/lit/ - Literature

Where do I go after siddhartha and steppenwolf? Glass bead game?

>Almost all of them, the young Europeans and Americans, had gotten to know Hermann Hesse via the biased propaganda of an adulterated form of Hinduism or of the drug culture. I tried to make them see that Hermann Hesse was being used, distorted.

>His wife once confessed to me that a Canadian television company wanted her to write a script for them on her late husband's novel Steppenwolf, but she refused: her husband had already stated in his will that his works were not to be filmed. His son, however, gave a group of American filmmakers permission to make a film about it.

>These same filmmakers wanted my consultation so I went over the original manuscript in German. To my surprise, the English translation had added in lengthy diatribes against Nazism which I pointed out in our subsequent meeting. I was then told, "We had to put these in because the North American public tends to see in Hermann Hesse's cultural baggage the same tradition that gave rise to Nazism in Germany."

>Despite my opposition, the filmmakers continued with their project, paid $70,000 to his son, and went on to create a complete failure.

>The total lack of discretion and respect shown by the North Americans and the information media, as well as their lack of culture, led them to destroy this German, by obfuscating his nationalism for the great conspiracy of 'universal revelation' which had begun to spread with vertiginous speed across the whole planet. This phenomenon was doubtless encouraged by the many intellectual circles, which lack cultural depth, in the United States of America.

>I was invited by some universities to give a lecture on this. In these talks, I sustained the thesis that Hesse was transformed to some type of Bohemian, a hippy, an apostle of the drug culture who preached liberty at the expense of discipline and method; that he could not be understood without his love for the literary tradition found in German Romanticism and the philosophical tradition of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

Post'em.

>>16507150

>>16356890
Why is there no Hesse chart? I want one.

I just started reading Steppenwolf, and bought Siddartha preemptively, but am really interested in his other works, especially Narsissus and Goldmund. What do you guys think is his best work, and would you recommend his others?

How is Hermann Hesse? Which books should I read if any?

Please /lit/, tell me what to think about Hesse. Is he based or cringe?

Please /lit/, tell me what to think about Hesse. Is he based or cringe?

Happy birthday!

What was his best novel?

We talk too much. Clever talk is absolutely worthless. All you do in the process is lose yourself. And to lose yourself is a sin. One has to be able to crawl completely inside oneself, like a tortoise.

Have really enjoyed his books so far but no idea what similar author to explore next.

Coehlo with a Nobel.

No one's said Hermann Hesse yet?

Why?

>Vor dem von Doppelsäulchen getragenen Rundbogen des Klostereinganges von Mariabronn, dicht am Wege, stand ein Kastanienbaum, ein vereinzelter Sohn des Südens, von einem Rompilger vor Zeiten mitgebracht, eine Edelkastanie mit starkem Stamm; zärtlich hing ihre runde Krone über den Weg, atmete breitbrüstig im Winde, ließ im Frühling, wenn alles ringsum schon grün war und selbst Klosternußbäume schon ihr rötliches Junglaub trugen, noch lange auf ihre Blätter warten, trieb dann um die Zeit der kürzesten Nächte aus den Blattbüscheln die matten, weißgrünen Strahlen ihrer fremdartigen Blüten empor, die so mahnend und beklemmend herbkräftig rochen, und ließ im Oktober, wenn Obst und Wein schon geerntet war, aus der gilbenden Krone im Herbstwind die stacheligen Früchte fallen, die nicht in jedem Jahr reif wurden, um welche die Klosterbuben sich balgten und die der aus dem Welschland stammende Subprior Gregor in seiner Stube im Kaminfeuer briet.

the most beautiful opening sentence (yep that's 1 sentence) in literary history, transcendend in it's beauty
gl translating that

Why do we hate him again?