#the berlin chronicles

[upmala]

old cemetery of the twelve-apostles church (alter friedhof der zwölf-apostel-gemeinde), berlin

[abba-enthusiast]

Noooooo I went to the belvedere to see klimt’s Judith und Holofernes and she is in Berlin right now 😭😭😭😭

[jcmarchi]

Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT announces 2024-25 fellows

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/knight-science-journalism-program-at-mit-announces-2024-25-fellows/

Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT announces 2024-25 fellows

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT (KSJ) will welcome 12 fellows in August. In addition to 10 Academic-Year Fellows, KSJ welcomes the inaugural Fellow for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East, and co-hosts a Sharon Begley Fellow with Boston-based publication STAT.

The Knight Science Journalism Program, established at MIT in 1983, is the world’s leading science journalism fellowship program. Fellows come to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to explore science, technology, and the craft of journalism in depth.

The class of 2025 represents the expansive media environment of today’s journalism. Together, the group has award-winning experience in a wide array of journalistic media, reaching the public through podcasts, documentaries, photographs, books, YouTube, TV, and radio.

“It is a privilege to welcome journalists to our programs who are so deeply aware of the importance of quality science coverage, who are eager to improve their craft, and who will continue to contribute positively to the public understanding of science once they leave here,” says Deborah Blum, KSJ director.

The fellows will spend their time in Cambridge studying at MIT and other leading research universities in the Boston area. They’ll also attend seminars by leading scientists and storytellers, take part in hands-on classes and workshops, and visit world-renowned research laboratories. Each journalist will also pursue an independent research project, focused on a topic of their choice, that advances science journalism in the public interest.

“Many of the biggest headlines of our era derive from science and technology — and the way we apply it to the world around us,” says Blum. “Our fellowship program recognizes the dedication and understanding required for stories that do justice to these issues. We bring fellows to MIT to provide them with an opportunity to enrich and deepen that understanding.”

Fabiana Cambricoli is an award-winning Brazilian journalist based in São Paulo, working as a senior health correspondent for Estadão newspaper, with a focus on in-depth and investigative stories. Before that, she contributed to major media outlets like Grupo Folha and was a fellow at ProPublica. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in public health from the University of São Paulo, receiving over 10 awards and grants for her work. Cambricoli’s reporting uncovered government negligence during epidemics, highlighted health disparities, and investigated funding behind scientific disinformation. She also co-founded Fiquem Sabendo, a nonprofit promoting transparency and supporting journalists in accessing public information.

Emily Foxhall is the climate reporter at The Texas Tribune, where she focuses on the clean energy transition and threats from climate change. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after two years at The Los Angeles Times and its community papers and seven years at The Houston Chronicle, where she covered the suburbs, Texas features, and the environment. She has won multiple Texas Managing Editors awards, including for community service journalism, and was part of the team named a 2018 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Harvey. She is a Yale University graduate.

Ahmad Gamal Saad-Eddin is a science journalist based in Egypt. He graduated from the faculty of medicine at Zagazig University in Egypt, and worked as a psychiatrist before leaving medicine and beginning a career in science journalism, first as a head of the science section in Manshoor.com, then as an editor at Nature Arabic Edition. He is currently working as a script writer and the fact-checker of “El-Daheeh,” the leading science YouTube show in the Arab region. His writings have also appeared in several outlets including Scientific American Arabic Edition and Almanassa News. His main writing interest is the interaction between science, its history, and the human experience.

Bryce Hoye is a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He covers a range of topics, from courts and crime to climate, conservation, and more. His stories appear on TV, radio, and online, and he has guest-hosted CBC Manitoba’s “Weekend Morning Show” and “Radio Noon.” He has produced national documentaries for CBC Radio, including for the weekly science program “Quirks & Quarks.” He has won several Radio Television Digital News Association national and regional awards. He previously worked in wildlife biology monitoring birds for several field seasons with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Jori Lewis writes narrative nonfiction that explores how people interact with their environments. Her reports and essays have been published in The Atlantic Magazine, Orion Magazine, and Emergence Magazine, among others, and she is a senior editor of Adi Magazine, a literary magazine of global politics. In 2022, she published her first book, “Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History,” which was supported by the prestigious Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress. It also won a James Beard Media Award and the Harriet Tubman Prize.

