I like Hermann Hesses work, as it combines so many things of interest for my daily life like art, philosophy, mythology, religion, psychology, literature etc. and I learn from my Hesse readings a lot about so many things. Furthermore he wrote in a very clear and beautiful style. He built bridges between different cultures and this is still very important. He teaches me to see things not in good/evil only, but much more complex and to understand and appreciate the way others live their live and to accept, that humans are different and that this enriches our world. I believe Hermann Hesses work and his life is a shining example and is still up to date and if I see the situations and conditions of our world, the importance of his work will even grow. He was one of the real wold citizens. I wish you all a good weekend end please enjoy your readings in particular the Hesse readings. Regards, Old Europe
I like hesse’s work. But the problem is, he repeated himself.
He had the questions, but no answers and he spent
4 long books repeating the fact he had no answers after
his first book.
I love him, and if you read about his real life you will find that he was quite a guy there too.
PK I think that the “no real answers” bit is part of his existential approach to life. There are no real answers is the answer to life. Steppenwolf was all about having fun as an answer to life, while Narcissus and Goldmund was about have two different answers to life, and there you have it.
I personally believe, that literature shall not give answers but should give examples/ideas to the readers, to find own answers. I think, Hesse had answers, but only for his own life. This is perfectly to see in his beautiful letters. In all letters he had a strong opinion about somthing and mostly, if he gave advise to others vie his letters, this was up to the point and very datailed. But not in his poems and main works. This makes literature different to philosophy. TheAdlerians example of “Nacissus and Goldmund” is well choosen. Hesse gave the reader two extremes, whering he/she can choose the own way for positioning himself/herself. Important for Hesse was always, that his readers made the own way and went to idividualization and this intention is wellgiven in his main works. This is all my convincement, I do not know, whether the critics see it in the same way…
Do you disagree that maybe the answers themselves are rarely universal and should simply be posed, so that each individual may become aware, and answer for himself.
I know I’ve reiterated the essential point theadlerian just made, well not just made, the timeline of posts is always immediate for me as though it were a conversation amongst people in the same space in time.
Have any of you, or anyone as of yet absent from this thread ever read the “Glass Bead Game?” It’s one of the novels I have not had the chance to expirience and am interested in some of your opinions on it if you are willing.
I went through a stage of reading hesse. I remember (mind you
over 20 years ago) of being disappointed by the book.
I kept waiting for some description of the glass bead game,
but it never came. I think it was hess’s last book. I
think steppenwolf is a better book, by the way. Something happens
to Knecht in the end for no good reason, which left
a bad taste in my mouth because it didn’t solve anything
or answer anything. It just left one hanging.
Leaving one with the feeling of “is that it”
Hess promises much and delivers little.
So does life usually, but that’s no defense of him believe me.
I read Steppenwolf about two years ago and I don’t really remember what happens in the end, and that is in addition to a vague resemblance of being disappointed as well. Whose Knecht? Are you sure you have the right name? But yes if you are talking about the main character the last 30 pages of the book did take a turn towards the surreal. Actually I should revisit those last 30 pages or so. Thanks for the thought.
Con: So does life usually, but that’s no defense of him believe me.
I read Steppenwolf about two years ago and I don’t really remember what happens in the end, and that is in addition to a vague resemblance of being disappointed as well. Whose Knecht? Are you sure you have the right name? But yes if you are talking about the main character the last 30 pages of the book did take a turn towards the surreal. Actually I should revisit those last 30 pages or so. Thanks for the thought."
K: Sorry I didn’t mean to confuse anyone. Knecht was from the
glass bead game. The hero from Steppenwolf was called Harry Haller.
and the woman was called hermonie? It did turn weird the last
30 pages.
Satyr:
“Nevertheless, do any of his other works compare to Steppenwolf?”
K: actually for a young person, the book to read is Siddhartha.
It is more profound then any other book hesse wrote. For young
ones, it is the book to read.
