Brain Pain discussion

This discussion covers Chapter I – XI, p. 3 – 100

Hesitant narrator Dr. Serenus Zeitblom, Ph.D. spits and sputters his way through the early days and places of his childhood friend, Adrian Leverkühn. Early on, he reveals that Adrian is dead and he is telling this story now while he still can, since he is anxious about being found out by the Gestapo for reasons he doesn’t immediately make clear. Teenaged Serenus and Adrian listen to the marvelous, though stutter-filled lectures of Herr Kretzschmar, and are carried away by the implications. Adrian absorbs Herr Kretzschmar’s ideas like a sponge. After graduating high school, Adrian goes to Halle to study theology.

To avoid spoilers, please limit your comments to p. 3 - 100

Hi. Just wanted to say I'm here, behind as usual. I really enjoyed Kretzschmar's lectures, but music is definitely my biggest cultural failing, and I don't have any salient comments to make. If there are any classical music aficionados lurking out there on this read I'd love to hear their opinions of the lectures.

There are a couple of things that struck me in the first part as likely having some resonance later in the book. The first is the emphasis that Zeitbloom puts on the influence of their hometown on Adrian: the town which has a veneer of the modern with "the stamp of old-world, underground neurosis", which manifests itself in a kind of witch-hunt mentality against the eccentric old women of the town. Knowing that Adrian is partially inspired by Schoenberg, I’m wondering if this is allegorical for modernistic music with a good old Satanic bargain behind it all.

The second thing that struck me was this exchange between Zeitbloom and Adrian:

“A gift of life like music,” I responded, “not to say a gift of God, one ought not to explain by mocking antinomies, which only bear witness to the fullness of her nature. One must love her.”
“Do you consider love the strongest emotion?” he asked.
“Do you know a stronger?”
“Yes, interest.”
“By which you presumably mean a love from which the animal warmth has been withdrawn.”
“Let us agree on the definition!” he laughed. “Good night!”

which seems very Faustian on the part of Adrian.

I will continue to slog along at my stuttering pace. Thanks for carrying on in the apparent void, Jim!

I'm planning on eventually joining here, but between Miss MacIntosh, my Darling, The Ice-Shirt and a private reading project of saga-inspired novels I haven't gotten around to it yet. I have read the novel twice before, but that was a long time ago, and memory is a bit vague.

I might contribute something on the names, though, if anyone is interested - Thomas Mann is famous for his use of "telling" names, and Doktor Faustus is no exception. "Serenus Zeitblom" is probably obvious for most English readers, except for the "Zeit" bit which is German for "time." - "Leverkühn" could be read as consisting of "Leber" (liver) and "kühn" (bold, brave), but I think "Leb' er kühn" is more likely which would translate as "May he live boldly." - "Kretzschmar" is a quite plausible name without any deeper significance, but it could be read (very unfavourably) as combining "kratzen" (scratch) and "Schmarrn" (figurative for nonsense).

Keep in mind, though, that this is just what I've come up with, and it is quite possible that there are different and quite likely more ingenious ways to read those names.

Finally got around to starting it, but have been distracted by all kinds of non-reading-related stuff and have hence fallen rather back on commenting in the various group threads.

I don't know much about music myself, but I think it is essential for an understanding of this novel that one makes an effort to comprehend what is being talked about. I think it is part of what this makes this novel so great, that while music serves a thematic function inside the novel's framework as symbol / metaphor not just for the artistic temperament but also for German history in the 20th century, Mann does not short-change it keeps on the level of his material (as Adorno might have called it) - there is no handwaving here, but Mann incorporates what was the avantgarde of musical theory at the time and instead of trimming it to fit the novel's thematic structure he manages to take it in its entirety and incorporate it as an integral part of Doktor Faustus.

This will become even more important later on, but it should be mentioned that Mann (who was not that much an expert in musical philosophy, either) relied heavily on young Adorno for that part. Mann had met young Adorno (who was still called Wiesengrund then - there even is a reference to his name in the German version of the novel) in Los Angeles and they seem to have gotten along very well together. If you are at all familiar with Adorno's musical philosophy you will easily recognise it in Doktor Faustus - and yet Mann managed to make it an integral part of his own novel.

On a completely unrelated note, I had forgotten how much Mann loves foreshadowing, there hardly seems a sentence without it here. Most notably are probably the three types of butterflies whose human counterparts we will encounter later on in the novel.

Larou wrote: "Finally got around to starting it, but have been distracted by all kinds of non-reading-related stuff and have hence fallen rather back on commenting in the various group threads.

I don't know muc..."

Glad you're enjoying the musical elements. I added links to some of the music mentioned in the book over in the Questions, Resources thread.