54/365 Wednesday, 02/23/2011

This is my "recreational" reading at the moment. It is going very slowly--usually only a few pages before I go to sleep. Das Glasperlenspiel/The Glass Bead Game or Magister Ludi  was Herman Hesse's last novel--he worked on it from 1931 to 1943. It was published in Switzerland. It is a strange book and I have already started but not finished it once---which is something I do not like doing. The only other two books I have started but not finished in recent memory are Musil's Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften/The Man without Qualities and W.G.Sebald's Austerlitz, both of which I hope to go back and reread and finish in the not too distant future. I'm getting more into it the second time and I do find it interesting. I read Hesse mainly for the ideas, I do not find his writing style as compelling as that of either Thomas Mann or Franz Kafka, but his oeuvre is still interesting. And also quite teachable. I've taught "Narcissus & Goldmund" numerous times in translation as part of a Freshman Seminar centered on "Concepts of Friendship in German Literature". I've also taught Siddhartha once to a small class at Wabash College. (Many moons ago it must be said!).
Since Hesse wrote The Glass Bead Game from 1931-43, he must have had the Third Reich in mind as the kind of society the book is disdainful of. And Hesse being Hesse means his vision of a future utopia (so far at least) is rather medieval and ascetic. I am intrigued as to how he is going to write a whole novel about this one expert game player. That's kind of what is keeping me reading. I may report back on how it is going at a later point.