Yarden Michaeli is a journalist serving as the science and climate editor of Haaretz, Israel’s sole paper of record. During his 10 years as a writer, reporter, and editor at Haaretz, he became best known for editing the newspaper’s science vertical during the Covid-19 pandemic and founding its climate desk. Among other things, Yarden served as Haaretz’s first reporter on the ground during the war in Ukraine, covered the war in Gaza, and was dispatched to report on the forefront of the climate crisis during storm Daniel in Greece. Yarden was born in Israel and he is based in Tel Aviv. He has a bachelor’s degree in American studies and economy from the Humboldt University in Berlin and he is a member of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.

Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi is a two-time winner of the CNN Africa photojournalist award. He is currently with the Associated Press in Zimbabwe. Previously, he was the chief photographer at the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe. With an eye for detail and a passion for multi-format storytelling, he has managed to capture the essence of humanity in his photographs across Africa, Europe, and Asia. He instilled his dedication to his craft and hard work in other photojournalists in his past teaching role with the Norwegian Friedskorp, World Press Foundation in the Netherlands, the Pathshala Institute in South-East Asia, and in his pioneering gender and images work with SAMSO across the southern and East African region.

Aaron Scott is an award-winning multimedia journalist and the creator of the podcast Timber Wars, which was the first audio work to win the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program’s Victor K. McElheny Award, along with the National Headliner Award for Best Narrative Podcast and others. Most recently, he was a host of NPR’s science podcast “Short Wave.” Before that, he spent several years exploring the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest as a reporter/producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s television show “Oregon Field Guide.” His stories have appeared on NPR, Radiolab, This American Life, Outside Podcast, Reveal, and elsewhere.

Evan Urquhart is a freelance journalist whose work has focused on science and medical questions relating to the transgender community. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, his stories have appeared on Slate, Politico, the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and many other outlets nationwide. In 2022, Evan founded Assigned Media, a news site devoted to fact-checking misinformation relating to trans issues. He has appeared as an expert on propaganda and misinformation relating to trans issues on radio shows and podcasts including NPR’s “St. Louis on the Air,” Slate’s “Outward,” The American Prospect’s “Left Anchor,” “What the Trans?,” and “It Could Happen Here.”

Jane Zhang is a technology reporter and the China representative of Bloomberg’s global AI squad based in Hong Kong. Over the years she has covered the Chinese internet and Beijing’s tensions with the United States over tech supremacy before jumping feet-first into reporting China’s historical crackdown on its largest corporations, including Alibaba. She has won awards for extensive on-the-ground reporting and exclusive interviews with industry heavyweights like Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. Her current focus is on covering the incipient AI technology and the regulations around it. Zhang holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong.

Sharon Muzaki joins KSJ as the 2024 recipient of the Fellowship for Advancing Science Journalism in Africa and the Middle East. She has been with UGStandard Media since 2019, reporting on the environment and climate change in Uganda. Muzaki graduated from Makerere University in 2019 with a degree in journalism and communication. While working for UGStandard Media, she has attended numerous trainings at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications, honing skills in storytelling, data journalism, and mobile storytelling. Muzaki will be the first recipient of the Africa and Middle East Fellowship. The fall semester fellowship, created in honor of the pioneering Egyptian science journalist Mohammed Yahia, is funded by Springer Nature. It is designed to enrich the training of a journalist working in Africa or the Middle East so they can contribute to a culture of high-quality science and health journalism in those regions.

Anil Oza is co-hosted by KSJ and Boston-based publication STAT as the 2024-25 Sharon Begley Science Reporting Fellow. Oza earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Cornell University, where he reported for the campus newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun. Oza has interned at Nature, Science News, and NPR’s “Short Wave.” Oza also interned at STAT during summer 2023, helping produce the health-equity-focused podcast, “Color Code.” Oza will be the fifth recipient of the Sharon Begley Fellowship. This fellowship pays tribute to Sharon Begley’s outstanding career while paving the way for the next generation of science journalists and fostering better coverage of science that is relevant to all people.

