100
PART ISAN R.EVIEW
"gentl eman enemi es" if th e "presentation Iwere J
to
go by th e boa rd." He
awaited with utmost longin g a communi ca tion fi-om Robert Schuman
which would announce that he was to be deco rated with the Officer's
C ross of the Legion of Hon o r. Althou gh no t exac tl y a francophil e, he
records the wording of the encomium in grea t deta il:
UII /iolllll/a,Qc relldll par
/a Frallce
a
/'cxceptiollcllc va /cllr.
...
He observed hi s own self-sati sfac tion on
receiving it, examining the cross and parading around the room with it.
He remarks, "I can't keep my eyes off it." In th e history of grea t minds
one encounters this zea lous pursuit of recognition from society's power–
ful over and over aga in. Why else did Vel asquez go to such len gths to ga in
admi ssion to th e Order of Santiago? The humiliati on he endured in doing
so is the same sort of thin g Hein e subj ec ted himself to in hi s student fi-a–
ternity. Perh aps th e recognition of th e age, acceptance by its
representatives, is anti cipatory praise, ea rly laurels from the wrea th to be
woven by posterity, a reflection of the fame fo r which Herculean tasks are
carri ed out. Who could blame such men for looking for a bit of balm to
ease th eir constant, titan ic suffering? " Am so so re that everythin g soo thes
me and cheers me up for a moment," he writes after some bit of praise and
is delighted that a letter addressed only to "Thomas Mann, Amerika "
reaches him. To have won "the favor of our contelllporari es" is an " unfail–
ing joy," observed the Olympian fi-om Weimar-and Thomas Mann set it
down in his di ary.
It has been sa id he was an "egocentri c person," and hi s older brother
spoke ea rly o n of the youn ger Mann 's "ragin g passion for hi s own self."
13ut an "overwro ught sense of self" is si lllpl y an occupational characte ri s–
ti c of the creati ve wri ter. Yet it does seem curiously pretentiou s, downright
parvenu , in fact, when the writing turns with casual elllphasis to breakfast,
for example,
to
the morning cav iar that once aga in didn't quite taste ri ght
or the champagne poured at dinner yesterday. ])i scuss in g th e inadeq uacy of
this or that maid or proudly mentionin g the chauffe ur's new cap are more
1l0llVCall ric/i e
than patrician, as is putting the top down on hi s newly–
acqu ired Horch convertibl e and havin g himse lf photographed with the
chauffeur in the back seat. This dynalllic is not uniqu e
to
Thomas Mann,
but the desire to gain sO ll1 e sma ll substantiation-fi-o ll1 the upper classes,
of course-of fllture recognition. T hose who came before him purchased
this with a bit of bowing and scraping to the nobility. Thomas Mann adds
to that a certa in enjoYll1 ent of dressing up. In hi s yo uth he had a dandy's
wa rdrobe. Well, Goethe began as a f(Jp. Yet the photo of Mann in the car
is downright funny, as are those of him in tropical, street, and drawing–
room garb.
He was fami liar with the ullScrupulous side of artistic genius, recog–
ni zi ng the fine lin e between the sublime and the ridiculous. Witho ut such
