Hermann Hesse

if anyone want to try it!! https://zigzadig.itch.io/demian

let me know what you think, it's the first time i try to make a little game, i hope to keep improving!

Hi all. Im about 110 pages into Glass Bead Game, and I'm at the point where the narrator has explained Knecht's poetry and what the Lives projects are. Should i skip to the back and read those now? Or is it adviseable to stay on course and save those until the end?

Interesting response to the prompt

Found on thriftbooks

I do not know whether I can love at all. I can desire and can seek myself in others; I can listen for an echo, demand a mirror, seek pleasure, and all that can look like love.

• Klingsor’s Last Summer

Just picked up some winter reads from the library. I’ve read demian and Siddhartha, which one should I read next?

It feels like every story was written about me. Especially this one. Anyone else experience this?

Growing up in and out of foster homes I never really knew my mom. She was something like the blessed Mary. A woman of mystery… and phantom really. The journey of Goldmund had helped me say goodbye to who I think she was

I was 16 when I first read it. I don’t know what drew me to it then or now but I’m quit fond of it.

I've been reading Hesse's works for quite a while and I want to learn about his life as well. But I don't know which book or source should I pick up. Can you recommend me some biographies that could help me learn about him more?

Just finished up my read of Narcissus and Goldmund for the first time, and while I liked it in general, I'm left with a bit of a weird taste in my mouth regarding how in all of his self-growth, Goldmund's pretty selfish and shitty behaviour just like, never got approached by Hesse?

This guy was ceaselessly sleeping with married and young/innocent women and causing rifts in relationships/families by doing so. He split from his long-term companion (Robert) by essentially telling him to fuck off and die, after spending their whole journey dismissing his very much valid concerns about the plague. He was constantly living and growing off of the goodwill and help of others (Master Nikolaus, Marie, etc.) but would never return the favour and often just ditch them at the drop of a hat to follow his own whims and sensual desires. So on and so on, the whole book he only thinks of his own growth, and the experience of others to him is completely forgotten in the pursuit of it.

The whole time I was reading, I thought it was so blatant and inevitable that an arc in his character growth would be realising that in his freedom he still had to leave room for morality and returning the favours of those who stuck their back out for him, and it just never happened. So often it felt so obviously set up that he was going to have the realisation, but it never happened. When he returned to the city to find Lisbeth wanted nothing to do with him and Niklaus had died frustrated at him, nothing came of it, he just moved on. When he scabbed food and shelter off Marie, she literally voiced her desire to receive some love in return, and then just nothing came of it and Goldmund ditched after taking more food from her for the road. I mean shit, not even when the Jewish girl literally called him out directly to his face for using the most horrific moment of her life to court her for sex, he walked away with lofty realisations about death and the loss of hope in humanity and all that, but not any realisation of 'oh that was a dick move, I should make amends and not do that again'??

It honestly just left me a bit confused how such a gaping void was left unapproached. By the end of the book Goldmund is portrayed as this humble and loving old man who has seen it all, and all the harm he has caused just gets swept up into his romanticised narrative of his self-actualisation as an artist, never faced up to. Clearly one of the themes in the book is the idea that someone like Goldmund needs to experience the ups and downs of life, make mistakes, etc. in order to come out other side and be able to portray them in glorius works of art, but a whole realm of his mistakes just never get addressed?

Evidently Hesse was primarily focussed on other themes and storylines, and I think he did a good job with those, I liked the book in general, but it was just strange to get to the end of the book and all of Goldmund's harm treated like it didn't even happen. Makes me feel like I either missed some obvious thing in the book, or I guess the only other idea is that Hesse didn't see that this behaviour was problematic, or think it mattered? I don't know, let me know how you guys interpreted these aspects of Goldmund's character.

and reason

देही नित्यमवध्योऽयं देहे सर्वस्य भारत। तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि।।2.30।।

Word Meaning: भारत O Bhārata अयं this देही Indweller सर्वस्य of all देहे in the body नित्यम् ever अवध्यः indestructible तस्मात् therefore त्वं thou सर्वाणि all भूतानि beings शोचितुम् to mourn न अर्हसि oughtest not.

English Translation: O descendant of Bharata, this embodied Self-existing in everyone's body can never be killed. Therefore you ought not to grieve for all (these) beings.

🪔A single human being is nothing. He is like a single cell inside of a human body. If that single cell dies, it doesn't affect the human being in any way.

🪔In fact one million cells die each second in our body. And millions more are produced to replace them.

