#and serenus would never acknowledge all that because he's repressed as fuck

[skyeventide]

everything in Doktor Faustus makes so much more sense if you assume that the story Adrian told about having had sex with an escort with syphilis is false. that story and the entire section of the dialogue with the devil are referred in older German, written by Adrian's own hand. the conversation with the devil is also written on lined music paper, over the treble staffs instead of musical notations. my edition's commentary argues that Mann remarking that Beethoven wrote some music with words instead of musical notes is enough of a hint hint that what Adrian is doing is composing. and therefore neither anecdote actually happened.

the comment doesn't mention this, but in the chapter immediately after the conversation and pact with the devil, Adrian talks with Serenus (or well, Serenus reports the conversation) and keeps saying that he visited both the bottom of the ocean and over the stars, personally, with a scientist who showed him the sea's abyssal depths. in this Adrian is living as a tenant in an old country house in the Bavarian mountains. he keeps insisting that it really actually happened. and Serenus says that he didn't know how this was in preparation of — surprise surprise, a new musical piece about the marvels of the cosmos.

you could read it the normal way. Adrian is obviously lying about having been at the bottom of the ocean and over the stars and having received that knowledge first hand. alternatively? the devil showed him those depths and gave him that knowledge. but it's real telling that the musical outcome lines up with the diabolical meetings also being musical transcriptions or preparations.

the biggest objection is, of course, that Adrian has syphilis. like he actually has it. (and of course, in the brothel scene, he plays the piano, which sure is an interesting stand-in for what actually happens in brothels). so maybe he did meet this girl who also is an agent of the devil and through whom the pact was practically pre-sealed before the actual meeting with the devil. on the other hand, during the conversation with the devil, we learn that another friend of Adrian, a painter called Baptist Spengler and who is suggestive, a little saucy, and a bohemian sort of man, is also ill. and like sure, the devil would know. but if we presume that the conversation is a musical notation... then how could Adrian possibly be aware of that?

well. you know.