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Jan. 26th, 2011 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
proximoception13. Poems, Hermann Hesse (tr. James Wright)
My first Hesse. Probably liked it much more for having just read the gull book - made me much less ashamed to be gnostic, or semi-gnostic or gnosticurious or whatever I am. Hesse's a simple poet, writing short rhymed stanza lyrics or longer free verse ones about walking and looking and thinking, in the tradition of early Holderlin & early Goethe, and some of the poems were beautiful. Wright chose these particular ones for being on the theme of homesickness, in an unrigorously gnostic sense, which made for a nice unity.
Not that I'm going to go grab Steppenwolf next. I did try reading Siddhartha once, but the god within me was dead of boredom by halfway through.
Hey, that's what Seagull reminded me of: another '60s youth cult book, Stranger in a Strange Land. Which I remember being a bit more awful, even.
Curious phenomenon, having those ex-youth as our teachers, growing up. Not that there weren't also a lot of squares. But the songs back in music class were mostly about peace and drugs and by people on peaceful drugs, I see in hindsight.
My first Hesse. Probably liked it much more for having just read the gull book - made me much less ashamed to be gnostic, or semi-gnostic or gnosticurious or whatever I am. Hesse's a simple poet, writing short rhymed stanza lyrics or longer free verse ones about walking and looking and thinking, in the tradition of early Holderlin & early Goethe, and some of the poems were beautiful. Wright chose these particular ones for being on the theme of homesickness, in an unrigorously gnostic sense, which made for a nice unity.
Not that I'm going to go grab Steppenwolf next. I did try reading Siddhartha once, but the god within me was dead of boredom by halfway through.
Hey, that's what Seagull reminded me of: another '60s youth cult book, Stranger in a Strange Land. Which I remember being a bit more awful, even.
Curious phenomenon, having those ex-youth as our teachers, growing up. Not that there weren't also a lot of squares. But the songs back in music class were mostly about peace and drugs and by people on peaceful drugs, I see in hindsight.
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Date: 2011-01-27 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-27 09:30 pm (UTC)