Seances in Pynchon and Mann (is Re: Chapter 5 Summary)

Tue Apr 12 05:47:32 CDT 2016

The motif of seances reappears in /Against the Day/ where it also seems 
to indicate the influence of Thomas Mann.

> ... There's also a reference to/The Magic Mountain/  which was first noticed here by Rich
during the AtD-group-read: Reef and Yashmeen are introduced to each other by Kit in the
Sanatorium Böpfli-Spazzoletta on the Swiss side of Lago Maggiore, and Yashmeen can
certainly remind the reader on Clawdia Chauchat in more than one way. Her teasing ambivalent
behavior in the first place. Both are also very emancipated women taken the standards of
the time. Sexually and intellectually. (Clawdia Chauchat is not into higher math, but she talks
the proletarian revolution with Naphta.) Right after this Pynchon makes the link more plausible
by the seance scene which lets Reef experience the late Webb just like Hans Castorp
experiences his late cousin Joachim Ziemßen in the last chapter - episode: "Fragwürdigstes" -
of/The Magic Mountain/.  And about 150 pages later we find "Davos" and "magic" appearing in one and
the same sentence. Guess that's enough to make a case (cf./Against the Day/, pp. 664-673, 815).
The common macro theme of/Der Zauberberg/  and/Against the Day/  is of course the reconstruction
of the ur-catastrophe WWI. <

https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=1209&msg=168145&sort=date

If one wants to emphasize the connection between Thomas Mann and 
/Against the Day/, the fact that Thomas Mann's wife Katia, daughter of 
the mathematician Alfred Pringsheim, was one of the first women who 
studied, for a couple of semesters, math and physics at the university 
of Munich (for which she needed a special permission in 1901, because 
women were not allowed to study in Bavaria before 1903) comes to mind: 
In this pioneer aspect, Katia Mann's biography resembles that of 
Yashmeen Halfcourt, and I could imagine that the former was a model for 
the latter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katia_Mann

When we compare this first seance scene in /Gravity's Rainbow/ - there's 
another one with the ghost of Walther Rathenau later on in the book - to 
the one in /The Magic Mountain/, it becomes clear that both, Mann and 
Pynchon, introduce a dosage of humor in order not to let things become 
too fairy tale like. Where Mann treats the whole setting ironically - 
"(...) ja, dasjenige [Rätsel] des Lebens selbst, welchem beizukommen auf 
unheimlichstem, auf krankhaftem Wege, wie es scheinen mochte, mehr 
Hoffnung war als auch dem der Gesundheit .../Wir sagen dies, weil wir es 
für unsere Pflicht halten, leichtfertige Geister zu beschämen, die 
wissen wollen, Dr. Krokowski habe sich nur aus der Sorge, sein Vorträge 
vor heilloser Monotonie zu bewahren (...)" (p. 899) - , Pynchon - "'More 
Ouspenskian nonsense,' whispers a lady brushing by on the arm of a dock 
worker" (p. 30, Picador/Viking) - throws in the word "nonsense" which 
prevents the reader, at least at this point of the story, from taking 
the scene too seriously.

But while seances do not really irritate the readers of Pynchon who are 
used to all kind of weird stuff otherwise not present in high level 
literature, some readers of Thomas Mann tend to have a problem with it.

Here's a debate from the Book Club's website on /The Magic Mountain/:

 > I read Magic Mountain about a year ago and consider it one of the 
greatest novels I have read. However, the seance episode puzzles me. Did 
Mann believe in such things? Is he precipitating his characters into a 
collective delusion? Or is he withdrawing to a purely symbolic layer? It 
seems so out of step with the carefully crafted reality of the rest of 
the novel.

Steven,

  After having read it... yes... I am as confused as you are. When I was 
reading this part it was like I was reading a different novel. A 
complete departure from the rest of the book which was firmly rooted in 
this-wordly reality. I am very surprised. I don't know what to make of 
it. And at the very end too. Why did he have to do this? It sort of 
ruins the magnificence of the book.

Your questions are my questions as well and I hope someone can provide 
some logical explanations.

  1. Did Mann believe in such things? (Seems so unlikely but one never 
knows I guess)

  2. Is he precipitating his characters into a collective delusion?

  3. Does he switch to a purely symbolic layer? (Somehow this seems 
unlikely too since in the previous 600 pages he takes pains in 
deciphering all the symbolisms.)

  Very unsettling,

  Lale

Lale and Steven,

I did some research into this question - I have not reached that part in 
the book yet, however, some interesting pieces of information have come 
to light.

Occultism was quite the rave in the early 20s. Thomas Mann himself 
attended a seance in 1923 and wrote a short piece about his experience 
(actually he was nauseous at the end of the seance). He saw the 
phenomenon 1) as a fashion of middle class society and 2) as a likely 
entertainment for the sort of people hanging out at the Sanatorium.

  He also saw it as a reflection of the political conditions in Germany 
at the time - e.g. there were left-wing and right-wing mediums and 
seances...

  He also admitted that, even though one does not believe in certain 
occult things they draw you in..

  I trust this helps.

  The discussion on the wider issue of occultism, satanism etc. expands 
the topic - when you are ready for it...

  Friederike

Friederike, thank you, that definitely helps. Yes, it would be a fun way 
to pass time for people in a sanatorium, especially since it was "in" at 
the time. My confusion comes from the narration which seems to relay the 
supernatural happenings as if they really did happen, or at least 
witnessed by more than one person. So, it was not just one person seeing 
illusions but it was a common perception, with supporting evidence. (...)

Lale

Thanks for the research, Friederike. We probably expect too much of the 
authors we admire, but they are still the creatures of their time. 
Nonetheless, one would expect, given Mann's insight into his characters' 
longing to escape into false reality, that he would have been more of a 
skeptic himself. And maybe he was, but he knew his readership would 
accept the scene, given the environment you have described.

