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Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is the third in a four-part sequence on Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain. Here we examine the intense paradoxes of the novel’s political debate between liberal humanism and Catholic communist totalitarianism; its sublime excursion into nature; its vision of civilization as sustained by sacrificial violence; its epiphanic exaltation of love over any one ideological position; its depiction of a major character’s death; its intimation of the persistence of secret societies and ancient mystery cults in modern politics and religion; and more. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: