If the War Goes On

by Hermann Hesse

"One of the most astonishing aspects of Hesse's career is the clear-sightedness and consistency of his political views, his passionate espousal of pacifism and internationism from the start of World War I to the end of his life. The earliest essay in this book was written in September, 1914 and was followed by a stream of letters, essays, and pamphlets that reached its hight point with "Zarathustra's Return" (published anonymously in 1919, the year that also saw the publication of 'Demian'), in which Hesse exhorted German youth to shake off the false gods of nationalism and militarism that had led their country into the abyss. Such views earned him the labels 'traitor' and 'viper' in Germany, but after World War II he was moved to reiterate his beliefs in another series of essays and letters. Hesse arranged his anti-war writings for publication in one volume in 1946; an amplified edition appeared 1n 1949 and that text has been followed for this first Engish language Edition."

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy, Essays, German Literature, History, Classics

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Many works, including Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927), of German-born Swiss writer Hermann Hesse concern the struggle of the individual to find wholeness and meaning in life; he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946.

Other best-known works of this poet, novelist, and painter include The Glass Bead Game , which, also known as Magister Ludi, explore a search of an individual for spirituality outside society.

In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country, received enthusiastically Peter Camenzind , first great novel of Hesse.

Throughout Germany, people named many schools. In 1964, people founded the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis, awarded biennially, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of work of Hesse to a foreign language. The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, also associates a Hermann Hesse prize.

Reviews

[Peiman E iran · Rating 3 out of 5]

‎دوستانِ گرانقدر، این کتاب از 29 بخش تشکیل شده است و شاملِ مقاله ها و نوشته هایِ پراکنده ای از «هرمان هسه» نویسندهٔ آلمانی میباشد که در سالهای مختلف نوشته شده و موضوع اصلی این نوشته ها "جنگ" میباشد و البته نویسنده تلاش نموده تا با نوشتنِ این کتاب ثابت کند که کسانی که او را میهن فروش قلمداد کرده اند و او را آلمانی نمیدانند، در اشتباه هستند...در برخی از مقاله ها پاسخ هایی به نامه هایی که از آلمان برای او فرستاده شده است، نیز دیده میشود... برخی از نوشته ها خطاب به جوانانِ آلمانی است و چیزی که ناراحت کننده بود، این است که به نظر میرسد «هرمان هسه» دلیلِ میهن پرستی و غیرتِ ملی شدیدِ جوانانِ آلمانی را پیروی از «زرتشتِ خردمند» میداند و بارها به آنها گوشزد میکند که از «زرتشت» و سخنان و راهنمایی های او پیروی نکنند و حتی «زرتشت» را بذله گو خطاب میکند
‎به انتخاب برخی از نوشته هایِ این کتاب را در زیر برایتان مینویسم
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‎مصیبت، مردمِ ما را برآن داشته که خود را از شرّ رهبران کهنهٔ خود، رها سازند... این حرکت از عمق حاصلخیزِ ناخودآگاهی جوشید... این بیداری، شکستِ سنت های خشک بود... ایده آلهای ملی رهبرانِ قدیمِ ما فریبی بیش نبودند... قلبهامان گفت: آری... روز به روز مقدس ترین گنجینهٔ روزگارانِ گذشته را بیرون میریزیم، زیرا میبینیم که آنها هیچ بهتر از جواهراتِ رنگیِ لباسها نیستند
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‎هیچ انسانی هرگز اوجِ خلوت و انسانیت را با خواندنِ کتاب به چنگ نیاورده تا اراده کند در آن مسیر حرکت نماید...آنچه مردم نیاز دارند: انسانهایی است که آموخته اند خودشان باشند، سرنوشتِ خود را درک کرده باشند... آنها به تنهایی سرنوشتِ ملتِ خود میشوند
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‎آیندهٔ شما گذرگاه سخت و پرخطرِ بالغ شدنِ خردِ شما و کشفِ خدایِ درونتان است... خدا وجود ندارد و در هیچ کجایِ دیگر نیست، بدانید که هیچ خدایی جز خدایِ درونِ شما وجود ندارد... تا میتوانید کاوش کنید، هیچ پیامبری نمیتواند شما را از نیازِ نگرستین به درونِ خودتان خلاصی دهد و به خرد راهنمایی کند
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‎تاریخِ حقیقی، تاریخی که در کتبِ درسی و آلبوم ها نوشته شده، نمیباشد.. تاریخ مجموعه ای از کارهایِ بزرگ نیست، بلکه اقیانوسی از رنج هایِ عظیم است
‎خوشبختی یک گلِ زیباست، امّا زود پژمرده میشود. شاید این در موردِ تاریخ نیز صادق باشد. شاید برایِ داشتنِ چند دورهٔ کوتاه و بسیار مطلوب و خوبی که داشته ایم، باید بهایِ آن را با عذاب و خون و گریه پس دهیم
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‎به عقیدهٔ من وضعیتِ کنونیِ بشری از دو اختلالِ روحی سرچشمه میگیرد: جنونِ تکنولوژی و جنونِ ملی گرایی... این دو گرایش هستند که به جهانِ معاصر چهره میبخشند و مسئولِ دو جنگِ جهانگیر و پیامدهای آن بوده اند
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‎ترس به انسان چیزی نمی آموزد، اگر انسان از کشتن لذت ببرد، هیچ چیز حتی آگاهی بر خساراتِ مادی نوشته شده توسطِ جنگ، ممانعتی برای او ایجاد نخواهد کرد.. فقط در درجاتِ بینهایت کوچک، کنش هایِ انسانها از ملاحظاتِ منطقی سرچشمه میگیرد، ممکن است کسی کاملاً متقاعد شود که انجامِ هر حرکتی پوچ است و با اینحال باز از آن شاد شود. تنها انسانی احساساتی اینکار را میتواند بکند
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‎امیدوارم این ریویو برایِ شما خردگرایان مفید بوده باشه
‎«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite passages:

