I'm German and writing from Germany. I read Steppenwolf when I was a highschool student, in the later sixties or early seventies, I don't remember exactly when, and the first part of it up to when Hermine appears in the plot was a revelation for me. I didn't care that much for the second half. Everybody seems to think today, all the young people of the countercultural movement in Europe around 68 read Marx, but it wasn't the case at all. We read Nietzsche (who had a big influence on Hesse), Buddha, Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, Ginsbergs and O'Hara's poems, Camus, Sartre, Duras, then young German authors like Handke, Oswald Wiener (forgotten today) - and some Hesse. - Now, I'm a teaching young people myself, am close to retirement, and I've just read Steppenwolf with my class, it is the obligatory reading for the final exams for the next three years now. The students today find it difficult to read, but they learn a lot about Buddha, Nietzsche, the political ideas between the wars, Freud and Jung etc. as a side effect. But 68, flower power, the psychedelic movement etc. is as past for them like the Middle Ages.
Hi, I find this book to have some very deep parts and sentences. The whole concept of a the golden track Harry walks at first, etc. I also can't help but feel that there are some underlying messages hidden there. Maybe you can help me shed light on it. For example, in the beginning what is the meaning of the gate in the wall of the alley with the flickering letters, and that ut first it was a doorway that couldn't open and the second time around it was a rushing man who just handed him a book about himself? I can't wrap my mind around that?
@@HeroTimeManufacturing As i remember the flickering letters read something like "magical theater - just for lunatics" if i remember and translated it correctly. In a sense i think the flickering lights could be interpreted as a hidden, not really functioning part of his identity - as the magical theater is also the last party he attends where he goes to meet mozart and dances in hell. I think him reaching this part of himself closes the loop of character developement for haller. He learns through the the book about himself (the tractat) about the idea that splitting your identity in only two parts is not fitting because he consits of more then just two parts. I think the tractat teases him to brak out of the concept of duality and helps him explore more parts of himfself. And as he reaches the magical theater he reaches his most hideden part where only a flickering light shines. He pays for it by becoming maby partly insane because the entrance is just for lunatics.
As another person from the 60’s counter culture- I read most of Hesse’s books around that time and got to Steppenwolf in 72? It was important to me - not in terms of good or bad but Hesse entire oeuvre speaks authentically of Hesse’s own journey. Like afloat Castenada - I found Hesse a compulsion - as if his work contained some thread of cultural inquiry that became critical in my own conceptual development at the time - I also read Handke - Camus -Sartre - Ginsberg - Kerouac - Boroughs - Brautigan - but it was a reading culture in those days. Still I found Hesse compelling.
A wonderful novel that speaks on the one hand to alienated youth and on the other to those undergoing midlife crises and a search for life's elusive meaning, "Steppenwolf" might not appeal to those the book describes as "bourgeois." The "integration game" aspect of the Magic Theater is drawn from Jungian psychology. It isn't Hermann Hesse's most popular novel in German-speaking countries (possibly because it's definitely set in Switzerland), but it is a cultural icon to many. Society has polarized the individual, and those who would find life -- or immortality -- find a way to reintegrate what our cultures have fragmented.
Prilavolus This one sentence description is wonderful!... "Society has polarized the individual, and those who would find life -- or immortality -- find a way to reintegrate what our cultures have fragmented." ... words to live by :) Thanks so much for the erudite commentary!
I was turned on to Herman Hesse in the 90s when I was in college for the first time after HS in a philosophy class, the instructor assigned Siddhartha and through that connection I found Steppenwolf and have enamoured with it ever since. Unfortunately I didn't know much about philosophy back then but these two stepping stones were the gateway to many wonderful awakenings!
I have been slowly working my way through the Hesse novels and I find them all so enriching. I love that they often portray "seekers" or those who are struggling to understand themselves and their place in the world. Thanks for the comment!
I really love your summary of the book that is really precious to me , a very important part of my awakening in my early years. Something that keeps visiting me is the description of Hesse of the growing change in society at that time and the current one. I’m glad that you drew a correlation between them. 🙏🏼
This is my favorite book, and I loved listening to you talk about it. Your face and voice are so kind. I really enjoyed this video. Bless you. Thank you for this thoughtful analysis, and for existing.
Great video! My father, who lived through the counter culture movement here in the U.S., recently passed away. I found this book among his belongings and quickly devoured it. As soon as I finished reading it, I immediately came to RU-vid to look for discussions on the book. Really enjoyed watching this and hearing your take!
I love hearing stories about how people find books (or books find them) :) I'm sorry to hear your dad passed but what a wonderful little treasure he left you among his things. I'm so glad that you found the book chat interesting and thanks so much for the comment!