More than 400 leading science journalists from six continents have graduated from the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT. KSJ also publishes an award-winning science magazine, Undark, and offers programming to journalists on topics ranging from science editing to fact-checking.

[canadachronicles]

Blue skies smiling at me Nothing but blue skies do I see Bluebirds singing a song Nothing but bluebirds, all day long

How fitting that Diana Krall just came up on the radio, singing Blue Skies, for we're on the road to spend the weekend at Jules, and it may be cold, but the skies are bright blue indeed!

[tammuz]

Assyrian alabaster relief of an Eagle-Headed Winged Figure from the ancient city of Nimrud, dating back to the 9th century BCE. The Pergamon Museum, Berlin, GERMANY.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

[thatsgonnaleaveamark]

@whumpgifathon - day 13 ↳ favorite aesthetic

(shows under the cut)

Mortel / Graceland A Town Called Malice / Black Sails Pennyworth / Wayne Origin / Babylon Berlin Ghost Wars / The Shannara Chronicles Deutschland 83 / Slow Horses

[bleed-ing4u]

Here are the links I talked about! I tried my best to find l of the movies, but it isn't easy lol. I'm still trying to find the Beatnicks and a better quality version of meet me in Berlin)

So If I find them ill post the links too. But for now here are most of them. I'm so sorry of some links don't work (But they actually should be working)

All of the websites are safe!!

Enjoy the movies :)

Moscow chill

https://fmovie.is/movie/moscow-chill-2007-244663x/

Vacation

https://losmoviesz.to/movie/vacation-zwdl

Pandorum

https://watchug.com/movie/pandorum

Masters of horror (cigarette burns is the episode with norman reedus)

https://watchug.com/episode/masters-of-horror/1-8

Ride With Norman Reedus

https://1mov.to/tv/watch-free-ride-with-norman-reedus-oydqg

The bikeriders

https://losmoviesz.to/movie/the-bikeriders-pmxja

Let the Devil Wear Black

https://watchug.com/movie/let-the-devil-wear-black

Triple 9

https://watchug.com/movie/triple-9

The walking dead: Daryl Dixon

https://1mov.to/tv/watch-free-the-walking-dead-daryl-dixon-wemw0

Messenger 2 :the scarecrow

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-messengers-2-the-scarecrow-w607

Dark Harbor

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-dark-harbor-0m4rv

Air

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-air-xvvw

Hello Herman

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-hello-herman-n838q

Gossip

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-gossip-vryg8

Pawn shop chronicles

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-pawn-shop-chronicles-0jdkz

Sky

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-sky-oej5

The Boondock Saints I

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-the-boondock-saints-n4wl

The Boondock Saints II

https://1mov.to/movie/watch-free-the-boondock-saints-2-all-saints-day-jkg2

Blade 2

https://losmoviesz.to/movie/blade-2-xljm/1-1

Octane

https://watchug.com/movie/octane

Alien Invasion S.U.M.1

https://watchug.com/movie/alien-invasion-s-u-m-1

Stretch

https://watchug.com/movie/stretch

I'm Losing You

https://watchug.com/movie/i-m-losing-you

Night of the Templar

https://watchug.com/movie/night-of-the-templar

Sunlight Jr

https://watchug.com/movie/sunlight-jr

Antibodies

https://watchug.com/movie/antibodies

Red Canyon

https://watchug.com/movie/red-canyon-2

The Conspirator

https://watchug.com/movie/the-conspirator

Hero wanted

https://watchug.com/movie/hero-wanted

Six ways to Sunday

https://watchug.com/movie/six-ways-to-sunday

Mimic

https://watchug.com/movie/mimic

American gangster

https://watchug.com/movie/american-gangster

(Changed the link for Blade 2 since I don't really trust Daily motion)

Taglist

@yarrystyleeza

@delulu-for-norman

@emo-daryl

@u-b-reedus

@buhitosueco

@4-chan-inpadella

@grimespial

I hope that's everyone 😭

[elizaswurld]

MASTERLIST 💗🩰

Norman Reedus Movie Links:

[thinkingimages]

Mein Herz - Niemandem!