"...indeed every man of insight, every awakened and enlightened one, every true knower and teacher of mankind, has taught this one thing: namely, that man should not wish for greatness or happiness, for heroism or sweet peace, that he should wish for nothing at all but the pure and wakeful mind, the brave heart and faithful, knowing patience that will enable him to endure happiness as well as suffering, tumult as well as silence.

Let us wish for these good gifts. They all have the same source. They come from God, they are nothing other than the divine spark in each one of us. We do not perceive the spark every day; often we go a long time without perceiving it, but a single moment can bring it back to us, a moment of terror and despair, or a moment of blissful quietness: a glance into the mystery of a flower, or into the trusting eyes of a child, the sound of a few measures of music. At such moments, moments of extreme affliction or of quiet openness, each one of us knows, even if he cannot say it in words, the secret of all knowledge and all happiness, the secret of unity. The one God lives in us all, every parcel of the earth is our home, every man is our kinsman and brother; that is the knowledge to which we return when dire affliction or sweet rapture opens our ears and makes our hearts capable of love. And this knowledge of diving unity exposes all separation into races, nations, rich and poor, religions and parties as a delusion and a snare.

May this inner peace come to us and to all men..."

[Foz ☀️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

في مديح السلام وذم الحرب، يكتب لنا هيسه هذه المذكرات أو الرسائل على مدار قرون من الزمن منذ ابتداء الحرب الأولى إلى أواخر الأربعينيات بأسلوبه الفلسفي المحبوب بعيداً عن التعصب والتشدد، وبالمناسبة هناك رسالة بينه وبين صهيوني تم نشرها للملأ وأعجبني رأي هيسه فيها. استحقاقه لنوبل ماكان عبث وهناك أيضاً رسالة يشكر فيها السويد والعالم بتكريمه لنوبل وتكريمه أيضاً لجائزة غوته.
📄 يقول في مذكراته بعنوان (الفعل والمعاناة): " مجرد هروب من المعاناة. كان يؤلمكم أن تكونوا وحيدين، وهكذا أسس البشر المجتمعات."
كان هدف هيسه هو وقف حرب الإنسان من الإنسان ويدعو إلى السلام في كل كتاباته الفلسفية هنا، والالتفات إلى مايمكن تقديمه من تطور لمصلحة البشر.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If the War Goes On” is a collection of essays chosen by Herman Hesse that span over the 40 year period between World War I and the end of the Second World War. The majority of the essays are taken up with the former but there are also some universal truths explored that are applicable to the latter as well.
The main theme that runs throughout the book is that of a rejection of nationalism and of groupthink in general. Hesse, as he often reminds us, is not a pacifist, but views war and nationalism as corroding individualism. It is individualism of each man (women are not considered here) and his ability to live to his ultimate potential unfettered by oppression that makes the world beautiful.
Hesse insists that trying to better the world around you is a futile endeavor. Making yourself better is the only way to make the world better:

