Wesker in the Puddles
We’ve had a decent dose of spring rain in the last week, which can be hard on Wesker’s joints. We have medication that helps now, and I love that she no longer stays in her comfy closet when it’s raining or damp. In fact, in this last week, she’s actually begged for a little bit of outside time. My lovely spouse let her out to explore backyard under supervision. I was expecting her to race right back in since the ground was pretty wet. She didn’t. She not only explored the puddles but actually started splashing her paws into one and enjoying the results. It was worth the clean-up to see her enjoying spring so much.
Misgivings About Mann
I didn’t start reading Thomas Mann work at the best place. I inadvertently picked the worst. Doctor Faustus. Do not start with Doctor Faustus. It was such a bad reading experience that I have had a hard time trying any Mann after I finished it. But finally, I decided that I would try Death in Venice. It’s a novella, since I am still not ready to face his longer work, and it just has been republished in a beautiful edition by Macmillan Collector’s Library.
For those of you who don’t know the plot, an aging writer decides that he’s going to take a long vacation in Venice and shortly becomes obsessed with a young boy. This descent into obsession causes him to stay behind in the city even after a plague starts scaring off the population and dispelling most of his fellow travelers.
On Death
This is a metaphorical tale that mostly uses death and the approaching plague as a vehicle to explore the fears around aging, decay, and irrelevance. The narrative does this rather well, for the most part, but I can’t deny that I was disappointed with how much wordcount Mann devoted to descriptions of the young boy and his beauty — which is pretty language adorning the ugly reality of pedophilic obsession.
I guess, knowing Mann’s history, I should not have been surprised by this, but I will warn that it makes for a difficult reading experience for the modern reader. The novella is only about 120 pages in this edition, and I would say about a third of the book is descriptions of lusting (in veiled language) over a young boy. While this obsession is also used to symbolize the writer’s longing for his own lost youth, it doesn’t sit well. And again, once you know Mann’s history, it’s hard to see it as anything but what it actually was, obliterating any metaphors that might have had more power in centuries past.
On Atmosphere
What I did enjoy about Death in Venice was how oppressive Mann manages to make the atmosphere of the plague-ridden city. He does this through lush descriptions of damp and the oppressive nature of the sirocco winds. He makes the reader feel heavy and weighted as the writer wanders the canals and sees sickness all around him. It’s a dreamy, pestilent landscape and reminded me of Albert Camus’ The Plague, a book I greatly enjoyed.
Bright Yellow Daffodils
We have some bright yellow daffodils growing in our garden and my lovely spouse has been picking the brightest ones and bringing them inside for our smallest vase. It’s amazing how even one flower can brighten up the sitting room on a gloomy, stormy morning. And I can feel her affection in the petals.
