Thursday, October 27, 2011

MM 4 : Politically suspect


Sunday! It is the fifth day of our friend Hans on the mountain. People dress smartly for Sunday. There is a holiday atmosphere hanging over the Berghof, Music is playing.

  1. Bildung

“Ah Bravo…Beer, tobacco and music…behold the fatherland”. Settembrini observes a patriotic mood in Hans. Ironic? Does S want to say to Hans, I can see that you enjoy these things; you can have that everyday in your normal world.

“Don’t you enjoy Music?” “Not when I am ordered to do so”.
Music plays an important role in the book. I am not taking it into detailed account in this reading, but there is a whole symbolic world out there: from the popular porno polkas through the classics and the military or funeral marches. Anybody willing to study it for us ?

S does not like music because it is planned ( every second week and only on Sundays ) and because it is organized for medical reasons. He wants independence in his enjoyment of music (what, when and where)

S sees his attitude as a rebellion against the strict order of the Berghof. He annoys Joachim with a “you’ve learned the trick of keeping your pride, even in slavery”

S compares Music to Writing and remarks that there is something dubious, irresponsible and indifferent about it. (this is how I would characterize nature instead of the earlier “evil”.) … S seems to expect this comment “nature can be clear as well- but what good does that do us?”

“My distaste for Music is Political”

It can be positive and then S likes it: awakening our zeal, a power that draws the mind upward and forward. Literature must precede it. S means probably the words, the text.

Negative, by itself music cannot draw the world forward, music is dangerous

Joachim: “it fills the hours, it gives the empty hours content”. A piece last 7 minutes...

S reacting: “Bravo, Music awakens time”, “a moral element in the nature of music”. Music is good when it awakens! But what if like a drug in numbs you, puts you to sleep, counteracting activity and progress. Music like Opiates is a Devil’s tool, creates dullness, rigidity, stagnation, slavish inertia…”

Music is ambiguous and dubious and thus political suspect.

Dangerous Music!


Music as a drug: Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


Music that makes us move forward


  1. Eros

There is flirting in this spring weather

  1. Time

“spring-like day”: By the time that the first week has passed, Hans will have experienced the four seasons. Arrival in Summer, then quickly following: fall and winter ( is your summer over ?) and now spring-like weather

  1. Notes

The boy with the fingernail… A boy sent to the sanatorium for a short stay and who became ill and had to stay… beware Hans beware !

Cigar tastes better after four days.