I've never really been a big fan of Hesse, though I think my general distaste for relatively shallow Eastern spiritualism is the main reason. Siddhartha was very much a stepping stone book for me in a vein similar to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

June 18 2017 05:56 GMT

#184

glass bead game is legitimately a canonical masterpiece though

narcissus and goldmund is really good too

but they barely get read compared to siddhartha and steppenwolf ; [

Flicky

England2661 Posts

June 19 2017 12:33 GMT

#185

On June 17 2017 21:03 farvacola wrote:
I've never really been a big fan of Hesse, though I think my general distaste for relatively shallow Eastern spiritualism is the main reason. Siddhartha was very much a stepping stone book for me in a vein similar to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

So I've read both of those and enjoyed them a lot, but I've never been much more interested in eastern philosophy beyond those points, so I imagine that's kind of a fair criticism.

Also, I'm guilty of only knowing about Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, so sorry cheep. I'll be reading Glasperlenspiel at some point though, now I'm aware of it.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

June 20 2017 05:00 GMT

#186

i think calling hesse's stuff "eastern spiritualism" is comparable to calling ulysses "odyssey rewrite"; i.e. superficially enticing and often regurgitated, but belies/is misleading as to the actual content of the books

hesse uses eastern spiritualism crap as a veneer. he was certainly very interested in the stuff but the actual genius of his works has very little to do with his shallow understanding/portrayal of eastern phil and much more to do with his empathetic treatment of societal alienation and overarching ideals of a civilization.

farvacola

United States18822 Posts

June 20 2017 11:17 GMT

#187

I don't think that comparison makes much sense in that Ulysses (or pretty much any Joyce work aside from Portrait) is far more impressionistic and tailored towards "high art" than any Hesse book is. Accordingly, its ceiling for "good" interpretive allowance is incredibly high and is likely a big part of why literary snobs the world throughout continue to hold Ulysses in such high esteem.

In that sense, a comparison between Hesse and Joyce would be like comparing Courbet with Seurat. While there is certainly a basis for doing so, realists and post-impressionists each implemented their technique with very different attitudes towards focus, color, and composition. With realists like Courbet, the vehicles for expression are fairly plain, obvious, and striking in their pointedness; put another way, the shapes, colors, and style of realist paintings lend themselves to a select few interpretive viewpoints by way of their definiteness.

Example: + Show Spoiler +

Impressionists and post-impressionists on the other hand, the latter being the artistic forerunners to Modernist authors like Joyce, utilize technique in a way that really opens up the interpretive background of a work, particularly relative to feeling and visual assembly.

Example:+ Show Spoiler +

With all that in mind, I don't think my criticism of Hesse (though perhaps I should limit it to Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, because The Glass Bead Game is indeed quite good and rather unlike the rest of Hesse imo) is unfounded; Buddhism and western engagements with non-Christian spirituality lie at the very base of Siddhartha and are unavoidable as concepts during a read through. In a sense, Hesse utilizes reference to Eastern Spirituality without really delving into the meat of what that would entail in a manner very similar to those espoused by 60s and 70s counterculture figures like Ram Dass. Similarly, Steppenwolf does a lot of "take drugs, have sex, be free" angles that seem to encourage a borderline solipsistic attention paid exclusively towards the inner path. To be clear, I think Hesse is pretty closely following the German tradition in prose a la Goethe, only I prefer the latter by orders of magnitude.

IMO Siddhartha was the OG "go find yourself in the East and don't really engage with the politics, interfaith mixtures, or actual substance of the religion you so choose" text. Thus, as a former counterculture kid largely in a state of enmity with "that which opposes," I can't help but be reminded of those festival shitbag kids, each with his own take on what constitutes buddhavacana. All that said, it should be clear that my attitude towards his works is heavily colored by my own life experiences, so oh well, agree to disagree

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

June 20 2017 15:28 GMT

#188

the pseudo buddhism/spiritualist crap in hesse can mostly be safely ignored without missing anything desu

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

June 22 2017 23:02 GMT

#189

Anyone have any of a good Historical and/or Biographical books on Greek Monarchs especially that of George I, in English.

