Whatever Happened to Thomas Mann?

I was just waxing nostalgic about college -- and the intensity of high modernism. Thomas Mann figured largely in the list. The exquisitely complex double narrative structure of Dr. Faustus. The brilliance of Hegelian thinking realizing itself in the panoramic vista of the Magic Mountain and the oneiric journey back into Hans Castorp's primal scene mind with a baby being torn into pieces - so deftly symbolizing his fate as a member of the German Volk destined to become cannon fodder in World War I, and more deeply Mann's deft encapsulation of the philosophical dilemma of the end of the 19th century -- Could we any longer entertain the beautiful humanism of Rousseau in an era that was destined (he certainly scores high on prescience) so many total horrors? Was Nietzsche indeed the cutting force who would shape twentieth century politics with his anticipation of the blond beasts and their relentless brutal smashing down of high culture, interpersonal differentiation, and the collapse of potential utopias?

Sadly, a friend of mine who has taught twentieth century literature for over 30 years at the college level -- despaired that Mann has largely been dropped from the canon of "important" writers -- such as Kafka, Proust, and Joyce. Even Woolf has taken over a greater cultural relevance.

What in the world is going on here? Who can forget Death in Venice?