Mann began his novel The Magic Mountain with the intention of exploring comedic elements broached by Death in Venice, but World War I intervened which distracted him into writing about German culture and nationalism. When he returned to the novel, his attitudes had changed, and so the novel is Bildungsroman mixed up with a bunch of philosophical and mythological characters and ideas. The setting is a sanatorium in Switzerland, which also happened to be visited by the Manns, where our young hero discovers he might have a touch of TB and ends up staying for seven years. It gives us an excuse to talk briefly about tuberculosis but mostly to explore Mann's political thoughts through both World Wars and the anti-communist inquisition in the US. A literary investigation.

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