I already have the book by John Van Der Kiste. But it's only 186 pages

Ysellian

Netherlands9029 Posts

July 01 2017 01:08 GMT

#190

Bought it cheap at my local bookstore and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Things never really went like you expected, really good fantasy heist book.

B.I.G.

3251 Posts

July 02 2017 12:01 GMT

#191

I just read the Red Rising trilogy. The author did a good job portraying the injustice and sense of powerlessness the main character and his people feel in the society that opresses them without writing endless paragraphs about feelings. It's imaginative, action packed, and manages to stay surprising. I wouldn't call it game of thrones-esque like some do but there is no plot armor and there is a good chance your favorite character will die a pointless, inglorious death. Most importantly, there is a well plotted out story arch over the three books and characters in the book make sense and do things that make sense.

Don't expect to be mind blown with philosophical insight but if you read this as a story of a hero to an underdog people that leads an uprising against a dominant and tyrannicall upper class based purely on race and heritage you can imagine how many revolutionaries in reality that are frowned upon or considered straight up evil nowadaus can be considered heroes if you just hear the story from them and their people's perspective.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

July 03 2017 23:48 GMT

#192

Flicky

England2661 Posts

July 04 2017 19:24 GMT

#193

Just finished 2666 by Roberto Bolaño - My enjoyment of the book reached a peak when I felt I understood the structure of it for real and it seems ripe for a re-reading in the future. A lot of great stuff in it, once I accepted it.

For me I feel like the book captured the feeling of living different lives (Blaubär style) and I kind of saw it as how you meet people and they become incredibly important to you for a short while and the next they are estranged and you never hear from them again. Whereas the stories themselves aren't every really finalised and closed off, the severance of relationships is (at least from the reader's point of view) - once you stop hearing from someone here, that's it.

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

July 04 2017 21:31 GMT

#194

The book is amazing. The worst/best part is when it hits you with these one or two page long backstories of the murdered women

Alucen-Will-

United States4054 Posts

July 05 2017 00:34 GMT

#195

Just finished Nabokov's memoir [image loading]

Commenting on something like Nabokov's work seems almost superfluous; everything he touched in the world of literature speaks so ebulliantly for itself. Genius

Just started IQ84. Enjoyable start so far

[image loading]

Latham

9560 Posts

July 05 2017 10:25 GMT

#196

While in the hospital, I managed to plow through all 4 books of The Stormlight Archives. I enjoyed them, although sometimes I felt they could've been a bit shorter. Let me explain: Did we really have to know just how hard Kaladin was fucked by life prior to gaining his powers? The first book almost made me feel disinterested about him just because it was "well what else can happen to Kaladin before the inevitable rise?" I think we all got it half way through the first book - Kaladin getting fucked in the ass by life. Hard. Made him feel like a martyr that didn't die.

I once again enjoyed the magic system that was grounded into the world itself, like the laws of physics and gravity. Coming from Mistborn I felt right at home with the explanations of windrunners and lightweavers etc.

Overall I'm looking forward to Oathbringer this winter =). Will preorder on amazon.

Manit0u

Poland17238 Posts

July 05 2017 12:19 GMT

#197

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided By Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce

Very good book.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

July 05 2017 21:29 GMT

#198

2666 is really good, wished it was finished :|

Flicky

England2661 Posts

July 05 2017 23:54 GMT

#199

On July 05 2017 06:31 Nyxisto wrote:
The book is amazing. The worst/best part is when it hits you with these one or two page long backstories of the murdered women

Yeah, the sheer number of them is pretty harrowing. Most of my favourite parts of the book were in the final part. I even wrote down a quote (which is rare for me): "like the minutes of women who've just given birth and condemned to die, who understand that more time isn't more eternity and nevertheless wish will all their souls for more time". Some of the stuff in the final part is so wonderful, I can only imagine Bolaño was really grappling with his mortality at that point. I'll definitely be reading some more of his work in the future.

I also read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald today. It cost me 20p and was short enough to finish in a day.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

July 06 2017 00:54 GMT

#200

unfortunately none of bolano's other stuff is as good as 2666. savage detectives has some charm and i really liked by night in chile, but his other works as a whole pale either in scope, or execution, or both, to 2666