Any of you familiar with Hermann Hesse? Hmmm, do I sense some eye rolls? :blank: So it goes.
During that apprenticeship ('78) I alluded to earlier, I became a close friend with a gal, long talks and cuddling, not more.
One day she handed me a book and said “You, need to read this.”
Ironically, a few months earlier riding through the Black Forest on my bike, I pretty near blew out my knee on a steep hill that revealed itself to be wrong turn anyways.
That was the bad news, good news, now I was on top of the hill and could coast back down into the small town of CALW and having worked in Germany I had my Health Insurance Card with me, so that was that. Medical attention and a few days rest in a beautiful little Black Forest town that my “itinerary” had me riding through in a matter of minutes. The good and bad of adventures :coolsmirk: .
Beautiful place where I had a few days to recuperate get to know the town and discover the Hermann Hesse Museum. “Apparently the home town boy made good” I thought as I entered the museum. Walking out I felt amazing and joyful having discovered and made the acquaintance of a true friend and kindred spirit, even though he was long dead. I bought a couple of his books and read them with fascination and enjoyment at characters and a perspective I could relate to.
Now this sweet gal was handing me this book “Narcissus and Goldmund" - saying, ‘Trust me, you need to read this.’
What an insightful sweetie and friend she was and she was correct about the book. Being sort of a freakazoid to many, it was wonderful discovering others have been there and I was actually doing okay. Keep on keeping on. Looking back from 62 yrs, I did much better than many of my critics, satisfaction at old age is much more valuable than the transient gloating of youth.
But, I digress, not long ago I wound up reading a few reviews of the book and was shocked and irritated, thinking there you go, have a dozen people read a book and everyone will remember a different book depending on where they themselves were coming from. So where am I coming from. From a spiritual mate of both Hesse and Goldmund.
In his book “Narcissus and Goldmund" (despite many ill-informed superficial reviews floating around on the internet) the story is about Goldmund falling profoundly in love with ‘Women’ and becoming preoccupied with striving to understand/grasp/appreciate and then to sculpt the essence of the eternal Woman, Madonna. The eternal bearer and nurturer of children and lovers and home alike.
You could say he stepped outside the bounds of time and societal tunnel vision to see through to the whole of womanhood and he became obsessed with wanting to make a sculpture of The Woman, Madonna, one capable of breaking through the viewers emotional armor to the heart of our understanding.
I read Steppenwolf in my late teens. It was interesting enough but I can’t say it made me want to discover more of Hesse’s work.
He seems like a writer that appeals mostly to the young outsider type but as one gets older he becomes harder to get into - not that there’s anything really wrong with that.
Narcissus and Goldmund sounds like an interesting plot in a creative sense, though not particularly something I could relate to.
I read Steppenwolf in my late teens. It was interesting enough but I can't say it made me want to discover more of Hesse's work.
He seems like a writer that appeals mostly to the young outsider type but as one gets older he becomes harder to get into - not that there's anything really wrong with that.
Narcissus and Goldmund sounds like an interesting plot in a creative sense, though not particularly something I could relate to.
I'd a been shocked if you could.
If I remember correctly you don't think manmade global warming is a real thing either, and you think trump is a great man.
I read Steppenwolf in my late teens. It was interesting enough but I can't say it made me want to discover more of Hesse's work.
He seems like a writer that appeals mostly to the young outsider type but as one gets older he becomes harder to get into - not that there's anything really wrong with that.
Narcissus and Goldmund sounds like an interesting plot in a creative sense, though not particularly something I could relate to.
I'd a been shocked if you could.
If I remember correctly you don't think manmade global warming is a real thing either, and you think trump is a great man.You remember incorrectly.
Also smh at a 62 year old getting bent out of shape over some book.
Narcissus and Goldmund
Except maybe Steppenwolf, they have become partially background of my thinking and feeling in life. Especially Demian had a traceable influence on my life.
From Narcissus and Goldmund I remember especially the opposition between feeling and thinking, personified by Goldmund and Narcissus respectively. Without feeling home in the universe (in Goldmund speak ‘having a mother’), all rationality is in vain. Narcissus did not really live, did not have the connection with the earth as Goldmund had reached with his (erotic) adventures and art.
I also noticed that appreciation for Hermann Hesse is declining. I think it is a pity.
I have read a few books of Hermann Hesse:
- Siddharta
- Demian
- Steppenwolf
- The Glass Bead Game
- Narcissus and Goldmund
Except maybe Steppenwolf, they have become partially background of my thinking and feeling in life. Especially Demian had a traceable influence on my life.
From Narcissus and Goldmund I remember especially the opposition between feeling and thinking, personified by Goldmund and Narcissus respectively. Without feeling home in the universe (in Goldmund speak 'having a mother'), all rationality is in vain. Narcissus did not really live, did not have the connection with the earth as Goldmund had reached with his (erotic) adventures and art.
I also noticed that appreciation for Hermann Hesse is declining. I think it is a pity.
Thank you GdB. I'm pleased you appreciate it.
Yes especially the inner unresolvable passion play created by the opposition between feeling and thinking.
Oh and thank you for the polite reminder. What a hideous transposition - it was Goldmund whom a women discovered and Goldmund who went out into the world to discover life, living, women, art and all that. It's oops like that, that keep me self-skeptical. That and living a trade where I can't pretend, no matter how often I need to call myself on my own errors, it's the reality of the situation I'd better recognize and accommodate.
