Rewriting Doctor Faustus

On absurd projects as Carnival comes to an end

[Plaque at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, where Pascal’s remains are interred]

I am nearing the end (God, please, may I speak it into being!) of a novel that is essentially an effort to rewrite Mann’s Doctor Faustus, which is itself a reworking of the old Faust myth that had animated Goethe and many others.

Why rewrite a book that already exists? Because I have …