The life of Jewish Expressionist poet and performance artist, Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945), told chronologically in vignettes given context by archival footage of turn-of-the-century Germany, World War I, and the ascent of the Third Reich. Her poetry often comprises the soundtrack. We see her in relation to men: her first husband, whom she leaves after her son is born; artists like Chagall and Franz Marc; an older muse and then a second husband; and, Gottfried Benn (1886 - 1956), physician and poet. Benn's life is also chronicled: homosexual encounters, his attraction to Else and the Berlin scene, and his politics. Her poems addressed to him define this cultural moment.

[nalyra-dreaming]

With the deliberate, controversial OOC horrors of 1×05 do you think show needs David Talbot too?

1) Show has no intention of putting Louis aside which is why Anne hastily created a bland, icky as hell(even for AR standarts) character for Lestat to indulge. No one liked it and afterwards she did a 180 degree when she is mentally in a better place finally let Loustat their individual and couple growth. Also in Amc universe design there is a seperate show so introduce DT as member of the order in Iwtv then sending him to seperate show makes more sense to me.

2) DT's understanding and forgiveness of Lestat's violent act emotionally helped Lestat. Guilt was choking him and he got the one thing he desperately needs.But for show he is already wrecked w guilt and self hate for hurting his only one. Failing Claudia remains but the forgiveness,acceptance he needs are Louis's. Only Louis can bring light to Lestat's darkness. It surely will be addressed bw Loustat too. Earning Louis's trust

I would like to add to Louis's comments about Lestat to Claudia.

"Give us a hundred more years for this.Taking everything we want, killing everyone we want. No one says a shit.I can see us just like him. "

"Cause he is all sorts of fucked up. Cause he would kill her in a second if i were to take him as he is. And i probably will."

Fundamentally Louis understands Lestat. Their problems came from rejection, withholding and not communicating.

3) I know everyone is like oops Sam almost spoiled DT arrival but Sam also hinted Louis will get arcs from other characters as well as Daniel which is confirmed w Rolin & Mark Johnson hinting Louis's position will be iniative and center unlike books.

4) It feels like Merrick arc is hugely gone, Memnoch is practically unadaptable so what is even point of DT storyline wise? Once AR makes peace w Louis she throws DT away anyway.

I don't think the show needs David outside being the Talamasca head general, no.

I think Daniel will do most of the chronicling, and Louis should definitely be more involved in TtotBT.

I ... could see them bring in David then, but I do not think they will do so the way Anne did in the books, and I also don't really see much story for him left in the books, then.

I mean, in later books he and Lestat have a bit of an interesting dynamic stemming from the turning, but... I don't need that.

And I really, really would prefer Louis getting certain (extended) arcs.

I agree that Merrick is likely done, Memnoch will only be picked for parts. Which, btw, I'm a bit disappointed they didn't even mention losing some of their luggage in Berlin, which would have been all that was needed to tie into the canon "book of hours" *sighs* Ah well. And if they do anything from Memnoch, then Louis can just as well do it, it's not important it would need to be David... in fact, it could take on a very desperate twist with Louis.

[fangable]

another toreodor named Veronica hii - hiiiii! may i see your Veronica too👀?

hi hello of course!

gorgeous portrait courtesy of @vtmgremlin!!!

my Veronica's a photographer/dominatrix/soon-to-be club owner from my Berlin chronicle. she's nearing her 150th birthday, she's spent most of that time as a member of the Camarilla, working as a diplomat & spy for the local prince, but a few years ago she decided she's had enough and defected to the Anarchs.

a few additional fun facts about her:

she's secretly a Bahari,

has a mortal goth gf named Lena,

has recently kind of adopted a daughter,

has spent 60+ years blood bound to her sire, Ferdinand, until she managed to escape; she now understandably hates his fucking guts.

[veliseraptor]

June Reading Recap

Slower reading month on account of I got distracted by cdramas.

