Oliver Benjamin
When the main character announces that she prefers chocolate in the
morning over coffee, we know that decadence and solipsism has
sealed their doom.”
Despite the fact that his interpretation of Mann was specious at
best, Bidden enjoyed playing the litterateur. Weren’t the greatest
western writers and thinkers fueled by coffee? Both Balzac and
Voltaire drank forty cups a day. But his patrons were generally not
students of classic novels. Mostly, he’d watched them pore through
self-help books or peruse popular fluff. Who bothered to read Mann
anyway? When Roy himself challenged Morris on his analysis years
later, Bidden offered his stock reply: “The guy wrote in German. It
got lost in translation.”
But Morris did have a point. The modern world was growing
more dependent on coffee. And a revolution was in the works: people
had grown increasingly skeptical about what they ate. Decades of
suffering processed, low-grade junk foods and beverages had
generated a mortal fear of a nightmare future world in which taste
and sensuality might well cease to exist. A demand for natural,
quality products had emerged. People wanted to enjoy the unsullied
fruits of the earth, like they did in the old days, before the advent of
dehydrated, additive-laced substitutes that were convenient and
cheap but tasted bad and maybe even killed you.
Like a stray dog in rutting season, Morris not only sniffed a
change in the air but was poised to do something about it. Gradually
building the business back up, he sold off the robusta interest and put
everything into specialty arabicas. He opened gourmet outlets and
charged a few dollars for something that had formerly been cheaper
than water. The fertile seeds of his inspiration quickly took root in
the bog of culture and burst forth in a riot of new commercial life. It
was not long before he found himself wealthy and fecund, a proud
father of millions.
Rowena and her family had been duped. With a deft hand,
Morris effectively redirected her family’s assets into his coffers. Now
the true meaning of the Biddenbrooks name had come clear: they
were the wealthy and outdated family headed for tragic decline,
usurped by this burgher king. Cousins and aunts and uncles came out
of the woodwork to demand their fair share, but there was hardly
anything to give. They blamed Rowena for the debacle, and charged
her and Morris with corruption. Gradually, she slipped further and
further into her fleshy shell, until she could no longer communicate
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