Status Updates From La muntanya màgica

I hate reading long books because I go slowly slowly to savor each bite and suddenly it’s the end and I want to quit so I don’t have to say goodbye to the friends of my mind….

In Doubts and Considerations Part of Chapter 4 Director Behrens had the disease tuberculosis and treated himself and others. Can a doctor effectively do this? He does not have the disease anymore. Can Director Behrens be objective? Questions to answer. Hans Castorp thinks not.

Quote:

He destroyed illusions, he was merciless in giving knowledge the honor it was due, he left no room for tender faith in the dignity of silver hair or in the angelic purity of little children.

And Dr. Krokowski said: In the form of illness! Any symptom of illness was a masked form of love in action, and illness was merely transformed love.

Quote:

In particular, the orator constantly used the word "love" in a gently irresolute sense, so that one was never quite sure whether he meant its sanctified or more passionate and fleshly forms - leaving one feeling slightly nauseated and seasick.

In Analysis in Chapter 4 Dr. Krokowski talks about love, illness, bourgeois, and the connection to the divine. He wants the patients who are non-moribundi, not terminally as of yet, to come to him to be dissected mentally. Hans Castorp is not having any part of this. He is not a patient.

In Hippe Part 4 Hans Castorp has a nose bleed while walking by himself to feel as though he is not a patient. He has a childhood memory. He had to hitch a ride on the back of a wagon to return to the sanatorium because he was too weak to walk. Hippe is a childhood memory. Frau Chauchat reminds Hans Castorp of Hippe a childhood school mate.