What do I need to know?
>>23323179A thorough familiarisation with music theory and history, particularly that era of late-romanticism and early modernism, and having read Marlowe's and Goethe's Fausts so you can see how superior they are to Mann's hack writing.
>>23323185Mann > Goethe > Marlowe
You should listen to Beethoven last piano sonata before/while/after reading the pertinent passage.
>>23323179A lot, but mainly classical music, German culture from the 18th century to WW2 and Nietzsche. Some theology wouldn't hurt, but like musical theory, is not a pre-requisite, although it can vastly increase your enjoyment of it. I only knew Nietzsche, Beethoven and Schubert when I read it last summer and loved it!>>23323185Filtered. None of their stories are as personal, tragic, nor heartfelt as this novel is, despite its poignancy and shame in fictionalizing Germany's cultural suicide amidst Hitler's rise, reign and fall.
>>23323208>>23324473Manncultists, when will you ever learn Mann was only a pathetic mediocrity? The DH Lawrence of Germany, each novel an empty aggregate of borrowings, all constructed for the most obvious and artificial 'point', not in anyway comparable to Germany's greatest poet or a great poet of the Elizabethan era. There is not a single paragraph to compare with Doctor Faustus' final soliloquy, and, of course, nothing to compare with even the smallest aspect of Faust I or II. If you want sappy, indulgent stories watch a soap opera.
>>23325020Stop sniffing Nabokov's ashes.
