Doctor Faustus
by Thomas Mann · first published 1947
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A new translation of a 1948 novel by a German writer based on the Faust legend. The protagonist is Adrian Leverkuhn, a musical genius who trades his body and soul to the devil in exchange for 24 years of triumph as the world's greatest composer.
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…Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Arpaci-Dusseau I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong. The Weird by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer The Federalist Papers, ed. by Kesler The Anti-Federalist Papers, ed. by Ketcham Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, new translation by John Woods Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman Loren Eiseley in the Library of America Edition Tu rostro mañana by Javier Marías The Complete…
on “Ask HN: What Are You Reading?” ↗Just two other examples: Goethe: West–Eastern Diwan (age 70), Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (age 72) Marienbad Elegy (age 73). Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus (age 72) I have randomly picked a few people from the list of Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature[1] who have made it to old age, and most of them seem to have been quite productive even then. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit...
on “Old Age and Creativity” ↗…becomes designed. This has some potential. We all love R. Feynman for his metaphors, that explain complicated topics. This might work also in the other direction, accessibility: Insert Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus - and voila, even a 15 year old finally can understand the book.
on “Why do we all fall for AI-generated language?” ↗…heliocentrism and so on. Surely the earth revolved around the sun before it was understood to be that way. And surely our experiences are real even though our minds are isolated from eachother. In Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, the devil told Adrian roughly this: Your brain is sick, yes you are hallucinating me, but that doesn't make me less real.
on “When Buddhism Goes Bad – How My Mindfulness Practice Led Me to Meltdown” ↗> Don't be fooled into thinking that a Nobel Literature winner is difficult to read, none of them are Kind of a stretch there. No casual reader can handle Doctor Faustus (Thomas Mann) or the Glass beads game (Hesse) without serious effort. Sure, one can try, in the same way one can try running a marathon without training, with the same predictable results.
on “Books I Loved Reading in 2024” ↗