Norwegian Wood and Mann (Marisa)

 A motif that I see reappearing throughout what we have read of “Norwegian Wood” so far is the book “The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann. Watanabe first mentions reading it in the cafe when he runs into the two girls early in the morning waiting for the train. It comes up again just after he receives the letter from Naoko inviting him to the Ami Hostel. 

I was curious what the book was about, so I looked it up – its complicated, but the main gist of the novel is that a man named Hans Castorp intends to ‘visit’ his cousin in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps but ends up being there for seven years after he contracts a “mysterious” illness. I thought this was a weird and quite striking book to point out so specifically so many times considering the seemingly very direct connection to Naoko and the narrator. Even Reiko, Naoko’s roommate, comments on it: “How  could  you  bring  a  book  like  that  to  a  place  like  this?"  she demanded.” Watanabe even agrees with her, stating “She was right, of course.” (127)   

And so, I wonder if this seemingly ‘obvious’ motif will have some deeper or more nuanced meaning as the book continues. Another element of “The Magic Mountain” that I thought was interesting is that it occurs just before WWI breaks out, and the sanatorium is described as extremely isolated and free from all of the chaos that is occuring down below. I thought of this as another obvious parallel, as Watanabe describes in detail how isolated and almost eerie Ami Hostel is, completely self-sufficient and removed from the “troubles” of the outside world.