Hi. I read it for the same reason. My dad passed away and I remember he mentioned the book. He said that he was like the steppenwolf, he said that he liked to be alone and he lived most of his life by him self reading and smoking. I found so many similarities between my dad and Harry. However I dont if he ever had an awakening. He was very involved in the students movements in Mexico during the 60-70e
I have had this novel since the eighties, and I have been reading it intermittently since then without finishing it. It was only yesterday that I finally completed it. It was a real delight; I have aged maybe.
For me the book resonates as it has this atmosphere whereby one finds oneself in solitude ( as opposed to being lonely), whilst the protagonist finds bemusement in the splendor of middle class life, its civilized material comfort, and mundane stability, a beautiful companion etc. knows that deep down this is not real life, in the Buddhist sense, an illusion of the senses, and is frankly a bit lost. I think it is a welcoming antidote to the post modern globalized consumer society, it presents a different mode of being that is not faced outwards, in seeking constant gratification through consumption, and peer recognition, but rather faced inwards in dialogue with the ancient beast within. This is my very limited reading, but I trust reading will shift with the reader through time.
This was the go to novel for 1960’s culture, Hesse’s characters live in a metaphysical realm that Jung speaks of and psychedelics helped us to access. The Steppenwolf Harry Haller, and Hermione, are all pseudonyms for Herman Hesse himself. They continue to dwell and live in another space and time, laughing the laugh of the immortals
I would like to reread this book again at some point. I think it's a fascinating work and especially when considering the cultural impact that it has had. Thanks for the insightful comment!
Wow, what a flash-back. I guess better late than never. Te book came out a LONG time ago, and the movies, which I saw upon my arrival in the US from the Spanish-speaking world (read: Spain) was already a hit in the early 70s...
Great talk on the book. I must compliment the fact that some analysis was provided rather than just a synopsis and subjective praise that one often sees in reviews. For one, when I initially read it I was mostly concerned about the psychoanalytic part the book brings, IE the character (or characters?) embodied by Harry and not the socio-political aspects of it. Only when I came across the (very humorous by the way) conversation with Goethe I realized that the book is some sort of an amalgamation of commentaries on art, spirit, societal classes as well as psychology. Kind of like a human being, if I may.
Kyoukek thank you for the nice compliment. I don't feel like I'm qualified to be a book "critic" (yet I applaud those who are) so I try to just describe my individual experience with a work, realizing that others may (and probably will) have a different experience. I find your insight very interesting in that the book serves as "an amalgamation of commentaries". I'm sure that I would benefit from a re-reading at some point in order to soak in more of this depth. It took me two reads of Magister Ludi (The Bead Game) to begin to understand the message of that book as well.
Thank you for that, a most enjoyable and informative discussion, much appreciated. I have just read The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse and found it especially engaging, one of the few books that i read immediately again after finishing it the first time. Likewise the introduction by Timothy Leary is particularly excellent in its insights into human nature. The appeal of Hesse's works to the counter culture of the 60's (as well as of today) are obvious here. I would recommend the read, and i am just about to read Steppenwolf all the best
I just finished The Journey to the East this past weekend. Like you, when finished I immediately read it again. What did you think of the way it ended?
Dear EarnestlyEston: I enjoyed your video, however I am so curious about what you estimate as the meaning of Harry's transformation. In your video you said you didn't want to give it away. It's been 5 years. Could you share here briefly what you were thinking? I appreciate your perspective and want to know what you think is the central nub of this work.
In short I think the key to the meaning of life expressed in the book was living in joy. Sort of like the joyful innocence of a child without judgement and reaction in a state of just beingness. In this way the dualistic nature of the steppenwolf as well as the multiple self fragments of the game were rearranged and reconciled into a kind of unity and therefore a new reality for the main character. I hope that makes sense 🤓
I have not (yet), but I will get around to it eventually 🤓 I plan on reading Gertrude this year and have read several other novels of his since I did this chat which are available on my channel if you are interested.
@@EarnestlyEston I'll listen to them tonight. You are clearly a man who is well read. It's enjoyable listening to your insight. I see below another person commented on Journey. I think I will engage him. I'm not particularly clear on how it ends. To me it seemed to simply stop, as though I was missing a page where the actual ending occurred.
Strangely enough, many people think that dear Hermann is a madman. Why so ? To be adapted to a broken, insane system, THAT is in any case NO sign of mental health. Long live therefore the rebels . . . so: NO, he was just not a crazy mjan, crazy are, as said, those who are adapted to the miserable, sick system . . .
if you took some very strong mind altering substances all of this would be very clear to you ... it's not a joke on one level ... and it is on a very high level ... it's obvious to me that you haven't experienced what this book is about ...
Thanks! I have a couple more Hesse books planned to read this year as well so stay tuned :) I love your channel name by the way! I've subscribed and looking forward to watching.
