Death in Venice
Ratings45
Average rating3.7
Pedophilia is a crime.Do not mix it with art!Seek help!
I bought this book when I was a teen just because of the word Venice. I didn't pass the prologue for how boring it was and so the book stayed on the shelf because I thought I would have more patience for it when I grow up.
Years later, I learned about Björn Andrésen, the poor young boy who played in the 1971 adaptation of the book.
If you don't know him yet, watch this very important documentary film:
The most beautiful boy in the world (2021).
Look, if the story had shown that pedophilia is bad and the main character would have been punished for such mentality, I would have been okay with it.
BUT NO. The writer tries to deceit himself and us by glorifying it and painting it as art and literature! Just like Lolita!
Pedophilia is pedophilia!
There is no such a stupid separation between fiction and reality when it comes to fancying children!!
And just look how the so-called fiction has RUINED a REAL person's life in our very own REALITY!
People who have rated this book 4-5 stars and claim how rich the book is in literature are fucked in mind and have to seek help.
If you're looking for good technical writing, this book is for you. That's it for me. I suppose I also understand and appreciate what the novel is doing, but I just couldn't get into it. It lacked a charm that allowed me to value the story of an old man in love with a 14 year old boy from a distance. The concept is romanized (literally), it gets weird, it feels weird. The writing becomes an inadequate redeeming quality. Nonetheless, I would be open to reading something by Thomas Mann again; while I did not like this book, I can understand why it seen as significant.
Extrêmement bien écrit, très poétique, à mes yeux respectueux et touchant, une distance maîtrisée, une certaine douceur. Un récit d'une fin de vie et d'un dernier émoi intéressant.
I liked and disliked this book. Mann has his character, Aschenbach, preach a little more than I like, preaching his thoughts about beauty and writing and control. That's what I disliked. For the first third of the book, I could barely force myself to keep reading.
Then Aschenbach falls in love and begins to tail the object of his affection all over Venice. The story takes a different turn and the writing moves from a rant about virtue to a real story. Venice is beautifully depicted and Aschenbach becomes a real, brilliant, tortured human being. That's what I liked.
20% in. I am going to be so conflicted about this.
40% in. Finally, some life!
60% in. Now it is perfect. <3
80% in. I don't want either Aschenbach or Tadzio to die. I've grown quite attached to them.
100% in. This was brilliant. Mann's got me wishing I was an ascetic old man who had devoted his being to discipline just so I could taste the intoxicating annihilative pleasures of liberation after a lifetime of sobriety.
