Reading Wednesday
Dec. 31st, 2025 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabby It being Void Week and NYE, I fully forgot that it was also a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, my dudes.
Just finished: Nothing.
Currently reading: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. 700 pages and two years into Hans Castrop's stay at the Berghof, which our guy does not want to leave. And who can blame him? It seems a very chill life. Hans and Joachim (but mainly Hans) take up visiting the people who are bedridden and dying, which results in at least one awkward incident of a teenage girl developing a huge crush on him. Clavdia and Joachim both leave (the latter after a very lengthy conversation in untranslated French, most of which I didn't understand; the former to go into the military even though he is not fully cured). Settembrini also leaves, but not to go very far, instead to move in with his friend/arch-nemesis/wait are these two gay for each other, Leo Naphta. Meanwhile, Hans' uncle/cousin/foster brother James Tienappel comes up for a bit to try to convince Hans to leave, before realizing that all of these people are mental and Hans is mental and then he nopes out without saying goodbye and before he can be diagnosed with tuberculosis, making him the wisest character in the book so far.
As is the style of the era, there's a digression on art and painting styles where the sanatorium's director, Behrens, has been painting Clavdia, and according to Hans is quite bad at it, but he has to compliment the guy's technique anyway, and this is quite good.
The very lengthy dialogue between Settembrini and Naphta, which is a seduction of sorts wherein both weird old guys try to convince Hans (and Joachim, who is there too) of their philosophical points of view. Settembrini is a Renaissance humanist, Naphta is a Jewish convert to Catholicism who really, really likes this newfangled communism thing. Settembrini later pulls Hans aside after Naphta goes on and on about revolution and is like, stay away from that guy unless I'm around. Hans asks why, is it because of the revolution stuff? Settembrini reveals that no, he is secretly A Jesuit, and Hans is like, OMG A Jesuit, which has to be the funniest part of the book so far.
No one believes me that I'm enjoying this.
Anyway, friends, happy New Year! May we all survive.
Just finished: Nothing.
Currently reading: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. 700 pages and two years into Hans Castrop's stay at the Berghof, which our guy does not want to leave. And who can blame him? It seems a very chill life. Hans and Joachim (but mainly Hans) take up visiting the people who are bedridden and dying, which results in at least one awkward incident of a teenage girl developing a huge crush on him. Clavdia and Joachim both leave (the latter after a very lengthy conversation in untranslated French, most of which I didn't understand; the former to go into the military even though he is not fully cured). Settembrini also leaves, but not to go very far, instead to move in with his friend/arch-nemesis/wait are these two gay for each other, Leo Naphta. Meanwhile, Hans' uncle/cousin/foster brother James Tienappel comes up for a bit to try to convince Hans to leave, before realizing that all of these people are mental and Hans is mental and then he nopes out without saying goodbye and before he can be diagnosed with tuberculosis, making him the wisest character in the book so far.
As is the style of the era, there's a digression on art and painting styles where the sanatorium's director, Behrens, has been painting Clavdia, and according to Hans is quite bad at it, but he has to compliment the guy's technique anyway, and this is quite good.
The very lengthy dialogue between Settembrini and Naphta, which is a seduction of sorts wherein both weird old guys try to convince Hans (and Joachim, who is there too) of their philosophical points of view. Settembrini is a Renaissance humanist, Naphta is a Jewish convert to Catholicism who really, really likes this newfangled communism thing. Settembrini later pulls Hans aside after Naphta goes on and on about revolution and is like, stay away from that guy unless I'm around. Hans asks why, is it because of the revolution stuff? Settembrini reveals that no, he is secretly A Jesuit, and Hans is like, OMG A Jesuit, which has to be the funniest part of the book so far.
No one believes me that I'm enjoying this.
Anyway, friends, happy New Year! May we all survive.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-31 07:38 pm (UTC)What am I missing that you wouldn't be?
Anyway, friends, happy New Year! May we all survive.
Jeez, likewise.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-31 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-31 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:29 am (UTC)So Jesuits have iceberg control, and You Know Who has Space Lasers.... I think we might be close to cracking Climate Alarmism!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 04:23 pm (UTC)Also, not a conspiracy theory, but one of the biggest pre-war Nazi propaganda films was a Titanic film where they make Ismay Jewish & were like look at this effete liberal corporate coward. (IRL, he seemed like an OK dude, all things considered. He stayed to help people onto lifeboat until the very last one when there was no one else around & stayed on the shipping company board until his death, despite otherwise basically completely retiring from public life, to make sure all of the families' insurance claims got paid out)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 08:42 am (UTC)And that was before social media? We are doomed.
, to make sure all of the families' insurance claims got paid out)
It's sad the 2026 version would involve delaying, denying and deposing, and making sure any payments were minimal, and taxed.
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Date: 2026-01-01 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:27 am (UTC)I believe you. I don't know the book, can't recall you starting it, and not sure when I tuned out of the recaps, but I have faith people like it.
Anyway, friends, happy New Year! May we all survive.
Must we?
HNY!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 11:19 pm (UTC)