King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett. I don't know what to do with this book!!! It was by turns magnificent and difficult to get through. It definitely didn't hit me the way the Lymond Chronicles did/does, but even when I wasn't personally feeling it I can recognize a magisterial piece of work when I read one. The Thorfinn/Rognvald dynamic was probably one of the highlights for me, while it lasted. The premise of this one combines the life of the historical King Macbeth and that of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, positing that they were the same person. I did a lot of Wikipedia diving while reading, unsurprisingly. I recommend it for Dunnett readers, I think is what I'd ultimately say, or for historical fiction aficionados, but perhaps not more generally than that.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler. I keep reading Django Wexler because I enjoy his work, and keep finding that while I enjoy it and find it fun there's not a lot of real substance. But this book's gimmick (combining "time loop" and "villain protagonist") was too pointed directly at me for me to not give it a try. And I'm glad I did! It was very fun, and yet again it felt like the real substance was not quite there. However, I probably still will be reading the sequel when it comes out. So you know, I can't be too hard on it.

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. I feel like I did not exactly "enjoy" the experience of reading this set of interconnected short stories but I still want to recommend it to others, if that makes sense as a perspective. It also really made me want to read more generally about this period of time, both in fiction and nonfiction.

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. This was totally a "let's just try something new for the heck of it" choice - fantasy romances are everywhere right now, this one was floating around in them and sounded potentially like fun in terms of concept, it was an impulse. I can't say it paid off. It wasn't an awful experience but I did find myself repeatedly going "why isn't this fluffy romance not digging more into its characters or implications" and the answer there is "that's not the point, Lise", I guess, and yeah, I think (English language) romance novels are probably just not for me.

The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi by Johann Chapoutot. This was a really interesting book. It very much takes its point as "what if we take Nazi philosophy seriously as philosophy." I really haven't read anything quite like it before and it was definitely disturbing to read in terms of really...getting into the heads of How Nazis Thought They Were Supposed to Live, but fascinating for those reasons too, and the reasons of exploring how implications of ideology leads to specific real-world policy-making.

Translation State by Ann Leckie. Still haven't read anything else by Ann Leckie that gets close to the high of the original trilogy but I did really enjoy this one. It did make me feel like I need to reread the original trilogy because I've definitely forgotten a lot, and usually when reading something makes me go "I should reread this other work by the same author" it speaks at least somewhat well of it.

Qi Ye by Priest. Hard not to compare this one to TYK since, you know, same author and same universe, and ultimately this one I didn't like quite as much. I think I...wanted the whole "trauma from living multiple lives" to come up more and more often than I felt like it really did here, and the relationship between Wu Xi and Jing Beiyuan was fine but didn't have what I needed to particularly compel me.

Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago by Douglas H. Erwin. As something of a mass extinction afficionado (as it were), for the most part there was nothing in this book that was really new to me except for one little brief glancing note at the end of the book about the possibility that we are not yet into the throes of a true mass extinction event and that's good, because if we were it would probably be too late to really do anything about it. Overall, though, it feels like this book falls somewhere in a confusing gap between "true academia" and "slightly too academic for general audiences" in terms of the specific analytical techniques it analyzes when assessing different arguments for extinction causes." Interesting, but not one I'd make a casual recommendation.

Sha Po Lang by Priest. I was feeling sort of middling on this one while I was reading it in official translation release time so I decided to just read the whole thing to see if I wanted to keep buying it, and I think after doing so I've come down on the side of "probably not." It was good, but, to be blunt, not quite good enough to grab me in the way I needed it to for the financial outlay. I still feel like I'm chasing the magic I got out of Faraway Wanderers and (what I've read of) LHJC from Priest and haven't found it again yet. I think part of the gap here was that I really liked Gu Yun but struggled to care very much about Chang Geng. I did kind of love the Pope being a major antagonist, though.

So probably the other reason I didn't read much last month is because I'm having a hard time finding something to read to really get into.

I'm currently reading too many books at the same time due to a confluence of factors including "travel" and "difficulty getting into one of them." The list is: The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, Silent Reading by Priest, and (on the side) Black Midnight Holds the BE Script by Teng Luo Wei Zhi. so hopefully I'll finish at least one of those this July.

