It is cheerless, esteemed female reader, esteemed male reader, how much getting up in such houses is already a decision. The floor is warm, the air is warm, the blanket is warm; and yet one must rise, as if life were a duty. Hans Castorp rose. He walked slowly, not because he was weak, but because slowness, in a house of measurements, can be a last form of self-determination.<\/p>\n
He walked through corridors in which you do not hear the steps, because carpets today are no longer merely comfort, but morality: they muffle the noises of the individual so that the individual does not think himself so important. He passed doors behind which people lay or sat or breathed, and above each door there seemed to be, as a kind of substitute for holy pictures, a little sign with a word announcing the function of the room. Breathing. Sleep. Recovery. Mindfulness \u2013 one would like to laugh, if it were not meant so seriously.<\/p>\n
At the end of the corridor there was a small station: a niche in which water was ready, lemon slices, mint leaves, these alibis of health. Hans Castorp took a glass, drank, and the water was cool and correct. He thought that correctness is a taste.<\/p>\n
As he put the glass down, he heard a voice behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood morning, Mr. Castorp.\u201d<\/p>\n
He no longer froze as much as yesterday; he had, as one gets used to everything indecent, become a little used to the fact that one could call him by his name. And yet something in him remained that contracted as soon as a human being \u2013 not some system, not some list \u2013 uttered this word that perhaps was not his word.<\/p>\n
He turned around.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS stood there, dapper, inconspicuously expensive, with that smooth calm that says: I am not here privately. His gaze was alert, not curious; and precisely this absence of curiosity was cheerless, because it indicates that what he sees belongs in a drawer that is already prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctor,\u201d said Hans Castorp, and the form of address was for him, as we know, a refuge: when the name wobbles, the office holds.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS smiled, gently and without warmth.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were in the Blue yesterday,\u201d he said, as if he were speaking of a department.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you slept,\u201d the doctor continued, and now a fine crack appeared in his tone: a hint of satisfaction, as if sleep were a successful result. \u201cGood. Sleep up here is \u2026 precious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp nodded. He felt the little wooden stick in his pocket like a second, secret spine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, \u201cmake a recommendation to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word recommendation is in such houses a polite compulsion. It sounds like freedom and means organization. Hans Castorp remained silent. Silence is, as we have seen, his way of agreeing without surrendering.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS indicated down the corridor with a small, unobtrusive gesture, as if not only a door but an idea lay there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have,\u201d he said, \u201ca preventive medical examination that I would recommend to you \u2013 best right at the beginning of the year. An annual check. Not because something is wrong. But because \u2026\u201d He paused, as if searching for a word that is at once honest and brandable. \u201c\u2026because up here one does not wait until something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp smiled politely.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp here people do not like to wait at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly,\u201d said the doctor. \u201cWaiting is down below. Up here is \u2026\u201d He made a small pause in which his gaze showed something unpleasant for a fraction of a second: enthusiasm. \u201c\u2026peak form.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not say the word in German, but in that English slant that gives our time the appearance of science, even when it is only advertising.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp felt a laugh sitting in his throat \u2013 not a funny one, rather a bitter one. Peak form. He thought of Kautsonik, who wanted to stand until he could no longer stand. He thought of Morgenstern, who wanted to learn teamwork. And he thought of himself, who had disappeared without going away. Peak form, he thought, is sometimes only the form one finds in order to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd who carries out this peak form?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS raised his hand as if presenting a figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. med. Wendelin Porsche,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The name struck Hans Castorp\u2019s consciousness like a small, ridiculous firework: Porsche. Speed. Performance. And now of all things a doctor. It was as if modernity had decided to caricature itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cPorsche,\u201d repeated Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS smiled thinly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is, if you will, the engine of our Health department.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word engine was a bit too fitting not to be meant.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd why do you recommend this to me?\u201d asked Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS looked at him, and now there was in his gaze something that one could call care, if one is benevolent \u2013 and access, if one is strict.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause your body,\u201d he said calmly, \u201cwas loud yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp felt a small stab in his chest. Loud. The word hit him because it did not speak of the fireworks, but of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only twitched,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwitching is a statement,\u201d replied Dr. AuDHS. \u201cThe mind can pretend to be uninvolved. The body cannot. It is honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp remained silent. He thought: Honesty is dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides,\u201d the doctor continued, and here the crack in his professionalism appeared again, \u201cmedical consultations are billed according to the time required. So it is \u2026\u201d He searched, and one could see that he \u2013 the man of abbreviations \u2013 sometimes also wrestles with terms. \u201c\u2026time-economic if you know right at the beginning where you stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time-economic.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp thought: The Magic Mountain was a school of time. The Sonnenalp is a cash desk of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He did not say it enthusiastically. He said it as one signs into a register: with a small inner withdrawal.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS nodded contentedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will have the appointment arranged for you,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd \u2013 Mr. Castorp \u2013\u201d He paused, as if he wanted to add something that is not in the brochure. \u201cDo not take it as a diagnosis. Take it as \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProgram,\u201d said Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS smiled again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Then he was gone \u2013 not hastily, more like someone who was never really there.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp remained standing. He drank the last sip of lemon water as if he had to cleanse himself before going into the chapel. Then he walked, not fast, not slow, in the direction of HEALTH.<\/p>\n