Thats basically what I want to know, but you should read Demian it’s infinitely better than Siddhartha in my opinion. There is an aspect in that book which transends in a strangely mystical way. I think my idea of it is based upon the fact that Demian and his Mother are the type of characters that all of us misanthropes would like to meet. We all have the mark of Caine, and there is nothing to do about it, except sob, and no man can tolerate that.
As “The Glass Bead Game” is the most complex book, the protagonist Josef Knecht is the most complex character of Hermann Hesse. “The Glass Bead Game” is/was the book, for which Hermann Hesse received the Nobel Prize for literature. Thomas Mann suggested Hermann Hesse several times for this Nobel Prize and he wrote his “Dr. Faustus” at the same time as Hesse wrote his opus magnum (see also amazon.com/gp/product/097426 … oding=UTF8 (letters between Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann), if I remember well. Thomas Mann can also be found in “The Glass Bead Game” as Thomas von der Trave… The “Glass Bead Game” was Hermann Hesses trial to write an answer on the destructive political situation in the Europe of the first half of the 21st century and which follows the tradition of “Demian” and “Steppenwolf”. It is an idealistic novel, which plays somewhere in the near future in an kastillian hirarchy, which has the character of an elite state which values “Geist”, learning, self-realization etc. most of all. It is an idealistic novel and as such it took elements of religion, philosophy, natural sciences, art etc. I like this book very much, but I have to read it again (for the third time then), as it is to complex for the first reading and as the first reading will not show all of the intentions and information Hesse put in this book. The end is much more logical as the end of “Steppenwolf”, compareable to the end of Hans Griebenrath from “Beneath the Wheel”. Josef Knecht has also characters of Narcissus from “Narcissus and Goldmund”. Like “Morgenlandfahrt”, the “Glas Bead Game” is a journey through the history of Old European and Eastern (in particular old chineese) art, literature and culture and tries to invite the reader to find out much more about live, than usual and to try to combine wisdom from west and east. Josef Knecht learns during the noval a lot from artists, thinkers etc., which do their job with 100 % love and convincement and which give him puzzles for making the own picture of his life. But at the end Hesse also shows, what dangers and weak points even this idealistic elite state Kastilien has and shows and what could be the answer… More I will not tell you, because then you will no longer be curious. Furthermore, I feal not strong enough to continue, because my English is not that strong to express my real impressions and feelings about this great novel. There are only three things I like more from Hesse than the “Glass Bead Game”: his poems, his letters and “Klingsor’s last Summer”… Regards, Old Europe
Narcissus and Goldmund was my favorite book because it had both adventure and a point, so it reminded me of something by Voltaire. So, Satyr if you’re looking for an entertaining read pick that up.
Steppenwolf, became absurd at the end I believe to reflect the absurdist elements in existentialism, and for very little reason beyond that. The reader was taken on a tour of a variety of different experiences that contrasted with the secret dance that was always taking place somewhere, that could have represented the sense of humor needed to deal with the absurd nature of life.
I dislike Hesse’s musical taste, or aethetical taste in general I suppose. It seems that he thinks no music after Bach is good and that Beethoven represents the worst kind of taste. I feel dirty writing the above words down here.
I wouldn’t trade the last trilogy of Beethoven’s piano sontatas with the whole two books of the Well-Tempered Klavier. Still though, Bach is my third favourite after Mozart, who also happened to live after him. Most of my favourite composers were born after Bach, as a matter of fact, the only one preceeding Bach whom I like is Vivaldi.
However, I dislike all music after Schostakovich. So I’ll spare Hesse a little on this, just for myself.
It’s rumored that Hesse avoided more than two-thirds of the sausages listed on that website. Some suggest that he was leaning toward the Nazi vegetarianism, while others proposed, in his defense, that he may have had bad experiences in childhood with gray sausages, in essence.
I still like him even though I’m open to many different types of cuisine, and a full range of sausage products. His writing really saved him for me.