Who Is Tonio Kruger -- And Why Is He Saying All These Awful Things About Himself?

Tonio Kruger is the user name of one R______ M. M______, a self-styled blogger of Mexican and Polish descent. He originally borrowed the name “Tonio Kruger” from the title character of an old Thomas Mann novella.

Who is this title character? A German writer of mixed ethnic descent who like R______ has a mixed attitude towards almost everything including his own ancestry, not to mention of a history of -- er -- dysfunctional relationships. The literary Tonio is a bit more ambiguous in his sexual preferences than the real-life Tonio; i.e, the real-life Tonio is heterosexual. Yet the two of them still have many attitudes in common.

Quotes from the literary Tonio the real-life Tonio especially appreciates:

1. “He who loves the more is the inferior and must suffer; in this hard and simple fact his fourteen-year-old soul had already been instructed by life; and he was so organized that he received such experiences consciously, wrote them down as if it were inwardly, and even, in a certain way, took pleasure in them, though without ever letting them mould his conduct, indeed, or drawing any practical advantage from them.”

2. “He surrendered utterly to the power that to him seemed the highest on earth, to whose service he felt called, which promised him elevation and honours: the power of intellect, the power of the Word, that lords it with a smile over the unconscious and inarticulate. To this power he surrendered with all the passion of youth, and it rewarded him inexorably, in return, all that it is wont to take.

“It sharpened his eyes and made him see through the large words which puff out the bosoms of mankind; it opened for him men's souls and his own, made him clairvoyant, showed him the inwardness of the world and the ultimate behind men's words and deeds. And all that he saw could be put in two words: the comedy and the tragedy of life.”