Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann, Winner of The 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, author of The Magic Mountain, my note on this chef d’oeuvre is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html along with a few thousand other reviews, including on other Thoman Mann works

 

Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann, Winner of The 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, author of The Magic Mountain, my note on this chef d’oeuvre is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html along with a few thousand other reviews, including on other Thoman Mann works

 

PERMA in books PERMA stands for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Achievement, and I was thinking that Der Zauberberg and the magnum opera of Thomas Mann in general fit the formula https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/11/flourish-by-martin-seligman-i-ii.html proposed by the co-founder of Positive Psychology – Martin Seligman

 

10 out of 10

 

Thomas Mann was a divine writer, one that I keep mentioning in these notes (he may count one thousand references) and at the…sauna downtown, where I interfere when people use grand words and mention the story in which the German god had some interesting things to say about the abuses we hear often

 

This Mann (Übermensch) is appalled that so many around him, speak in terms of ‘my love is such that there are no words to describe it’, when in fact, you only get love, friends as per definitions in literature, art, when tested in real life, love, friends prove illusory, they do not rise to the expectations and this could be connected with…

Socrates – he was declared the wisest man of his time by the Oracle of Delphi, and he came to the conclusion that he never said he knows what he did not know (went as far as to say he knew nothing) as opposed to the others, who claimed comprehension of so many things they failed to understand, such as love say…

 

My absolute favorite, not just of Thomas Mann, but in general, placed among the top ten books, would be The Magic Mountain, which also has that symbol, it suggests Glasperlenspiel  https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-glass-bead-game-by-herman-hesse.html and PERMA as well, the paradigm of happy reading

The two towering figures in Der Zauberberg would be Hans Castorp and Clavdia Chauchat (there are evidently quite a few more powerful personages though) and the love story, such as it is, maintained in the realm of the platonic, has captivated my imagination more than most others, I remember waiting to see…

 

When Clavdia Chauchat entered the dining room in her clumsy, ineffable, esoteric way, would there be an illumination (there was) some progress in their romance (not much, eventually, Peter Peppercone (it was not his name, but the way it stays in my ‘memory’) would arrive, dominating the scene) what would happen between the two?

 

Then there would be Nafta, Settembrini, and the Socratic dialogues, the themes of liberalism, progress and decadence, the idea of staying in a hotel, well, sanatorium, somewhere in the mountains, Swiss, if possible, has much more of an appeal after reading Der Zauberberg, maybe I will retire in Predeal, someday,

PERMA stands for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Achievement, and I was thinking that Der Zauberberg and the magnum opera of Thomas Mann in general fit the formula https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/11/flourish-by-martin-seligman-i-ii.html proposed by the co-founder of Positive Psychology –

 

Martin Seligman – you have Positive Emotions aka pleasure when reading, Engagement, these are the masterpieces that keep you in Flow, the Positive Relationships I see as made with the characters of the chef d’oeuvre, the book itself offers meaning, may be life changing, and there is a feeling of Achievement when it is finished

‘I think novels ought to tell a story and have a theme and give you a sense that a problem has been proposed and solved’ this is what Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/ending-up-by-kingsley-amis.html has written in his Letters and that is clearly more than satisfied by the magnum opera of Thomas Mann, by the way, there are two novels:

 

The Magic Mountain and The Buddenbrooks that are included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time list, which people will find little time to complete these days, when attention spans have diminished and the new power generation spends time on TikTok and the like, the latter is an outrageous, nefarious outfit, that nearly brought calamity here

We have had elections, and due to a Russian supported campaign on this bloody network, a fool, neo fascist came top, with ideas like ‘there are nanochips in the coca cola drinks’, so the age of Death in Venice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/death-in-venice-by-thomas-mann.html may be both over, and starting

 

Over due to the fact that that kind of culture may be soon extinct, or studied by archeologists – incidentally, Yuval Harai says that this is one of the jobs that will not be taken over by AI, because of the lack of financial incentive, mainly – and alive, as in the plague from the story would spread in other forms

We have had the pandemic (albeit not if you listen to cranks like Robert Kennedy JR, the clown that came top in this realm and so many others like them, neanderthals that I meet at the sauna, alas) but it is also a catastrophe of the spirit, I dream of working around Flow, Nirvana, Trance, Radiance, Character and how they come together, perhaps putting up there a new formula, religion, esoteric cult, something, in the meantime, one is blessed with these notes, writing helps the mind, you come to terms with some issues…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’