"The world wasn’t made to be bettered. Nor were you made to be bettered. You were made to be yourselves. You were made to enrich the world with a sound, a tone, a shadow. Be yourself, then the world will be rich and beautiful! Be other than yourself, be a liar and a coward, then the world will be poor and seem in need of betterment."

In theory the idea that unleashing our inner potential is the key to tranquility, (if not world peace which Hesse does not believe possible) is a nice thought but Hesseʼs seeming rejection of cooperation left me feeling cold.
While Hesse was undoubtedly a marvelous writer (I annotated this book like few others in recent memory) I also wonder about his own complicity in the Second World War in particular. Hesse is critical of those who joined the Nazi party to save their livelihoods and families and yet seems to be defensive about his decision to flee Germany and see out the war in a Swiss villa.
I couldnʼt help feeling that while Hesse is critical of those who made this particular choice, he didnʼt take into account that others perhaps didnʼt have the means or connections to get out like he did. He is critical of all the letters he gets postwar asking him to lend his name to help those in trouble, saying that he doesnʼt believe his “fame” would help and that they should essentially find another way. Yet in this, what was to me, callous disregard of people in need he forgets that it is precisely this “fame” he belittles which helped him escape the worst of the Nazi regime.
Most troubling for me is Hesseʼs prickliness at being criticized for sitting out the war. Hesse seems to believe he suffered just as much as anyone in Germany because his works were banned and his livelihood destroyed. I have a hard time with this equivalency or sympathizing with him while men and women were being tortured and killed in his absence. Hesse writes:

"For instance, there are all the old acquaintances who had written to me for years but stopped when they found out that I was under close surveillance and that corresponding with me could have very unpleasant consequences. Now they inform me that they are still in the land of the living, that they have always thought of me with affection and envied my good fortune at living in the paradise of Switzerland, and that, as I must be well aware, they had never sympathised with those damned Nazis. But many of these old acquaintances were party members for years. Now they tell me how they had one foot in the concentration camp all those years, and I am obliged to reply that the only anti-Nazis I can take seriously are those who had both feet in a camp, not one in a camp and the other in the
party."

In fairness, Hesse did lose family members in the war and I do not mean to belittle his loss. However he personally risked little and despite his protestations to the contrary, abdicates some moral authority when he criticizes the life and death choices of those who stayed behind.
This lack of moral authority and hypocrisy hurt his arguments and at least for me, were difficult to overlook despite the wonderful writing.

[Ahmed Almawali · Rating 3 out of 5]

على مدارِ فصول الكتاب فهرمان هيسه لا يتكلمُ سوى عن السلمِ ولا يذم إلا الحربَ وصانعيها، كان صوتًا مختلفًا من بين تلك الأصوات النادرة المنادية بخطلِ الحرب وسقمِها، هذه المقالاتُ بعضها كتبهُ قبلَ ما يقارب قرنا من الزمن وبعضها أكثرَ من نصفِ قرن وإن اختلفَ مضمونُها إلا أنها لا تخرج عن المضمونِ الذي ذكرتُه أعلاه ويبقى أكثر ما شدني رسالته الأخيرة التي بعثَ بها إلى أحد الصهاينة ويتجلى فيها شئٌ من فكرِه

[Shaimaa Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

كان هسة هو صوت العقل عندما عمّ الجنون الجميع واندفعوا إلى حربين عالميتين ومجازر لا تهدأ!
استمتعت بقراءة هذه المقالات القصيرة التى وضحت طريقة تفكير هيرمان هسة وآراءه فى الحرب والسياسة .. هتلر وألمانيا .. الوطنية ، جبن الشعب واندفاعه نحو النازية .. وأخيراً مقالته للشباب والتى استشرف فيها روح نيتشة وهكذا تكلم زرادشت

