DEMIAN - Herman Hesse

Here is a book I finished summer of 1999 originally and it was lent to a friend whom never returned it (hate that) so I repurchased this copy in 2001 for my library.

The idea to read this came from my original love of Hesse in general during my early 20's that I developed after reading some of his other books.  I have currently read nineteen Hesse books, all in my early 20's and will review them all here in good time.  Some are his poetry that I don't find as appealing as his novels, however, I got stuck in a Hesse phase while I was a univeristy student and tried to consume as much as possible.

Fans of Hesse can easily identify his love of philosophy, specifically eastern philosophy which I find a lot of his best selling books to be heavily steeped in.  Being a philosophy major in university has helped me to identify this a little more clearly, but this also took a little out of the books for me, as during the time I was reading them it almost felt like work as I found myself trying to relate everything I was reading in this book to some sort of other philosophical reference.  Dangerous habit, and one I had to kick in order to fully enjoy reading this.

Without giving too much away, this book follows the character of Emil Sinclair and his interactions with another character Max Demian.  The book as a whole seems to take the young and rather 'blank-slate' of Sinclair's self and bring him to an awakening of self-hood.   Now that's easy for me to say after reading the book, but what the #$%* does that even mean you might wonder. ha!  Well, a key element in this book is the ever-present representation of duality.  As I remember reading somewhere; "light cannot be known, where darkness does not exist."  Of course, this is the classic yin-yang theme; you need the good to have the bad and vise versa.  You see this theme here time and time again, and often it is hard to detect and other times quite obvious - as with the mention of 'Abraxas' in the book, who as you find out is an ancient God who contains both divine and satanic elements.  You also see the duality between the main Character Sinclair and his darker-self; Demian, who I personally feel is part of Sinclair in some way, and this is made clearer later in the book at times (I won't spoil it) and also for me becomes quite obvious at the very end. I feel the end actually addresses the goal outlined by Hesse on the very first page. "I wanted only to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self."

I recommend this book for any and all students of philosophy, for those who are able to play around a little with their imagination while reading and not need something to be so literal.  I think this book is a book written for a younger generation and I say that becasue I am fairly confident in saying Hesse is an acquired taste, and most, if not all of the books I have read by him have a common thread; they relay heavily on the imagination and the wonders of self discovery which I feel is something a younger mind can appreciate more.  However, this books is also, in many ways that I can relate it, almost a Buddhist, and/or Idealist manuscript.  And these are the more fulfilling parts I think any age group can appreciate if they chose.  I am by NO means an expert of course, as this is just a hobby.
I have read critics of Hesse and they say this book was an incantation of Nietzschean and Jungian references. Personally I will have to turn to a good friend of mine; Mac Pearsall for proof of that, as he knows Nietzschean philosophy much better than I do, and I am only now starting to read Carl Jung so I'll have to get back to you on t hat front as well.

This book is 145 pages and I was able to finish it in one sitting as it reads quite easily.  On my sliding scale I gave it a solid 7/10 for its ability to weave through its entire course a pleasant aura of eastern thought which I enjoy very much.  It scored a little lower than I would have thought when I was in my 20's reading it for the first time, but as it stands today I am not able to recollect it as the great masterpiece I once thought it was.  Hesse in general has been a little too 'over-done' in my mind, and this is my own fault I suppose.  However, this is still a book I cherish in my library and certainly won't lend out again....erg.