[probablyasocialecologist]

There is suffering, yes, there is despair and self-harm and ostracism. But Berlin’s Third Sex also offers something you may not expect of Wilhelmine Berlin — fun. To encounter Hirschfeld’s report today is to experience an electric charge of recognition. With its all-night parties, pansexual drag, and campy stage personas, with its elaborate codes of communication, layers of irony, and pop culture references, it reads like a dress rehearsal, in starched collars, for modern Western queer life.

[lady-phasma]

I can't be on tumblr any more today until I watch the next episode of IWTV. Seriously, Armand is one of my favorite characters from the Chronicles and apparently this episode is almost all his. I very rarely let my Anne Rice nerd out on main but I have been a fan for about 28 years.

I became an art historian for many reasons, but Caravaggio was probably one of the biggest, even though I did not specialize in his work. I credit Anne Rice with teaching me about my first Caravaggio: when Lestat first meets Armand, he is reminded of this work.

"...the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes." The Vampire Lestat, p. 200

Cropped because Tumblr - full image in link

Love Conquers All, 1601-1602 - Caravaggio

I have seen almost two thirds of Caravaggio's extant paintings at this point in my life. I hope to see all of them one day (excluding one which is privately owned). Unfortunately, this painting is in Berlin and I have not been able to see it yet. There have been many other factors in my life which led me to art history but Caravaggio and George de la Tour are the first I can remember.

Most of my Anne Rice nerdiness will remain on my side blog, but I felt compelled to share since Armand is so prominent this season.

[tammuz]

The temple of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, also known as the Lady of Heaven, from the Sumerian city of Uruk in Mesopotamia. The temple dates back to the late 15th century BCE. The Pergamon Museum, Berlin, GERMANY.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

[mrmousetolliver]

The Pious Dance: The Adventure Story of a Young Man (1925) by Klaus Mann

“Perhaps no book needs to apologize more for its confusion at the very start than one which. . . deals with our younger generation and wants to be nothing more than an interpretation, expression, description and confession of that younger generation, its urgency, its perplexity���and perhaps its high hopes.”

Klaus Mann wrote these words in the Foreword to his first novel The Pious Dance which he subtitled “The Adventure Story of a Young Man.” Written in 1925, the novel chronicles the life of its autobiographical hero Andreas Magnus who, like Mann, was one of a generation of wistful and confused Weimar youth growing up after World War I had collapsed the ideals of European civilization. Mann was barely seventeen when he first arrived in Berlin in 1923, an event he described in his autobiography The Turning Point: “The city seemed both pitiful and enticing: gray, shabby, demoralized, but still vibratingwith nervous vitality, glistening, gleaming, phosphorizing, frantically animated, full of tensions and promise.”

It is against this mixture of squalor, flamboyance and creativity that Mann sets his tale of adolescent longing, its sexual ambiguities, impressionableness, intense emotionality and energy. Here impoverished young people dwelt on the fringes of the art world, big business, and criminal life. Berlin in the twenties has been much mythologized in painting, literature, and film, strikingly so in Cabaret,based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, which share the performance milieu of The Pious Dance. But Mann’s novel has few rivals that portray the gay underworld of its time. In many ways in The Pious Dance a son challenges the linkage of homosexuality and aestheticism that Klaus’s father, Thomas Mann, drew in Death in Venice. Andreas Magnus is more at home in the forest than at sea. His dance alludes to ecstacy in its ritualistic, mystical sense.

Nature, dreams, sexuality and art are inter twined as themes in The Pious Dance, as they are in virtually all works that, like this one, sit comfortably (or not), in the Bildungsroman tradition of German literature. The novel has a genuine lyrical freshness that at times lets go in passages of the most pressing emotion and lucidity.

If Klaus Mann’s early writings outline the agonized consciousness of brilliant youth, his later writings speak for the exiled and cultural¬ly uprooted German intellectuals who, likehimself, could find no comfort in the society ofnational socialism. He committed suicide in 1949. (Source: Blurb of the 1987 edition)