كتاب صغير ممتع لعاشقى هسة

[Tami Zaabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

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في الحقيقة، ولأسباب ��ديدة وشخصيّة أردت أن أبدأ السنة الجديدة مع العزيز هيرمان هسّه؛ كُنت في حاجة لكلماته حتى أتصالح مع الحياة، أو رُبّما أتغلب على بؤس العالم، في هذه المقالات يتأرجح هسه بين الحربين العالميتين، تُدرك معه كم يبدو السلام جميلاً وقابلاً للتحقيق لو أن كل شخص فكّر بإنسانيته، وكم يبدو العُنف قبيحاً وبشعاً ولا مبرر له، وأن كُل من يتغنّى أو يصفق للحروب هم أشخاص مسلُوبي الإرادة، ولم يمنحوا حتّى حُرية الإختيار أو حرية التعبير، ويجعلك تُدرك أنّه من السُخف أن تُهدر الدماء مهما كانت الأسباب لأن الحياة ثمينة، وفي اللحظة التي تفكر فيها للتصفيق لبطل يحمي دولتك من الأعدّاء بقتله ملايين من الأبرياء، فكّر قبل ذلك بواجباتك تجاه الإنسانية لأنّها من المفترض أن تأتي في المقام الأول قبل واجباتك تجاه وطنك.

هُنا هسّه بأسلوبه الساحر وكلماته الرقيقة، يقدّم حجج قويّة ضد الحروب، وصالحة لكل الأزمان.

تمّت

[Marouan Outsider · Rating 5 out of 5]

على خطى المراسلة التي جرت بين رومان رولان والعظيم تولتستوي، هرمان هيسه هو الأخر بعد تلقيه رسالة من رومان نفسه، يهدي اليه هذا الكتاب "اذا ما استمرت الحرب" كصديق له، مظهرا في الكتاب بعضا من ذكرياته متجلية في العديد من الرسائل التي في نظره من شأتها أن تقوم بنفس دور ما أداه رد تولنستوي في رسالته لصديقه.

يوجه هرمان هيسه رسائله الى العديد من الفئات والشخصيات الكبرى تارة وزيرا يقترح عليه الاصغاء الى موسيقى بيتهوفن، وتارة الى أصدقائه بأسم زرادتشت، وتارة الى روح الانسانية بهدف واحد هو السلام والعزلة واللانتماء والابتعاد عن كل ما هو يدعو الى التحسن والاصلاح، بقوله: ان العالم لم يخلق لكي يحسن، ولا أنتم خلقتم ليطرأ عليكم تحسن.

هرمان هيسه يصف أحد الطرائف من لحظات حياته لما عاد الى وطنه ألمانيا فوجد الاجواء على ما هي عليه، لازات تعيش حربا ودمارا، وجد منزله قد احترق، فارتئ ان يتمشى قليلا فألقي عليه القبظ بتهمة المشي بدون رخسة، فاصطحبه الظابط الى المركز، فخلعو حدائه وطلبوا منه غرامة ماليه لم يكن يملكها انذناك، فوصل به الامر الى درجة أنه قرر ان ينتحر من هذا الوجود اللعين، الى ان تدخل أحد المسؤولين في المركز الذي سبق وقرأ أحد كتبه.

(ان كان العالم قد حسن مرة فان ذالك ام يحدث على أيدي المصلحين والمحسنين، وانما بواسطة الانانيين الحقيقيين، الذين أحب كثيرا ان أعدكم منهم، أولئك الرجال الأنانيين حقا، وجديآ الذين لا هدف لهم ولا غايات. الراضين بالعيش وبأن يكونوا أنفسهم، يعانون كثيرا. لكنهم يعانون حبا وكرامة انهم يرغبون في ان يمرضوا شريطة ات يحصولو على امتياز ميتتهم الخاصة، الموت الذي هم أنفسهم مرو به، الخاص بهم وحدهم.)

