Death a la Thomas Mann

Death:
Thomas Mann's 

"Death in Venice"

"We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near."

(Carroll, Lewis Through the Looking Glass 151)

Compare Baudelaire's "A Une Passante" to Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" where the narrowness of the streets and barricading nature of the canals forces pedestrians to cross and recross the same thoroughfares throughout town. It is the constant threat of a repeated encounterthat magnifies the psychological drama of the story. Instead of flanerie resulting in a loss likened to the death of a loved one, it becomes a game of repetitious interactions]


ANNOTATIONS:


"Those who are creating the modern composition authentically are naturally only of importance when they are dead because by that time the modern composition having become past is classified and the description of it is classical. That is the reason why the creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic, there is hardly a moment in between and it is really too bad very much too bad naturally for the creator but also very much too bad for the enjoyer, they all really would enjoy the created so much better just after it has been made than when it is already a classic, but it is perfectly simple that there is no reason why the contemporaries should see, because it would not make any difference as they lead their lives in the new composition anyway, and as every one is naturally indolent why naturally they don't see." (Stein, "Composition as Explanation" 515)