Iamthesword answers “Is the boy really 14?? is this book about...”

Max asked this question about Death in Venice:

Is the boy really 14?? is this book about a pedophile??

Iamthesword Yes, he is 14. But the book is not really about pedophilia (at least not in the way f. e. LOLITA is).
Gustav Aschenbach "falls in love" with the boy, …moreYes, he is 14. But the book is not really about pedophilia (at least not in the way f. e. LOLITA is).
Gustav Aschenbach "falls in love" with the boy, but Thomas Mann doesn't specify the nature of the the main character's love - yes, he considers the boy beautiful, but there is no direct mentioning of erotic feelings (the closest thing may be that the main character reflects a lot about ancient Greek mythology which could be read as a subtle reference to the concept of pæderasta/pederasty). On the other hand, there are multiple instances where it seems that the boy is more a representation of youth as a concept. In that sense, the "love" of the elderly man is more the recollection of being young and its possibilities and the regret for the loss of it. Aschenbach gets rather obsessed with the idea of youth/being young than with the boy as a person. But I think Mann left this deliberatly ambigous.
So I'd say, it is rather a book about aging and a study about addiction and its consequences using the example of a maybe-pedophile.(less)

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