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up during the Cold War and the U.S. invasions of Southeast Asia, on the one hand, and the civil rights movement, on the other, politics was almost inescapable. Older friends were being drafted, going underground, fleeing to Canada. Black and Hispanic friends were confronted by identity politics. My sympathies went naturally to the oppressed, so much so that I stirred to the nationalists resisting by force of arms what they identified as American imperialism, so much so that I gave the benefit of the doubt to even the successionists in the black, Hispanic, Native American etc. communities.

Yet, just as much as I naturally sympathized with the oppressed, so too I found physical violence repugnant. Clearly, there was a contradiction here and much of my reading during the last years of high school and first years of college was of pacifists of various stripes and of militant leftists as well.

Among the thinkers I found most helpful were Albert Camus, Gandhi, Tolstoy, David McReynolds, the Berrigan brothers and Hermann Hesse, many of whose political writings are collected in this volume.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hesse kept it real throughout his life and was committed to fighting fascism, imperialism, war and was all around woke for his time. His essays & letters at times demonstrate his arrogance, but you can tell love is the guide he follows throughout his life. Some gems in this collection as well as duds. I appreciated his discussion around how German people positioned themselves after ww2 in their letters to him - trying to justify why they had been in the National Socialist party and his unapologetic slap down. The global increase of authoritarianism, and Neo-fascism over the last decade as well this particular moment of social context of uprising against racial inequality and policing/State violence makes a few of these essays particularly interesting to see how much of the core dynamics for people can change & yet stay eerily the same.

[Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

كنت اظن بان الة الحرب لا يقف امامها صوت ,فكيف وان كان ذلك الصوت فى دولة القومية بها فى كيان وروح كل شخص ,هيسة كان صوت العقل عندما عم الجنون والكراهية كل شئ, مجموعة من المقالات مجمعة فى كتاب عن الاوضاع فى الحربين العالميتين وتسليط الضوء على ما حدث فى المانيا اثنا تلك الحربين.

[Tres Trece · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 it's Hesse, I love him

[Ryan Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up liking this book quite a bit more than I thought I would for just being a series of letters, essays, and correspondence written during and between the world wars.

Hesse has come to be one of my most beloved authors. This collection provides a unique glimpse into not only Hesse’s inner psyche and the details of the era he was writing, but insight into how those two things react with each other. And what a chemistry it was. Hesse has illuminated the smallest nuances on a wide variety of subjects including war, the human spirit, nation, quality of life, and the meaning of art. In all these facets, there is a deep and longing poetry in his words. You get the feeling true understanding always comes at the cost of helplessness. Wisdom is never free. A worthwhile non-fiction read for those curious about a writer’s personal experiences in times of great turmoil.

“Our kingdom my dear Max Brod, is simply not of this world. Our business is not to preach or to command or to plea, but you stand fast amid Hell and Devils”

[Farhana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got the name of the book while going through another writer's diary. I always love this idea of picking up a book from its mention in another book. :D

Last year (2015) I translated a poem of Hermann , the original poem dated back in 1915. I always rejoiced it - how the same feeling enlivens one's heart even after hundreds of years. :)

While reading this book, I again got this same notion. How spirits pass on from person to person, ages after ages. How Hermann was greatly motivated by Buddha, Lao-tzu, Goethe ! While speaking of Goethe, I have been reading Mein Kamph in parallel and in it how Hitler despised Goethe & his works & condemned him to be evil!!

Hermann throughout his writings emphasised on being one's true self & called for the uplift of morality. Just after finishing a week ago , Romain Rolland: The Story of a Conscience - this one is another with calls of moral & conscience !

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another reread of a book I first read about fifty years ago while in college. I believe it was the first book of essay I ever read and really established for me the extraordinary talent of Hermann Hesse. The first several essays were written during the first world war and reflected Hesse's attitude toward war as well as giving a German perspective of the situation. The middle section had essays written after the war and are devoted mostly to a defeated Germany and were mostly more inspirational and an attempt to make sense of the defeat. The last few essays were written following the second world war from his perspective in Switzerland where he had been living for many years but really had very little to say about the war. As with Hesse's other books the quality of the writing is what makes the book so outstanding.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book in the dusty stacks at Berkeley's Bancroft library during my Freshman year. It was a seminal book for me. I haven't looked at it since 1984, but I don't remember is as a pacifist book at all. He was running from an unjust and stupid war. That's different from pacifism.

