwolf": both are strictly for
adolescents).
> Thomas Mann's aesthetic sensibility, on the other hand,  was classicist.
He
> relied on order, control, and that famous irony of his. Furthermore, he
was
> definitely a high culture person. His narratorial style as well as his
public
> persona were considered boring, if not offensive, in the 60s, and this
attitude
> towards him has continued in the German speaking parts of the world until
today.
> The fact that he wrote some of the best novels of the century is rarely
> mentioned.
>
> Perhaps one can compare Thomas Mann to Henry James: Both of them worked in
the
> 19th century tradition of George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, Tolstoi etc.,
refining
> this tradition to the point at which James Joyce decided he didn't need a
> narrator to put his character's thoughts on the page. This does not mean,
> though, that "Ulysses" is a better book than the "Buddenbroks" or
"Portrait of a
> Lady": It is just a step forward in the development of the form. As far as
youth
> culture etc. is concerned: Jack Kerouac may have had an immense impact on
> society - giving voice to a sensibility that seemed new at the time- but
he
> never produced a book remotely as good as one of those huge novels James
and
> Mann were fond of writing down.
>
> Thomas
>
> "The Book of love is long and boring
> And written very long ago
> It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
> And things we're all to young to know."
>
> The Magnetic Fields
>
>
>
>
>