July 31, 2020 Dear Nikola, Thank you for your letter. I think of you very often. Perhaps I should share with you the advice which I give to myself each morning and each evening: to be patient. Patience, I think, is an undervalued and often unrecognized virtue. When I was still practicing medicine, I would often try to console my patients by explaining to them that symptoms and diseases not only sometimes get worse, but they often also spontaneously get better. My mood has been fluctuating. Sometimes sad, but my writing comforts me. I am often surprised how much satisaction I can derive from my writing, even when there is no objective reason to consider the work-product to be of good quality. Adrian Leverkühn it turns out, was not in Virginia, but Klemens had taken' the book with him, some months or years ago on a flight to Tennessee, a circumstance which I infer from the fact that between its pages I found a letterhead from the Madison Hotel in Memphis, a piece of paper which is now a bookmark separating pages 28 and 29. I had failed to locate the book on the shelf, because Klemens had enclosed it in a plain brown paper cover, to protect the binding, which is of fabric stamped with Thomas Mann's emblem, a lyre underneath a bow and arrow, with the initial "T" on one side, and "M" on the other. Hypothetically this exemplar might have value. Not only is it a first edition, I bought it in 1947, but the stamp of the emblem has been accidentally inverted, making it, I believe a genuinely rare book. I remember the enthusiastic admiration with which I read Dr. Fausrus seventy three years ago, and how offended I was then by the detached indifference with which it was reviewed by one of my teachers, Harry Levin. Meanwhile I have spent about an hour with a detailed, thoughtful de.wikipedia biography of Mann - The 28 pages of Dr. Faustus that I have just reread impress me with the baroque intricacy of the style, a complexity which must be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to translate, and which, considered objectively, decorates the novel much like a frame in which a painting is mounted. The book was written in exile, in the U.S., presumably in California. I noted with interest that it is tinged with English idiom, though not to the extent of the final novel "Der Erwählte" (The Chosen One) whose anglicisms Mann unapologetically justifies (if I remember correctly,) with the assertion, "Über allen Sprachen ist die Sprache." (Above all languages, reigns language.) In Dr. Faustus, I was struck by a reference to Adrians having been "aufgebracht", a literal translation of "brought up", which is far from the colloquial meaning of "aufgebracht", angered, incensed. My sensitivity to this malaprop confusion probably reflects my own lifelong efforts to write free of linguistic mixture ... Good night now. Be well. Telephone when and if you feel like it. Give my regards to your parents. EJM On 07/31/2020 07:51 PM, Nikola Chubrich wrote: > Dear Dr. Meyer: > > Forgive me for a long delay in reply. When you wrote I tried to find a piece of writing I had done related to the subject of myth, but it didn't turn up. > > I have been up and down, some days better than others. On the whole my capacity for thought and action is not great. I feel embarassed about calling when I am in that state, but perhaps I will call this weekend anyhow. > > I also passionately hope you are well. > > Nick. > > On Mon, Jul 27, 2020 at 11:08 PM Ernst Meyer > wrote: > > Dear Nikola, Thank you for writing. I have been thinking about you, > hoping and passionately wishing that you are well. I infer from your > letter that this is the case. > > I searched my bookshelves for Dr. Faustus, no success. Possibly Adrian > Leverkuehn stayed in Virginia. What I remember is too sketchy to permit > responsible comment. Instead I stumbled on Ernst Cassirer's, Philosophy > of Symbolic Forms, (in translation), volume two of which is a convoluted > attempt to reconcile myth and historical reality, an opportunity for me > to test my hypothesis that all historical reality is myth in socially > correct disguise. Cassirer reminded me that Schelling elaborated a > Philosophy of Myth. I purchased Schelling's Collected Works in my youth > when I had determined that I would become knowledgeable about > everything. Something more to read and think about. > > I also found a 500 page anthology of writings of the "wie es eigentlich > gewesen","what is was really like" realistic Romantic historian Leopold > von Ranke, - further material on which to test my theory of history as > myth. Meanwhile I am editing and re-editing my Kroetenrettung (Toad > Rescue) libretto, to try to find out how to purge it of Kitsch. > > Whenever you feel like talking on the phone, I shall be happy to hear > from you. Stay welland content. Please give my greetings to your > parents. > EJM > > > On 07/27/2020 10:12 PM, Nikola Chubrich wrote: > > Dear Dr. Meyer: > > > > I have been back in Portsmouth and planning to stay through > August. I > > hope you are well. > > > > You will typically ask, when we talk, "what's on your mind?". Not a > > great deal at the moment. I find myself looking back on life as a > whole > > so far and seeing how unrealistic I have been. It took a long > time to > > get to this point. I suppose there is much I can still do; but I > have > > not yet figured out how to combine a gregarious nature and the > creative > > spark with realism. It is a profound problem; it would be good to > figure > > it out. > > > > I will try to call in the next few days. > > > > My best to all the Meyers. > > > > Nick. >