It was also a snapshot from another era. People used to write letters to friends, prose and poetry. Instead of snapping blurry pictures with their cell phones, they took the time to really look around them and draw and paint what they saw. There was a refreshing bit of amateurism in the finest sense. He really looked around with an open mind and tried to depict what he saw.

[سلمان · Rating 5 out of 5]

نحن محظوظون أن يكون في عالمنا أشخاص كهيسة،أناس وقفوا بإيمان وتنوير أمام سعير القومية قبل جهنم الحرب! هذا الألماني/السويسري قاسى ألم تنازع العقل والغوغاء. نأى بنفسه عن جنون الجماهير ورضي بنوتة موسيقية صغيرة تبعث فيه الأمل.

الكتاب قيّم.

[Iman Bany Sakher · Rating 5 out of 5]

#إذا_ما_استمرت_الحرب
#مذكرات_في_الحب_والحرب_والسلاك
#هيرمان_هسه
عدد الصفحات : 158
التصنيف: مقالات
الكتاب التاسع عشر لعام 2020
حوى الكتاب على العديد من المقالات التي كتبها هسه أثناء وبعد الحرب العالمية الأولى، ولم تكن غالبيتها سياسية الطابع أو تحريضيةً للهمم أو تثبيطية، بل كانت أقرب للإنسانية والترفع عن عنصرية المنشأ والدولة، يخاطب فيها العقل والقلب على حدٍ سواء ويهاجم سياسة تضمين الفن والأدب في الحر��، كما كانت تفعل الدول تجاه المؤلفين والموسيقيين الآخرين ممن ينتمون لدولٍ معادية، وقد ظلَّ يدعو لنبذ القتل والعنف وتحكيم المنطق والدين ولاحظت تركيزه على الأخير في كثيرٍ من مقالاته، روايًا بعض الأحداث التي جرت له هو ولغيره بسبب تلك الحرب ومأساتها عليهم، مركزًا على عزلته التي يفضلها وكيف يقضيها، ولم أستغرب إضافته لنصوصٍ من كتاب هكذا تكلم زرادشت، ليس لأنه ألماني كما نيتشه بل لأنه هو نفسه قد كان على علاقة وطيدة بالديانات الهندوسية والزرادشتية بسبب تواجده في تلك المناطق وقد سبق أن كتب العديد من الروايات والكتب في هذا النوع. وقد حوى الكتاب أيضًا على رسائل تباينت وجهتها، فكان بعضها لشخصياتٍ سياسية في ألمانيا وأخرى أجنبية، ولكن أهم ما في تلك المراسلات هي رسالة الصهيوني ماكس برود التي أرسلها لهسه والذي عنونها بمحاولة التبرير لما جرى عام 1948 والمدخل الأدبي الذي حاول دخول�� لكي يستجدي عطفه، والرد الناري للأخير على محتوها . مما جعلني أحترم فكره وأدبه أكثر من أي وقتٍ مضى.
#إيمان_بني_صخر

[Peyman HAGH · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has twenty-nine chapters. It is a non-fiction book; it is corresponding letters between Mr. Hesse and different individuals they talked about during World War I and World War II. As I was reading this book, I noticed the same theme is resonating between this book and what Iranians are experiencing post the 1979 Revolution in Iran.

Mr. Hesse is a pacifist and wants to tell his readers how war is taking humanity away from people. War transforms them into soulless individuals that they no longer care about their well-being.

On page 11, the author gives reason for World War I and II, "He was a citizen and patriot in the international world of thought, of inner freedom, of intellectual conscience. In the moments of his best thinking, he saw the histories of nations no longer as separate, independent destinies but as subordinate parts of a total movement."

On page 11, the author explains how good people transformed into a cold person who no longer has any good thoughts toward another human being. "That the attitude of our military men, who treat an enemy prisoner with consideration, becomes a living approach to our thinkers, who are no longer willing to respect and esteem the enemy even when he is peaceful and brings benefits.

