Book Review-Glass Bead Game By Hermann Hesse

A pseudo book review. More of a reflection of my impressions of the classic work by Hesse after re-reading it many decades after having read it for the first time.

There are certain books that an adolescent reader reads which change the reader profoundly that the reader’s intellectual path is changed permanently. Herman Hesse is that author for me because his stories appealed to me when I was at an impressionable point in my life. His stories appealed to that introverted and socially immature that I was during those awkward years. Hesse’ writing, plot, and characters appeal to that kind of  adolescent because their hormone-soaked brain combined with the peculiar teenage psychology interpreted the the Herman Hesse’ story arc in mesmerizing ways. Hesse seduces the young minds with the worlds he created in his novels.  Hesse’s world appeals because of how the adolescents viewed their place in the world; how they feel about their social status within their social network; and the struggles, real or perceived, that they had overcome in the vast and unknown world.

Bildungsroman is a form of German literature which details the moral and psychological growth of the main character; Hermann Hesse is a master of this form. His novels appeal to the unfettered idealism that afflicts adolescents, and he uses the bildungsroman form to draw the young reader into a world of possibilities that was perceived to be unreachable by the adolescent reader. I had assiduously worked my way through Hesse’s oeuvre in my high school years, starting with Siddartha, following through with Narcissus and Goldmund, Steppenwolf, Demian, et. al.

The Magister Ludi,  or The Glass Bead Game, is the most recognized of Herman Hesse’s considerable written works. It is my favorite novel from one of my favorite authors. This novel was specifically cited in 1946  by the Swedish Academy during the Hesse’s Nobel Prize Award Ceremony for Literature. As much as his other novels occupied places of honor for Hesse fans, this novel is recognized as being the most representative of Hesse’s writing prowess in storytelling. It is also considered to be Hesse writing at the pinnacle of his distinguished literary career. It was also his last novel.

I have read the book a few times throughout my life. The first time was in my adolescence,  I ripped through it like a hurricane, devouring the story, the characters, and assimilating the lessons as I was able to interpret them in my rush to read and finish the book. The second time through I slowed down, as it was during my gradual school days and since I had read the book once already; I had the presence of mind to take copious amounts off notes on the salient lessons and had also created a vocabulary list.

This time I read the book because I had always felt the need to return to the touchstone of my adolescent philosophical beliefs and check on how my thoughts had evolved. It had been decades since my second reading, while I still consider this to be one of the most important books in my intellectual evolution, there had been enough time gone past where I felt I needed to re-check my own frame of reference. One of the important habits that I had developed in the intervening years is to think critically and question all the assumptions that I had based my belief system upon, to challenge the assumptions and make sure that the foundation of my philosophy is still valid.

The tale of Joseph Knecht appealed to the idealism of self-classified adolescent intellectual social outcast that I fancied myself to be because of what happened to the character the novel, the decisions that he made under the circumstances, and the reasons he used to justify those decisions.

I tried to live my life like Joseph Knecht: living virtuously and forthrightly. The book hinted at an inviolable code of behavior that I consciously tried to live by as I grew into adulthood.

I had left the book alone for a long time because life intruded and I was busy doing what I was supposed to be doing to build a career and to take part in society and the economy, a rather ironic statement given the nature of the book. The many years of living and experience had changed me and my defining philosophical foundation, I became curious about how the Hesse masterpiece was going to affect me after having lived a good deal of life and having had to change philosophically over that time. I also approached the reading with a significant amount of trepidation because I was mindful of how much I have changed as contrasted with the fuzzy and static memory of the book. I was afraid to find that the pragmatism I had accumulated over time along with the large dose of cynicism that had built up in the way I viewed reality was going to ruin my memories of one of my favorite books.

I took my time re-reading the book, stopping often to re-contemplate and re-examine my new impressions of the story as compared to my previous impressions. The narrative was as I had remembered, with the narrator’s naivete and optimism both buoying my spirits and making me nostalgic for the former version of me. Indeed the details of the story and the minutiae of the storyline reminding me of the times that I had spent devouring the material in my youthful enthusiasm. Long forgotten details flooded back into my active brain, it was like greeting long lost friends while also recalling long forgotten personal histories.

The details of the trials and tribulations of Joseph Knecht as he garnered deep and meaningful experiences throughout his young life as he journeyed to becoming an expert Glass Bead game player were buried deep in my memory; yet as I re-read the accounts I did so with interest and perspectives that I did not have when I was younger, in many ways it seemed like I was reading a new story, even though dim memories are recalled as I progressed through the story. This time through the prism that is formed by my life experiences and my hard-earned philosophical perspective.

As I finished the book once again, I felt that the re-reading served the present more cynical and pragmatic me as well if not better than when I read the Glass Bead Game the first few times. My fears about re-reading the book were mostly unfounded, although there were moments where I had doubted my decision to re-read. This re-reading served to emphasize Hesse’s underlying theme for this book as well as for most of his novels. It allowed me to revisit a story that was of utmost importance to me when I was younger, but more critically, it re-affirmed to me that even as I had fortunately evolved from an impressionable adolescent, the core of my philosophical existence has survived the evolution and affirmed my philosophical beliefs, even though the prism of my perspective has changed.

Ideally, I would like to have repeated this experience with many of the books that were meaningful to the past me, to critically re-examine the hard-wired basis of who I am. I know that is an ideal situation that would be very useful to help me sort out my present beliefs, but life is short and becoming even shorter. I chose The Glass Bead Game because it was so influential on my philosophical outlook that I felt is was imperative for me to take the plunge. I am very glad that I did.

Maybe I will revisit it again in a few decades, life willing.