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/lit/ - Literature

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11869453 No.11869453 [Reply] [Original]

Everything I read by this man, I end up loving. Siddhartha was my least favorite and even that was a solid 8. Is it worth learning German so I can read them in their original texts rather than translations?

>> No.11869987

I think of Hesse as more of an idea based writer than someone with fancy prose so I'm not sure if it would be worth it just for him.

>> No.11870004

>>11869453
it's not you fucking autists

>> No.11870105

German here.
Hesse is the GOAT.
My favourite novel is Narziss und Goldmund.
I dont know if learning German just to read his novels is worth it...I am pretty sure some of the value gets lost through the process of translating it into english, but desu I personally would never learn another language just so that I can read books.
I have to have a personal interest in the language that exceeds reading books

>> No.11870716

>>11869987
He's not as crazy good as Nabokov but he has flashes of beautiful prose.

"He was swept up in a violent wave. A sudden awareness of impermanence washed over him, a feeling that often deeply tortured and intoxicated him. Everything was soon wilted, every desire quickly exhausted; nothing remained but bones and dust. But one thing did remain: the eternal mother, basic, ancient, forever young, with her sad, cruel smile of love. Again he saw her for an instant: a giant figure with stars in her hair. Dreamily she sat on the edge of the world, plucking flower after flower, life after life, with a playful hand, slowly dropping them into the bottomless void."

>> No.11870795

Sugary shit.

>> No.11870818
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11870818

>All these people saying they wouldn't learn a language just to read books
>just

>> No.11870822

>>11869453
I liked the introduction to Steppenwolf but once I get into the main book I realized he wasn't an angsty existentialist reactionary like me but just another degenerate soicuck. Have had no interest in reading him since

>> No.11871487

>>11870822
You and so many other young men just like you are the reason he said it was his most misunderstood book.

>> No.11871501

>>11871487
Not really, Hesse was a socialist so anyone who is a reactionary will find that distasteful.