The author's foundation is under the premise of "Thou shall not kill." It is the essence of Christianity, which makes it different than other Ibrahimc faiths. The author drafts a letter to Herr Minister and says, "Beethoven's music and the words of the Bible told me the same thing; they were water from the same spring, the only spring from which man derives good. And then suddenly. Herr Minister, it came to me that your speech and the speeches of your governing colleagues in both camps do not flow from that spring, that they lack what can make human words important and valuable. They lack love; they lack humanity."

The End Product of War:
Page 19. So I heard all countries looked the same; even the difference between belligerent and neutral countries had virtually disappeared. Since the introduction of bombing from free balloons, which automatically dropped their bombs on the civilian population from an altitude of fifty to sixty thousand feet, national boundaries, though as closely guarded as ever, had become somewhat illusory.

What Does War to People? How Do People Tolerate Political-Economy Pressure?
Page 25. Practically everyone who is not a soldier is a civil servant. That makes life bearable for most people; a good many are genuinely happy. Little by little, one gets used to the shortages. When the potatoes gave out, we had to put up with sawdust gruel-they season it with tar now; it is surprisingly tasty-we all thought it would be unbearable. But then we got used to it. And the same with everything else.

There is no One True Religion:
Page 30. The essence of love, beauty, and holiness does not reside in Christianity or antiquity, or Goethe or Tolstoy-it lives in you, in you and me, in each one of us. This is the one eternal and forever identical doctrine, our one eternal truth. It is the doctrine of the 'Kingdom of Heaven' that we bear within ourselves.

Define War and Peace:
Page 55. Who call war the primordial and natural state is right. Insofar as man is an animal, he lives by struggle; he lives at others' expense, whom he fears and hates. Life is war.

Peace is something we do not know.

Being Self-authentic:
Page 107. The world was not made to be bettered. Nor were you made to be bettered. You were made to be yourselves. You were made to enrich the world with a sound, a tone, a shadow. Be yourself, and then the world will be rich and beautiful! Be other than yourself, be a liar, and a coward, then the world will be imperfect and seem in need of betterment.

What Kind of World Do We Live in:
Page 110. The world is cruel and incalculable; it loves only the strong and the able; it values those who remain true to themselves. Others can achieve only short-lived success.

Nature of Humanity:
Page 127. Most humans depend on four things they desire too much: long life, fame; title and rank; money and possessions.

What Does Nationalism Do to People:
Page 149. Swabia was a naturalized citizen of Wurttemberg. The rest of us were citizens of Basel, where our father had acquired citizenship. It was not these circumstances alone that made us permanently incapable of any serious nationalism, but they had a good deal to do with it. It is a good thing for us both that with all the nationalist bluster in the world around us, our childhood and origins' mere recollection makes us immune to such madness.

Delusional People:
Page 159. Another group consists of former colleagues and friends who openly and unreservedly support Hitler's triumphal progress all through the years. Now they write me touchingly friendly letters, telling me all about their lives, their bomb damage and domestic cares, their children and grandchildren, as though nothing had happened, as though nothing had become between us, as though they had not helped to kill friends and relatives of my wife, who is Jewish, and to discredit and destroy my life work. Not one of them says that he repents that he sees things in an entirely different light today, that he was deluded.

[Marian]

Read the chapter called "THE EUROPEAN." And this was written a century ago- by a white, German European. Mind-blowing.

[Mz · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.fractalart.gr/dyo-monachi...

[آمنة باروت · Rating 5 out of 5]

مكتبة لا تحتوي كتاباً واحداً لهيرمان هيسه ليست مكتبة.
مذكراته في الحب والحرب والسلام درس على الجميع تعلمه

[Ricardo Munguia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pequeño libro de ensayos y escritos que reflexionan sobre la guerra y la literatura. Los textos fueron escogidos personalmente por el autor y abarca un periodo de alrededor de 30 años, desde el final de la primera guerra mundial, hasta el final de la segunda.

La reflexión principal del texto con respecto a la guerra es que es un esfuerzo inútil y criminal, abanderado por lideres fanáticos con poca visión, y que los individuos, aunque no sean participes deben colaborar a detenerla. Lo más interesante son los escritos de la posguerra, siendo el autor de nacionalidad alemana (aunque exiliado en Suiza) sufrió la pérdida en las dos grandes guerras y su respuesta ante esto es aceptar la derrota con humildad y dignidad, aceptar lo impuesto por los vencedores en favor de la paz y dejar las envidias y recriminaciones en el pasado para construir un mundo nuevo con una nueva visión, en el que su fundamento sea el amor al prójimo. Se dice que el autor fue pacifista, y en cierto sentido lo fue, pero el se considera como un humanista y racionalista debido a su postura fue duramente criticado por sus connacionales contemporáneos.