🪔This is the essence of the teachings of this verse 2:30. Shree Krishna says to Arjun that the "Prakruti" is eternal and the "Aatma" is timeless.

🪔Death is inevitable and necessary for life to go on. That is why the old die and the new take over from them.

🪔We are not one person, we are a single celled organism of "prakruti" as a whole. And that makes us insignificant.

🪔The realisation that we are just a single cell in the vast organism called the Prakruti is called liberation and Shree Krishna is trying to liberate Arjun from this misconception.

🪔Life is an endless conveyor belt that keeps on moving, characters keep on coming and characters keep on falling off.

🪔When we realise that we are insignificant, the one who is suffering, the sufferer, goes away leaving only pain. That is liberation from suffering.

🪔We are all afraid of death. That is what motivates us. But when you remove the fear of death, the one who gets motivated is also removed.

🪔 The ego tendency(aham or "अहम") must survive at any cost. That is its soul purpose. It decieves the real me into believing that what the ego tendency wants, I want. It is born the same day a toddler diffentiates between itself and the world around it. When one becomes two.

🪔As soon as it is born, it starts taking the real me in its deadly embrace, just like an Anaconda that slowly wraps around its prey, so that it doesn't flee.

🪔The ego tendency convinces the real me, that I must use all my energy towards accumulating things that I don't need. It establishes a deep relationship with the things that are out there. The thing may also be a person, thought or an idea.

🪔As we grow older, we have accumulated countless things inside our, what is known as "मन".

"मन" is a repository of things we accumulate, that the ego tendency makes us believe are important to us.

🪔These things, sometimes they get along and sometimes they don't. They create a disturbance in our lives. Because each thing operates from its own centre. So now, there are multiple centres within us, where there should be only One; that of the Self.("आत्मा")

🪔These centres develop their own personalities and quirks. That means, sometimes we act in a benevolent way and sometimes we are downright rude towards people.

🪔The formation and expression of these centres is what psychologists call, Multiple Personality Disorder.

I wish to present my project, where I focus on analogy links as a method to organize information and extend fictional universes.

I imagine these methods as a complementary stage for search based on id and classifications or in some appropriate cases as its replacement.

***

State of search and context

I refer to Emptiness or Śūnyatā state, as I understand it: there is no one classification for everything but states, intentions and interpretations.  We imagine, experience and name states, phenomena and images rather than pre-created social theories or mental concepts. And then we give names, which suit us at a current moment in a current situation and time.

In this case, every search (in mind, in database or in the internet) is a state, where intention and interpretation play the same role as the keyword or a symbol in itself. I see this state as a triad of a concrete personal perception in a concrete situation and in a concrete moment of time. New person or new situation or even the same situation and the same person but in a different moment of time creates each time a new perception.

***

Let me show some examples

I take a ‘’crow’’ symbol. The interpretation may be the following: 

Crow as bird; crow as message; crow as mediator; crow as destiny among others.

As well as analogy to this symbol:

Crow as analogy to Edgar Allan Poe (Actually, the raven, but this is the same family of birds); crow as analogy to shamanism; crow as analogy to forest fauna; or crow as analogy to alchemy reference.

I think that the symbolic search with intention and analogies form new material for digital spaces  construction. Context search may be a provider for new partnership, context information and accurate and temporary paralleled analogies. 

***

Master-class and software application

I am also organizing a master-class on 18 July, primary for organizations and associations managing niche and incomplete collections of texts, images and objects. But I am open to organize another master-class for general public and personal private collections. You will find detailed information, visiting the master-class page.

I am currently developing a software application for symbolic search, which I present on my website. 

Feel free to express your thoughts.

Anyone know where I can find a free reading of Narcissus and Goldmund? Don’t want to fork out for aud*ble at the moment….

Hello! I have a school assignment which requires me to accurately draw Steppenwolf characters ( the important ones at least ( Harry, the aunt, Maria, Hermine, Pablo). I tried to read it but I wont make it to the deadline. I would appreciate if someone assisted me in depicting these characters. Thanks !

Hi all,

I have been doing some reading/searching around, trying to find an English translation for Das Nachtpfauenauge. I understand that it is a commonly used piece of text in Japanese schools. I was wondering if there was an English translation of the entire text somewhere, I seem only to be able to find snippets that have been translated from Japanese. Any help on this or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

hello! Just wanted to share for those who like herman hesse and like annotating. this copy of Demian has fantastic margins, tons of room for long form annotations. enjoy!