Friday, 25 September 2015

Siddahrta – Hermann Hesse



Dare I say it, but I have the feeling that oriental mysticism transposed into Western culture often serves to hide the (spiritual) emptiness of our society. And Siddahrta, to me, is to a large extent a reflection of a readership that turns Eastwards to find a meaning to an otherwise fairly hollow existence.

I am being dreadfully harsh, I know, but I’d rather leave traditions where they are, without indiscriminately borrowing from them and watering down their unquestionable meaningfulness.

I am probably questioning the people who love Siddahrta more than the book itself, but I have the feeling that, in 1922, the novel might have actually had much more literary weight than it does now.

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