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/lit/ - Literature

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14279884 No.14279884 [Reply] [Original]

Is pic related any good?

>> No.14279902

>>14279884
yes but only if you have a soul

>> No.14279974

>>14279902
>soul
>exists
Kek. Anyway this book gets recommended as entry tier lit. I was just afraid that it is 451 Farenheit levels of entry.

>> No.14279975

Its good.
If anything, it tries too hard to be "Intelectuaizable" for saying it one way, but it's a solid reading and has a good ending.

>> No.14279984

>not reading Der Steppenwolf at least one time every 10 years for the rest of your life

ISHYGDDT

>> No.14280084

I'm not a big fan of it, but yes, pretty much this >>14279975 exactly.

>> No.14280109

>>14279884
Really forgettable (maybe I'm a brainlet that couldn't understand it). But Demian is one of my favorite novels.

>> No.14280469

>>14279884
I found it meh, its message didn't age well. Still worth the read tho.

>> No.14280504

>>14279884
Good but Siddhartha is better

>> No.14280565

I read it not too long ago and I agree with >>14279975 it's a good read

>> No.14280584

>>14279884
It's Hesse telling you not to be too 4Chany, but not too reddity either, so he ends on a best-of-/lit/ note.

>> No.14281179

>>14280504
narcissus and goldmund is better than siddhartha

>> No.14281247

>>14281179
It is very good, but I remember liking Siddhartha more

>> No.14281513

It's alright but Hesse's other books like Narcissisus and Goldmund are much better. I really didn't like Rosshalde all that much compared to the rest of his works. Beautiful setting just wasn't interested in it much.

>> No.14281549
File: 485 KB, 980x1224, wolfenwolf.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14281549

>> No.14281561

It's alright. It's a tamer NftU

>> No.14283034

>>14281561
>NftU
?

>> No.14283088

>midlife crisis book
>solution is smoke hash, listen to some jazz and fuck slightly whorish actresses

Pretty fucking boomer to be desu

>> No.14283115

>>14283088
Except his hedonistic lifestyle didn't help him either or solve his problems.

>> No.14283216

>>14281549
The Furry edition.

>> No.14283294

>>14281549
steppenstep

>> No.14283355

>>14283216
>>14283294

And the Foot Fetishist edition. Dumb jokes aside, I'll probably start reading this today, seems good.

>> No.14283584
File: 208 KB, 365x431, 1573597257377.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14283584

>>14283088
yep. the last 20's were lit. hope these upcoming will live up.

>> No.14284160

>>14279884
This is what my middle school German teacher religiously did, and proselytized for us to do when we were adults. Did you go to school in South West Germany?

>> No.14284637

>>14279974
you have to create it in order to exist

>> No.14285210

>>14284637
True, this is beautifully paraphrased at one point in the book even.

>> No.14286560

I dunno, looks like some furry shit to me anon.

>> No.14287821

Its good, glass bead game is better.

>> No.14288350

>>14279884
My least favorite Hesse, my least favorite (highly regarded) book in general. Hesse has this weird spirtiualism and indiviudalism that never feels fully fleshed out, and it shows way too much in Steppenwolf. If you want read Hesse then go after a different one of his books. Otherwise do Celine for a much better dark-indivdualism and Borges for a much better spiritualism

>> No.14288698

>>14283088
He's not having a midlife crisis, It's about him hating posers and pseuds and then dancing away his troubles in order to be free.

It's interesting because I've seen the same transformation in someone recently (a young man), although this guy just lost his rigidness, he's not lost the mental burdens, still a bit of a pseud and now a bit more vain.

But none the less he broke out of the "uuurgh I can't do it" shell and learned to be more free from other's negative opinions.

>> No.14289081

>>14288698
> It's about him hating posers and pseuds and then dancing away his troubles in order to be free
See that's where Hesse lost me. You can say that but the Stepphenwolf comes across as a poser himself in doing so. As though he's the only real delusional schizo lone wolf.
This is where Salinger shows his control over character's view of themselves. In Catcher you always know that Holden has a perspective that he's just like the rest of them that adds to the depressing nature of the book, if he can't escape it, what is he supposed to do? The realism helps keep the book grounded too. The mysticism in Steppenwolf just adds to the notion that the Steppenwolf is 'right' and the world is wrong, ironically presenting clear answers.
I see this same pattern appear if you compare Siddhartha to Franny + Zooey, or Carpeters/Seymour. Siddhartha's mysticism comes across as definitive, appearing as Hesse thought he found the answer to everything. Meanwhile Salinger constantly has his characters doubting themselves and trying to find an answer, overly intellectualizing something only to find that that doesn't help, as though they are on the precipice of an answer they can't seem to find but know it in their hearts.