It's interesting that we don't worry about whether Shakespeare or 
Dickens believed in ghosts, but accept their plot devices for what they 
are. What makes Magic Mountain different, I suppose, is that, while 
there are many symbolic aspects to the work, it is also utterly 
believable at face value (at least up to the seance). We recognize the 
seductive power of the sanitarium's routine, and we can see ourselves 
abandoning our responsibilities, surrendering our will, and being drawn 
into its cocoon as Hans was.

Steven <

http://www.readliterature.com/BC_magicmountain.htm

The short piece Thomas Mann wrote about his personal seance experience 
is entitled /Okkulte Erlebnisse/. Public hypnosis lies at the center of 
the novella /Mario und der Zauberer/ (Mario and the Magician), and the 
devil in person - "Da fühl ich mich auf der Plotz von schneidender Kälte 
getroffen, so als säße einer im winterwarmen Zimmer und auf einmal ginge 
ein Fenster auf nach außen gegen den Frost. (...) Jemand sitzt im Dämmer 
auf dem Roßhaarsofa (...)" - appears in chapter XXV of /Doktor Faustus/. 
As embarrassed Mann was by occult phenomena, he never felt like denying 
that they,  or at least some of them, might be real. In /Okkulte 
Erlebnisse/ he writes:

„Bei dem, was ich sah, handelte es sich um eine okkulte Gaukelei des 
organischen Lebens, um untermenschlich-tief verworrene Komplexe, die, 
zugleich primitiv und kompliziert, wie sie sein mögen, mit ihrem wenig 
würdevollen Charakter, ihrem trivialen Drum und Dran, wohl danach 
angetan sind, den ästhetisch-stolzen Sinn zu verletzen, aber deren 
anormale Realität zu leugnen, nichts als unerlaubtes Augenschließen und 
unvernünftige Renitenz bedeuten würde.“

Interestingly enough, I found, and this will bring us back to the 
current group read, in the conference report I took the Mann essay quote 
from, a thesis on /The Magic Mountain/ formulated which we are also 
struggling with regarding /Gravity's Rainbow/. The thesis by the Italian 
literary scientist Lucca Crescenzi  that the whole /Magic Mountain/ is 
actually a dream! A dream either dreamed by Hans Castorp after he became 
a soldier in the novel's end, triggered by World War I experiences, or 
maybe even the last neural flicker in the brain of Castorp or somebody 
else, dying on the battlefield ... The community of Mann scholars 
welcomed the thesis as productive for further research.

https://litos.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/okkulte-gaukelei-des-organischen-lebens/

I agree with the thesis that the occult phenomena allow Pynchon to 
"introduce nonstandard economic and political information into the War 
history". Like in the later seance where the ghost of Walther Rathenau - 
"But all I have is the molecule, the sketch ... Methoneirine, as the 
sulfate. Not in Germany, but in the United States. A link to Russia. Why 
do you think von Maltzan and I saw the Rapallo treaty through? It was 
necessary to move to the east." (p. 166, Picador/Viking) - is, from the 
Other Side, giving a decent hint that Big Business is not interested in 
nations or the differences between political systems.

On 12.04.2016 07:17, Joseph Tracy wrote:
> Here is a summary of key events in the chapter. Disagreements with anything?
>
> At the opening of Chapter 5( 30-38) we enter a seance conducted in some space of  SOE aka the Firm, a space lit by a sensitive flame in which a medium, Carroll Eventyr, seems to have entered the spirit of Roland Feldspath expert on control systems, guidance equations (a concept which haunts the novel in various forms: rocket guidance,determinism/calvinism/fascism/gnosticism ). Roland has " transected into the realm of Dominus Blicero”, but Roland gets distracted from Blicero by lights moving as in a  dance and  particularly by the  wind as a kind of ecstatic force he never knew. He calls out to his wife Selena ,who assures she is listening; he starts talking about the difficulty of control and  about replacing the invisible hand of the market  with self creating control, dispensing with God, then counters that this is only a more harmful illusion that A causes B when they are part of same….
> The seance is almost over as the sensitive flame that responds to sound and movement retreats then soars up as a new rocket falls  and Jessica Swanlake throws dart  which hits dead center .  Selena ,  the dead Feldspath’s wife is there. All is recorded by Milton Gloaming trying to develop statistical analysis of psychic and other events( death is the most frequent word he records). Jessica and Gloaming converse, he asks about Roger Mexico, her lover, who she says is with Pirate Prentice.  We move to conversation in Snoxall’s (pub,club?) between Prentice and Mexico; Prentice is more ambitious and more paranoid than first impression.  Mexico thinks the project with psychics is endangered by the revival of witch laws . Prentice is delivering microfilm to Mexico from Bloat. We find out about PISCES under the larger White Visitation. Pirate is concerned about the non-war/post-war related schemes arriving with the  Americans and obscuring Germany and war, thinks Mexico is being used in
>
>
>
> one such indecent plot, notes Mexico’s growing enthusiasm for microfilm being sent. Beautiful Jessica triggers Prentice's memory of affair with Scorpia Mossmoon, now long over. PP longing for real love, friendship, jealous of , but hoping Jessica and R M stay together. As chapter fades into maudlin with memory of Mossmoon’s inevitable departure Pynchon brings in the merry midgets but it falls a bit flat.
>
>
> We think of WW2 as a particularly modern and technological war and that gets much attention in GR, but from the start Pynchon is diving into a less respectable aspect of the pursuit of information. Psychic or paranormal phenomena . Why is it so prominent? We know it played a role in the war, but is it standing in for something larger in the Novel? In some ways it allows P to introduce nonstandard economic and political information into the War history. Is there more?-
> Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
>
>

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