pd@eisx.UUCP (P. Devanbu) (10/13/83)
I read (only halfway) through Magister Ludi, and was once again disappointed with Hesse. My previous disappointment had been Siddhartha. "Magister Ludi" is well written, no doubt. Hesse is a skilled hand at the vignette. Methinks however, he does have a tendency (evinced in Siddhartha, as well) to protest too much. His protagonists are a trifle overstated. They are not quite human, but rather mannikins trotting out Hesse's fantasy of what people ought to be like. In this respect, Hesse does deserve an unflattering comparison to Ayn Rand. In addition the novel makes some incredibly Sexist statements. At somepoints, i had to pause to recover my verbophily (sorry). Some passages are simply revolting, even to one whose interests in feminism are mostly vicarious. This greatly reduced my respect for the Nobel comittee. The ideas stated in the book as regard to intellectual freedom, the "oneness" of music, art, history (Take a bow, Douglas Hofstadter), a hero with selfless dedication to the pursuit of beauty and truth, have a noble beauty to them; but they strike me as being a bit aseptic. The same seemed to apply to "Siddhartha". I would classify this as "calliterature". Pretty, not terribly inspiring, not quite human, not particularly substantive. Prem Devanbu (The opinions expressed in this article are my own. This does preclude the existence of other points of view, and does not indicate a lack of respect on my part for those who hold them).
preece@uicsl.UUCP (10/21/83)
#R:eisx:-62000:uicsl:16700004:000:1014 uicsl!preece Oct 14 15:07:00 1983 I read Magister Ludi about ten years ago along with a bunch of other Hesse, mostly to provide conversation for my sister, who was very much taken with them at the time. Magister Ludi was the only one I really liked. I confess a prediliction for the well used word, so my view may be biased in a different way than the author of the basenote. As to sexism, I couldn't say I recall the book well enough to comment. It's not really fair, though, to criticize a book for statements that are of their time simply because their time is past. Rather marvel at authors whose views somehow managed to transcend their milieu. Jane Austen had no trouble writing of women who fashioned their own lives despite the conventions of the day. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is a stereotype at the same time that he cries out against the stereotype. You can't ask a writer of an earlier day to anticipate our feelings about discrimination, no matter how pleasant it is when one does. scott preece pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece