Without Lifting A Finger

I would've recognized the name Adrian Leverkühn (it's been years since I've read Doctor Faustus and I need to give it a "reread" eventually), but I didn't recognize Serenus Zeitblom. * Doctor Faustus (in German , Doktor Faustus ) is a German novel written by Thomas Mann , begun in 1943 and published in 1947 as Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde ("Doctor Faustus. The Life of the German composer Adrian Leverkühn, told by a friend"). The story is narrated by Leverkühn's childhood friend Serenus Zeitblom. Much like Settembrini and Naphta in “ The Magic Mountain ” the “serene” humanist Zeitblom and the tragical Leverkühn represent the dualism of the German character, its Apollonian (reason, democracy, progress) and Dionysian (passion, tragedy, fate) aspects. Writing in Germany between 1943 and 1946, Zeitblom describes the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany in parallel with his ac...

thomas mann haus , a photo by mrlange on Flickr. 1550 San Remo Drive, Pacific Palisades. Have always intended on seeing it, but never have. Christa Wolf visited Mann's house and in City of Angels she quotes a bit from Mann's Diaries. As you can see, I couldn't find a good photo on Flickr that gets beyond the front gate (some day). On the Net I also saw that the house (apparently very different from when Mann lived there) rents for $15,500 per month. Pocket change. * Wolf, quoting from Mann's Diaries: Pacific Palisades, Saturday, 10/15/49:... Letter to a German man who sent me a note declaring his love for Serenus Zeitblom ... It does me good to see that there are still people  in Germany who find something to love in the work of my old age, in my work at all -- not just something to carp about. When it comes right down to it, it's a stupid German trait always to have to tear down and belittle the best they have, anything that represents them nobly and...