From Narcissus and Goldmund I remember especially the opposition between feeling and thinking, personified by Goldmund and Narcissus respectively. Without feeling home in the universe (in Goldmund speak 'having a mother'), all rationality is in vain. Narcissus did not really live, did not have the connection with the earth as Goldmund had reached with his (erotic) adventures and art.
In addition to that is the transcendence of time and generations.
The being aware that the blood coursing through your veins, has a "blood line" going back thousands of generations to before humanity existed,
yet vestiges of it are flowing through my blood, my body, and being right now.
Having a visceral awareness of the flow of time and dancing on the sword's edge of life during your few seasons upon this stage, the once fair and beautiful Earth.
Today with the wonders that science has unfolded for us,
we have the added dimension of a genuine appreciate for deep time and the flow of creation evolving to me, here, today, gone tomorrow.
I also noticed that appreciation for Hermann Hesse is declining. I think it is a pity.
Was he highly appreciated in the past?
As a fairly big reader I haven't noticed too many Herman Hesse fans out there.
Perhaps it has something to do with the company you keep? ;-)
Is that new pic a reflection of the new kinder gentler Beltane? :cheese:
Please consider Herman Hesse is written for people with more introspection than today’s society allows for.
Awards
1906 – Bauernfeld-Preis
1928 – Mejstrik-Preis of the Schiller Foundation in Vienna
1936 – Gottfried-Keller-Preis
1946 – Goethe Prize
1946 – Nobel Prize in Literature
1947 – Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bern
1950 – Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize
1954 – Pour le Mérite
1955 – Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
Please consider Herman Hesse is written for people with more introspection than today's society allows for.
Awards
1906 – Bauernfeld-Preis
1928 – Mejstrik-Preis of the Schiller Foundation in Vienna
1936 – Gottfried-Keller-Preis
1946 – Goethe Prize
1946 – Nobel Prize in Literature
1947 – Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bern
1950 – Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize
1954 – Pour le Mérite
1955 – Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
Looks as though he wrote for, and was mostly appreciated by Germans. That would make sense as German novelists have never made a big impact on the English - speaking world.
Looks as though he wrote for, and was mostly appreciated by Germans (you mean the German speaking world - are you aware of the "German speaking world"? ). That would make sense as German novelists have never made a big impact on the English - speaking world.(Guess you don't know about our immigration history or USA's "Melting Pot" Perhaps you should google "What is the largest ethnic group in the United States of America?")
I'd intended to ignore this, since I came to share the following comment but I changed my mind.
It’s interesting how the right-wing gut reaction always seems to be attempts at derision and dismissal -
as thought everything outside their blinkered awareness-field doesn’t exist.
Worst as though they dare not look at new information - sort of like totalitarians do.
Hermann Hesse - misunderstood but loved
Kate Bowen - 09.08.2012
http://www.dw.com/en/hermann-hesse-misunderstood-but-loved/a-16152933
In 1962, just after Hermann Hesse had died of a heart attack at the age of 85, the German newspaper Die Zeit wrote that the author had become obsolete. The paper, however, would eat its words.
In the meantime, Hesse's works have been translated into nearly 60 languages, and at least 125 million copies have been sold worldwide. ...
Hesse, Hermann
In 2014 a first edition of Herman Hesse’s 1922 novel, Siddhartha, was sold at auction and realized nearly $5,000. Experts had initially expected it to fetch something nearer $800. Clearly for collectors then, Hesse may be an author worthy of significant consideration.
http://artunderwraps.com/Hermann-Hesse.html
It occurred to me on my morning walk with Maddy, that one of the important things Hermann Hesse can be credited with is
enunciating the “life examined.” Through his novels and parables he showed one man’s way,
and made it okay for many to place the spiritual, the inner, the pursuit of experiences and personal knowledge the center of one’s priorities.
That was rather revolutionary and of course he wasn’t the only of the era, but he did it better than most.
No wonder the establishment would abhor such thinking and the man who dared share it.
Spurred on by my pal, I did some web surfing and found this interesting article and the following quote seemed apropos.
Hermann Hesse - misunderstood but loved Kate Bowen
http://www.dw.com/en/hermann-hesse-misunderstood-but-loved/a-16152933Half a century after his death, the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse are back on the shelves.
He's one of the most popular German authors in the world - even though he'd long been written off.
... This search for identity and the difficult process of discovering oneself were topics that Hesse addressed in his later novels.
His stories were scattered with references to his own experiences, analyses of himself, and poetic avowals.
"He questioned autonomy and religion. He searched for a religious doctrine that was not militant or missionary,
but open to other lifestyles, other ideas," explained Hesse's biographer, Gunnar Decker, "This is a crucial issue in the Arab world." ...
And this quote seems rather timely.
From sympathizer to traitor
But the war and its propaganda aggravated Hesse. "Oh friends, not these sounds,"
he wrote in an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung at the outbreak of war.
He wanted to warn the German intellectuals to turn away from their nationalist polemics and be more humane.
The article brought hostility and hatred on the author.
The criticism and the events of war greatly upset Hesse, who then suffered a series of personal tragedies. ...
It occurred to me on my morning walk with Maddy,
that one of the important things Hermann Hesse can be credited with is enunciating the "life examined."
Through his novels and parables he showed one man's way,
and made it okay for many to place the spiritual, the inner, the pursuit of experiences and personal knowledge the center of one's priorities.
That was rather revolutionary and of course he wasn't the only of the era, but he did it better than most.
No wonder the establishment would abhor such thinking and the man who dared share it.
