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First half, consumed in one sitting on Amtrak. Not ~great literature~ but a great pick-me-up after the Magic Mountain

Death of Mynheer Peeperkorn. Stupor. Music. Seances. Home stretch.

Peeperkorn, toxicology vs pharmacology, great riff on poisons from quinine to cinchona to upas-rajah to strychnine

Honestly, I love Mynheer Peeperkorn. He is one of Mann's best creations as a character--inarticulate force of personality

The masterful and heartbreaking death of Joachim Ziemssen, which closes out Chapter 6. One more to go!

Done with another interminable debate between Settembrini and Naphtha. These arguments are incomprehensible and give off big virgin energy tbh

Naphtha Jesuit shit

Backstory of Naphtha, from Jew to Jesuit. Honestly audacious and compelling on Mann’s part.

Joachim departs! This is one of Mann’s better chapters, he really nails the divergence of Joachim and Hans. And not too much intellectual babbling either.

Long intellectual debate in Naphtha’s study. Kind of boring and abstruse but it does connect Christianty and communism. Young people awaiting agents of terror.

This book just goes on and on and on...magisterial Walpiurgis Night scene, though. And then the sudden flurry of departures

This one is just zipping by. It feels like an away game, but the horse and cat angle is vintage zany Wodehouse.

Wodehouse acknowledging protests? This is new. Also a great scene involving Dr Murgatroyd. The return of Plank. Bertie off to the country for his health.

October. Several great riffs on the passage of time. Hans now officially in unrequited love with Chauchat

Yup, there it is! They found the "moist spot" that's confined Hans Castorp to the Berghof indefinitely. Conversation with Settembrini, in which S. actually shows some vulnerability for once. Already hints of the distinction between tranquil, orderly life up here and the dog-eat-dog world below.

Finished, finally lol

Ahora, hablamos espanol. Tenemos que hablar, lisar, escribir, y perfeccionar nuestro idioma :)

90 | Grand finale! Regional variations, Spain tiene vosotros, y vos (= tu) tambien. Accents with "aspirated 's' e.g. como e'ta?

Make your own rules! e.g. --

1. Demasiadas casas, demasiados coches, pero demasiado agresivos. Demasiado changes with nouns but not adjectives.
2. Why el alla, el agua, el aula when they’re feminine verbes? (el agua frija) because two-syllable a-a nouns get the el (but it’s stil la alhombra).
3. No quiero uno, alguno, ninguno vs Quiero ningun coche, un coche, algun coche. Lose the O after a masculine noun.

88 | Mas irregular punto pasado. poner = pus-. Donde lo pusiste? Haber = HUB-. Venir = VINO-. Traer = TRAJ-. Hacer = HIC-.

IMPORTANT = SER & IR have the SAME CONJUGATION! WAS = WENT
yo FUI, tu FUISTE, ella FUE, nosotros FUIMOS, ustedes FUERON.
Mood pasado comes from “they” of punto pasado! FUER-.
If I were you = Si fuera tu
Si lo tuviera, te contaria (If I had it, I’d tell you).
Queria que (ellos) lo hicieran

87 | Irregular punto pasado — the -go verbs etc. Three rules:

1. the base changes (poder to pud-)
2. Mix of -ar verb endings (yo & el/ella/ello) and -er/-ir endings (tu, nosotros, ellos/ellas). The same mixture each time though
3. No accent lol

Tener: yo tuvE, el tuvO (ar endings), tu tuvISTE, nosotros tuvIMOS, ellas tuvIERON.
Estar: ESTUV-
Decir: DIJ-

“Anything we don’t control in the language controls us”.

Really losing the thread of this book, even if Mann is a brilliant writer. Hans Castorp listens to Settembrini wax about his revolutionary grandfather, compares it to his conservative grandfather. Nice flourish at the end where the more he hears about duty, the more his thoughts turn to their opposite...to Clawdia Chauchat.

-go verbs weird future/would tense.Tenir? Tendre p/tendria. Salir? Salgo? Saldre. Poner pongo pondre pondria. Venir Vengo vendre vendria. endriamos mas tarde, pero no tenemos tiempo. Lo pondre aqui.

Saldras esta noche?

Hacer (hago) Hare. Decir (digo) Dire. Diriz. Haria etc.

Hariamos, pero estamos occupados ahpra. Te dire, pero no lo quiero.

More irregular tidying up. For -go verbs, the subjunctive commands, just drop the -go. Tengo to tenga to ten (meaning, NOT tenga, not tiene)! digame or dime! Salir = salgo = salga = sal or even sallo (leave it!)

The panorama of tenses. Tidying up with irregular spanish. -go verbs, e.g. tener, salir, venir, poder, traer. Tengo, salgo, vengo, pongo, traigo. Mood tense, no "switch" of I vs. he/se/it. Tengo = tenga, tengas, tengamos, tengan. Diga from decir = tell me! Quiero que (tu) lo traigas. No quiero que (tu) me distraigas.

Que lo compraras no es mi problema. "Could" base in past point= pud. Pudieron. Si pudiera cocinar, cocinaria. Haber to "hub" in past point. Ido = past of "go" = "gone". Hubieron. Si hubieramos sabido, habriamos ido (If we had known, we would have gone).

Es relevante que [,mood]. No es relevante que (ellos) encontraran.
Ser line in past = era, eras, eramos, eran. Era muy relevante que lo encontraran.
To get around this, lo relevante es que [normal, present]. Es importante que vuelvAN [mood] vs. lo importante es que volvieron.

Super confusing -- the past subjunctive. Start with "they" form of "past point" e.g. hableron to hablerAN, and work from there. hablera, hableras, hablera, hableramos, hableran. Comieron to comiera, comieras, comiera, comieramos, comieran. Esperaba que el me llamara. Queria que (ellos) comieran con nosotros..