Death in Venice discussion

After reading this it was obvious this guy has an extreme infatuation with a little boy that he not only had never spoken to, but had only just become aware of. At the same time there was a severe sickness going around that was killing people. Do you think that Aschenbach's obsession with the boy is solely because of a deep down pedophilia issue, or could part of it be due to the malady making him senile?

No, this book is not a treatment of pedophilia tendencies of Aschenbach, rather it's about his intense life-long pursuit of beauty which for him , the boy is the finest epitome.

Rachel wrote: "After reading this it was obvious this guy has an extreme infatuation with a little boy that he not only had never spoken to, but had only just become aware of. At the same time there was a severe ..."

Hi Rachel,
you might like to join The Novella Club group reads discussion on Death in Venice.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Cheers.

This book has NOTHING to do with pedophilia. Neither is it about senility. It is about Aschenbach's descend from an 'Apollonian' life to a more 'Dionysian' one. From structure to fluidity.
NOT pedophilia. Oh my god. You should reread the book again.

Well, there is this episode, narrated by Fuentes, who met Mann in a Zurich hotel in 1950 (translated directly from Spanish, sorry for any mistakes):

"Many young men were playing tennis in the courts, yet him (Mann) had eyes for only one, the Chosen One, the Apollo of tennis. He was certainly a very beautiful young man, no more than 20 years old, maybe 21, my own age. Mann could not take his eyes off the boy and I could not take mines off Mann (...) Mann, the septuagenarian, could not hide this passionate desire for a 20 year old boy playing tennis in a Dolder's court (...) Then, a young woman came to his father, affectionately nagged him, made him desist of this coquetry and come back with her to everyday life..."