Thomas Mann in Manhattan Beach

The heat was extreme. Do you care for that sort of thing? Weeks on end? Yes, of course, it is proper to the south, it is classic weather, the sun of Homer, the climate wherein human culture came to flower- and all the rest of it. But after a while it is too much for me, I reach a point where I begin to find it dull. The burning void of the sky, day after day, weighs one down; the high coloration, the enormous naivete of the unrefracted light - they do, I dare say, induce the light-heartedness, a carefree mood born of immunity from downpours and other meteorological caprices. But slowly, there makes itself felt a lack: the deeper, more complex needs of the northern soul remain unsatisfied. You are left barren - even it may be, in time, a little contemptuous. 

                 Excerpt from Mario and The Magician,  Thomas Mann