I read Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann, many, many years ago. It was one of his first books and, I thought at the time, a good read. It describes the slow decline of a German mercantile family (in Hanover, I believe.) According to the Britannica, it attributes the decline to the struggle between the artistic spirit and that of commerce. You can't have both worlds. (This has some parrallels to C.P. Snow's mid century examination of the two cultures, Science and Literature.) The whole novel is a lecture on hubris.
In any case, at one point in the story one of the protagonists (Mann used himself as a model) and his sister are outside a family party, looking at the night sky. There, high above them, is a Super Nova, easily the brightest star in the sky. The protagonist turns to his sister and observes that even as the light from this event reaches them, the star is dead! We as the readers, of course, take this as a prophecy for the family, and it comes true with the last heir dying off at the end of typhus.
Think back to November 2, 2004, when we were all sitting around the television being alternately encouraged, and ultimately devastated by the election returns. Think how George W. Bush might have looked at that "star" and felt that it would last forever as the brightest in the sky.
George, I have news for you.
(o.k., o.k. its a picture of Mars. But there were no good pics of super novas on the Web)
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