Thomas Mann - Cultural References

Cultural References

Several literary and other works make reference to Mann's book The Magic Mountain, including:

Harry Mulisch - The Discovery of Heaven.

Andrew Crumey's novel Mobius Dick (2004), which imagines an alternative universe where an author named Behring has written novels resembling Mann's. These include a version of The Magic Mountain with Erwin Schrödinger in place of Castorp.

Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood, in which the main character is criticized for reading The Magic Mountain while visiting a friend in a sanatorium.

The song "Magic Mountain" by the band Blonde Redhead

The painting "Magic Mountain (after Thomas Mann)" by Christiaan Tonnis (1987). "The Magic Mountain" is also a chapter in Tonnis's 2006 book "Illness as a Symbol" as well.

The 1941 film 49th Parallel, in which the character Philip Armstrong Scott unknowingly praises Mann's work to an escaped World War II Nazi U boat commander, who later responds by burning Scott's copy of The Magic Mountain.

Several literary and other works make reference to Death in Venice, including:

The 2006 movie A Good Year directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Albert Finney, which features a paperback version of Death in Venice; it is the book Christie Roberts is reading at her deceased father's vineyard.

Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain (2000).

Joseph Heller's 1994 novel, Closing Time, which makes several references to Thomas Mann and Death in Venice.

Alan Bennett's play The Habit of Art, in which Benjamin Britten visits W. H. Auden to discuss the possibility of Auden writing the libretto for Britten's opera version of Death in Venice.

Other:

Hayavadana (1972), a play by Girish Karnad was based on a theme drawn from The Transposed Heads and employed the folk theatre form of Yakshagana. A German version of the play, was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part of the repertoire of the Deutsches National Theatre, Weimar. A staged musical version of The Transposed Heads, adapted by Julie Taymor and Sidney Goldfarb, with music by Elliot Goldenthal, was produced at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and The Lincoln Center in New York in 1988.

In Fringe Episode 14 Season 2 "The Bishop Revival", Dr. Walter Bishop states that his father a scientist in Nazi Germany who was a spy for the OSS. And that when he came to America he smuggled notes about a gene targeting poison in Thomas Mann's first edition notes.

Mann's 1896 short story "Disillusionment" is the basis for the Leiber and Stoller song "Is That All There Is?", famously recorded in 1969 by Peggy Lee.

In a 1994 essay, Umberto Eco suggests that the media discuss "Whether reading Thomas Mann gives one erections" as an alternative to "Whether Joyce is boring".

In the major television series, The Simpsons, Weyland Smithers attempts to teach the children at Springfield Elementary to read Death in Venice.

Thomas Mann’s life in California during World War II, including his relationship with Heinrich Mann and Bertolt Brecht is a subject of Christopher Hampton’s play “Tales from Hollywood”. BBC Video “Performance" Tales from Hollywood (1992), staged by the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota 2012