Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 264

In the work of every artist, I suppose, there may be found one or more moments which strike the student as absolutely decisive, ultimately emblematic of what it is all about ; ;

not less strikingly so for being mysterious, as though some deeply hidden constatation of thoughts were enciphered in a single image, a single moment.

So here.

The horrifying humor, the specifically sexual embarrassment of the joke gone wrong, the monstrous image of the fat man dressed up as a whore dressing up as a baby ; ;

the epiphany of that quivering flesh ; ;

the bringing together around it of the secret liaison between indolent, mindless sensuality and sharp, shrewd talent, cleverness with an occasional touch of genius ( which, however, does not know `` how to attack the problem of suffering '' ) ; ;

the miraculous way in which music, revelation and death are associated in a single instant -- all this seems a triumph of art, a rather desperate art, in itself ; ;

beyond itself, also, it evokes numerous and distant resonances from the entire body of Mann's work.