I’ll be brief in my observations concerning Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre press conference last week trying to convince the public that Donald Trump had in fact won the election, during which his hair dye started dripping down the sides of his cheeks and he got more and more confused presenting his nonsensical defense.
Watching Giuliani’s performance, I was reminded of Gustav Von Aschenbach in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Granted, there are a few dissimilarities between these two characters, though the parallels are as numerous and Giuliani’s downfall more public, more spectacular. Aschenbach, a once highly respected writer while visiting Venice encounters a grotesquely painted elderly man with red hair and yellowish teeth holding court among some youths and recoils from him. Meanwhile, Aschenbach meets a young boy, Tadzio, and is enthralled by him. Attempting to impress Tadzio, Aschenbach transforms himself into that repulsive man while Venice is in the throes of a cholera pandemic most people are either unaware of, or not taking seriously. Infected by the cholera or some other spiritual illness, profusely sweating, the dye melting on his face, Aschenbach collapses in front of the indifferent boy. Aschenbach destroys himself thus, yet his motives remain until the end loftier than not, and his punishment harsh.
I cannot be sure of Giuliani’s motives for acting in this utterly unethical, unpatriotic, and frankly unwinnable manner. Try as I may, I cannot find anything redeeming in his actions.
SYLVA BOYADJIAN-HADDAD
Concord