Tag Archives: RKS literature

RKS Literature: The Northern vs. Southern Temperament (Thomas Mann)

“My father, you know, had the temperament of the north; solid, reflective, puritanically correct, with a tendency to melancholia. My mother, of indeterminate foreign blood, was beautiful, sensuous, naïve, passionate, and careless at once, and, I think, irregular by instinct. The mixture was no doubt extraordinary and bore with it extraordinary dangers. The issue ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Northern vs. Southern Temperament (Thomas Mann)”

RKS Literature: A Spirit of the Times? (Thomas Mann/Death in Venice)

“And after all, what kind could be truer to the spirit of the times? Gustave Aschenbach was the poet-spokesman of all those who labour at the edge of exhaustion; of the overburdened, of those who are already worn out but still hold themselves upright; of all our modern moralizers of accomplishment, with stunted growth andContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Spirit of the Times? (Thomas Mann/Death in Venice)”

RKS Literature: The Duel and Manhood

“The duel my friend, is not just any ‘arrangement’. It is the final arrangement, a return to the primal state of nature, only slightly moderated by certain chivalrous, but purely superficial rules. The essence of the situation remains what it has been since the beginning, a physical struggle, and it is each man’s duty, howeverContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Duel and Manhood”

RKS Literature: Individualism a Word for All Seasons

“Individualism was romantically medieval in its belief in the infinite, cosmic importance of each single creature, from which came the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, the theory of geocentrism and astrology. On the other hand, individualism was a matter of liberal humanism, which tended toward anarchy and wanted at all costs to protectContinue reading “RKS Literature: Individualism a Word for All Seasons”

RKS Literature: Both God and Nature Unjust (Thomas Mann)

“God and nature were both unjust, they had their favourites, chose to be gracious at random, adorned one man with precarious honours and the next with an easy, but ordinary fate. And for the man that would act? For him justice was, on the one hand, a paralyzing weakness, the very essence of doubt, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Both God and Nature Unjust (Thomas Mann)”

RKS Literature: What is Love?

“Love is simply itself, both as a subtle affirmation of life and as the highest passion: love is our sympathy with organic life, the touchingly lustful embrace of what is destined to decay-caritas is assuredly found in the most admirable and most depraved passions. Irresolute? But in God’s good name, leave the meaning of loveContinue reading “RKS Literature: What is Love?”

RKS Literature: The Russian Kiss

“It was one of those Russian kisses, the sort that are exchanged in that vast, soulful land at high Christmas feasts, as a token and a seal of love. But even as we record this kiss exchanged between a notoriously ‘subtle’ young man and a charming, slinking, and still equally young woman, we cannot helpContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Russian Kiss”

RKS Literature: Schools as Coercion?

“The masses had long since learned that for the education and discipline needed in the battle against the decaying bourgeoisie  they should look elsewhere than to coercive schools imposed by the authorities; and by now every idiot knew that the school system developed by the cloisters of the Middle Ages was as anachronistic and absurdContinue reading “RKS Literature: Schools as Coercion?”

RKS Literature: Snow Being More Than One Can Stand!

“And all the guests declared they could not stand to see any more snow, it disgusted them, summer alone had more than satisfied them in that regard, nothing but masses of snow, day in, day out, mounds of snow, whole slopes of snow-it was more than any human being could stand, deadly to both mindContinue reading “RKS Literature: Snow Being More Than One Can Stand!”

RKS Literature: Looking Forward to Funerals!

“I think of a coffin as an absolutely lovely piece of furniture, even when it’s empty, and if there is someone lying in it, it’s quite sublime in my eyes. There’s something so edifying about funerals-I’ve sometime thought that when we need a little spiritual uplift, we should attend funerals rather than church. People wearContinue reading “RKS Literature: Looking Forward to Funerals!”