Of course we all read Steppenwolf, (English translation 1927,) Siddhartha, (1922 in German) The Glass Bead Game (German, 1943). Or something by him. He won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. Kind of an interesting choice, considering the war was just over, and there were glimpses of the horror. Maybe that was not common knowledge then. People were just happy to have any old quilt of ideas to pull over their bloodshot minds. Nothing controversial; Hesse values self-knowledge, oh that's worth a literary prize.
Here's a nice biographical article, though it is poorly edited. It quotes Hesse:
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding and fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side. (from The Journey to the East, 1932).
and
"There is no reality except the one contained within us,....That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself."
Standard New Algae stuff: Man's feelings get hurt when things don't go his way. But the plucky fellows can soldier through the despair this causes. Because, the world is all consciousness, and so really, it is easier for man to create his dream cities and pretend they have some reality --- it is after all, all consciousness. Consciousness is a lot softer than granite. Nobody notices, man is trying to dig a ditch with a plumber's helper. If reality is all consciousness what difference does it make?
And nobody notices,-- it does not matter What you think. All that matters is How you think.
Hesse is just typical of an intellectual. And at least he got cats right.
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