>> No.14289224

>>14289081
Hmm I sort of understand what you're saying. Unfortunately I've only read Steppenwolf out of the books you mentioned.

I think you're right in saying the steppenwolf is a poser, but the book isn't about him becoming a steppenwolf, it's about him shedding the steppenwolf.

The book has
>Pseud Harry - mostly referenced in the past but it still shines through in his music taste
>Steppenwolf - essentially a self aware poser (who poses as being an anti-poser) who is can detatch from the core interests but hates the fart sniffing of the community.
>Free Harry - has a single lesson drilled into him over and over again; don't give a shit what other people think, seek out the passion of the moment.

>> No.14289307

>>14289224
You should read Salinger, /lit/ goes back and forth talking shit about Catcher but it really does stand the test of time. All of his books are very easy to pick up (~200 pages) but have a great deal of depth, especially his last two I mentioned above which are incredible (but need to be read in chronological order).
It's nice hearing the perspective of someone who enjoyed it. I'd add in to the point I was trying to make regarding the "free Harry" that his love of art isn't communicated enough to be the defining factor at the end (e.g. Mozart). There is plenty of reference to Goethe and Mozart but it almost feels superficial because of how much it relies on their names to carry feelings without adequately explaining the why-what part of the feelings, or simply summed up, show don't tell. Harry doesn't feel like he inherited their will and legacy of freedom like the book wanted to make your feel like, because the will is shallowly defined, there is nothing to pass on. Same with the "man trapped between ages". Having everything be able to be intrepreted in the end as a dream-type sequence or not spoils the nature of the free Harry. He should have found himself in the world through his actions, perhaps making himself into more of a hedonistic Celine, going that extra mile once more.

>> No.14289586

>>14289307
I've been on the edge of reading Catcher for a while, I'll pick it up on your recommendation. I don't disagree the book isn't without flaws. Although I think him name dropping Goethe and Mozart a lot is supposed the be him still clinging onto his Steppenwolf personality, I think it's intentionally superficial. The books shows that Mozart laughing at him every chance he gets percisely because he holds him in such high esteem. I think it's clever that Pablo takes Mozart's place since it shows the free living Pablo is much more like Mozart than Harry. Harry seems to make a lot of progress through out the book, but he's mostly using Hermine as a crutch the whole way through and scoffs at the world at every chance. It's hard to tell if he ever fully became free Harry, I think even during the ball the character had a feeling of looking through the eyes of the free Harry.

The ending confused me a lot after finishing it. I've thought about it more and I wonder if Harry is kicked out of the theatre for trying to make sense of it. I don't think Harry ends the book enlightened, but I do think he made progress throughout the book, and by the end of it he was able to walk without his crutch (Is that why he had to kill Hermine?) I can understand the point of the theatre and it's nature being... a cheap move and that it might've been better for Hesse to write the same conclusion through the natural world.
Sorry I'm pretty tired so I might've just been rambling on a bit there without a point.

>> No.14289726

>>14289586
>Is that why he had to kill Hermine?
Yeah, I'm a proponent of the Hermine-was-never-real interpretation. In that is purely symbolic.
Don't think you've been rambling, the point about him never getting to where he needs to be and Mozart laughing works well. Considering the last word of the english translation is Mozart it would help the story if that was the case.
Enjoy Catcher, and then make a thread on it and get guaranteed 200 replies of shitflinging.

>> No.14290424

>>14279884
Hesse is a very good author... for a certain type of person. You won't the most from if you're, say a Christian or a leftist on some sort of moral crusade to change society, nor if you are fine just chasing money and sex all your life, nor if you're fine just being /comfy/ and living a humble life. You need to be the sort of person that always feels different from others. You need to be the sort of person who doesn't know what life they want; you just know that you don't want this one.

There's a line that goes along the lines of "How can you save you've lived if you've never learned to dance?" that left quite a big remark on me.

>> No.14290487

>>14281549
dammit

>> No.14290498

>>14288698
>broke out of the "uuurgh I can't do it" shell
That's a great topos anon, thank you for that.

>> No.14290522

>>14289224
I would say the take away messages are more along the lines of a) Learn to appreciate and respect the imperfections of the world, as opposed to the perfection of artistic or religious ideals, and b) Don't take your own self-complex so seriously, and thereby impede the expression of the subtle rarely utilized parts of you (expressed in the metaphor of the multitude of possible configurations of the chess board game)