Time Shelter

II

THE DECISION

What was it, then? What was in the air? A love of quarrels. Acute petulance. Nameless impatience. A universal penchant for nasty verbal exchanges and outbursts of rage, even for fisticuffs. Every day fierce arguments, out-of-control shouting-matches would erupt between individuals and among entire groups . . .

—Thomas Mann, “The Great Petulance,”

from The Magic Mountain, translated by John E. Woods