# of Words: 247

Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, a novella about a writer who falls in love with a young Polish boy, which has been raising eyebrows ever since its publication in 1912. To be clear, when we state author, we are referring to an adult one--that means this love is all types of forbidden. Before you consider burning your copy of the book in outrage, though, consider this: This book is really about artwork.

And desire. And how art and want are super entangled with each other. Can it be a sexy mess? Absolutely. Can it be a totally captivating read because of this?

Mann, known as "the ironic German" (no seriously--there's even a book by that title), loves to present ethical values and cultural ideals as open questions instead of straightforward facts (they didn't give him the Nobel Prize in 1929 for nothing), and Death in Venice is his depiction of the modern artist, showing the way the artist's love of beauty is often barely any different from erotic fixation. In other words, there's no beauty without sexual desire coursing below the surface.

Caution: You may feel that a little embarrassing calling things beautiful after you finish reading this book--it will probably be a cool minute before you tell your mom she looks fine again. However, if this is the case, then it merely means Mann accomplished what he set out to do. So while it could be embarrassing for us as readers, it's a job well done for Mann.

Related Papers

Henry V William Shakespeare

Composed around 1599, Henry V is the last play in William Shakespeare' second tetralogy, a set of history plays which contains Richard II, Henry Part 1, and Henry IV Part two. In the previous works, Shakespeare portrays Henry's days as a crazy and reckless adolescent. In Henry V, "Wild Prince Hal" has long since grown up into a competent king who's determined to invade France and lay claim to the French throne. Though written about the early 1400s, for countless years audiences have discovered......Read More

The Crucible Arthur Miller

Envision a super-constrictive time in history. Think appropriate social etiquette. Think mass hysteria which makes whole communities funny and paranoid. If, on the other hand, the very first image that popped into your head was of Salem's Anne Hale--bingo, you're 100% correct. This play is a comment on the claustrophobic Puritanical-code-of-conduct-fear-of-witches nonsense of Massachusetts from the 17th centuryand a comment on the claustrophobic, girdles-white-picket-fences-fear-of-Communists......Read More

For Whom The Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, is a classic warfare romance (that is a war play and a love, in one). Set in the hills of Spain in 1937, it tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American fighting for the Republicans (that is one facet of the Spanish Civil War, not the American political party) who is ordered to blow up a bridge as part of a bigger offensive. A good deal of sweat, blood, and tears went into this book, and we mean actually. It is really wrapped in, and......Read More

Related Topics