I just finished listening the audio book Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.
After 7.5 hours of listening I finally got the idea of what Hesse wanted to
convey us. I read a book, a long time ago, maybe 30 years ago, but I did not
understand much. Now I got it.
His message is -
live the life, play, try to attain the laugher of the immortals.
According to him, the laughter, we should be after, is a space of freedom,
from norms, from forms, from concepts, from the artist’s ego. The laugher of
the immortals is a true laugh, he said; for it is clear that Steppenwolf has a
fake laugh. The path to attain the laugh of the immortals is tenuous.
Such laughter is not necessarily comedic, regardless of what mechanism
produced it, whether that be funny things, contradictions, jokes, humor, and
so on, it is a rather the burst of laughter, often produced awkwardly and
sometimes inappropriately.
I understood it all. I understood Pablo. I understood Mozart, and somewhere behind me I heard his ghastly laughter. I knew that all the hundred thousand pieces of life’s game were in my pocket. A glimpse of its meaning had stirred my reason and I was determined to begin the game afresh. I would sample its tortures once more and shudder again at its senselessness. I would traverse not once more, but often, the hell of my inner being.
One day I would be a better hand at the game. One day I would learn how to laugh. Pablo was waiting for me, and Mozart too.
~ The end of Steppenwolf written by Hermann Hesse
Mr. Hesse, let me illuminate the possibilities
There are no figurines of the life, no such thing as an artistic ego, no
personalities, it is all imagination. How do you get
rid of something that does not exists? How it looks a son of a barren woman?
If you make yourself deprived of illusions, imagination and hopes - if you
are deprived of your interests, cares and expectations - your world would
collapse, you would become empty, hopeless and alone just as a Steppenwolf.
I agree with you Hermann, it is not the right place to be but it's a great
place to start in a direction of dying into the mind.
By realizing that noting has any meaning is a death of "you" Hermann, the
death of everything it consisted of "Hermann", the destruction of all your
bullshit figurines collected through ignorance and inexperience. All
experiences will remain in you merely as material, but subject to
evaluation. Then you will be able to laugh at the world and at yourself.
You'll attain the laugher of the immortals. No one else has anything you need. No one else can lead you, pull you, push you or carry you. Mozart is not necessary to your happiness.
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