Con respecto a la literatura hay tres textos interesante, el primero es su discurso de aceptación del premio Nobel de literatura, el segundo es el de la aceptación del premio Goethe, los discursos son breves y sencillos. El tercero es una respuesta a una carta que recibió de un lector japonés con aspiraciones de novelista, que le fue imposible mandar. En particular esta carta abarca parte de sus opiniones literarias (que no e tenido la oportunidad de leer en otros de sus textos) en la que menciona que la labor de un autor es la esparcir la luz en el mundo y que hay que ser críticos de las virtudes y deficiencias de nuestros escritores favoritos, sin caer en un fanatismo ciego.

Es un lástima que este texto no haya sido reeditado en mucho tiempo, pues a pesar de que algunos de sus escritos van a cumplir 100 años, los mensajes que contiene aún tienen vigencia. De los pocos textos no literarios del autor lo considero uno de mis favoritos. Recomendado par aquellas personas quienes buscan reflexiones profundas, filosóficas y un poco religiosas, sobre la guerra, la humanidad y los gobiernos.

[Zobidah_alhemiry · Rating 5 out of 5]

#إذا_ما_استمرت_الحرب
#هيرمان_هيسه
عدد الصفحات 158
الكتاب الثامن والثمانون لعام 2020

الكتاب مجموعة من المقالات التي كتبها هيسه أثناء الحرب العالمية الأولى وحتى نهاية الحرب العالمية الثانية، ما ستجده بمقالاته هو صوت الإنسانية لإنسان ترفع وتجرد من كل الميول الحزبية والقومية وندد بها ، هو يدعو لنبذ القتل لتحكيم العقل قبل القلب لتحكيم الدين وإيقاف الحروب التي تُنهك، يهاجم هيسة مايحدث مع الفن والأدب في زمن الحرب وذلك بإقحامه فيها ومهاجمة الأدباء الذينا ينتمون للدول المعادية، عرض هيسة المُعاناة التي تعرض لها هو وغيرة بسبب الحرب ، كما كان هيسة هنا هو صوت الفرد الألماني المهزوم ، وأيضاً قام هيسة بإضافة نصوص أتت على لسان زاردشت_راقت لي جداً_ ، المقالات منها سياسية وأخرى إجتماعية كم تضمن عدة رسائل ومراسلات قام بها الكاتب مع شخصيات ألمانية شهيرة وأخرى أجنبية ، وكم أحببت رده اللاذع على الرسالة التي تلقاها من الصهيوني المدعو ماكس برود بعد محاولته لتبرير وإستجدى عطف هيسة فيما ماجرى بنكبة ١٩٤٨.
لهيسة فكر راقي يُحترم أحببت الكتاب جداً وأقول أنه من ضمن الكتب التي تُقرا ثم تُقرا 💙

[Alex Budris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The humanistic and artistic sensibilities shown in this collection of essays - written in times of great socio-economic upheaval - namely, war - are as important as ever in today's ultra-digitized age of extreme social polarization and failed democracy. Hesse urges us to look past the garish fad of our 'times' - to look beyond material (and digital) concerns, and into 'the beautiful and authentic reality we bear within us'. (pg 46).

Hesse's ideas and ideals are noble and true, but I fear they are permanently lost to us.

[Katherine Cherington · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting collection, particularly the essays from the time of WW1. You don’t often get to read about that event, let alone hear the German perspective of it.
It is crazy to me how hopefully and trusting in human goodness Hesse remained for so long. It also made for a refreshing read. Then work war 2 broke him, as it did so many. I don’t enjoy the later essays quite as much, probably for this reason. Very good book

[Hind · Rating 4 out of 5]

هذه مقالات كتبت من ١٠٠ سنة وكأنها تصف حالة اليوم . أن الحروب ستبقى ما بقي الإنسان على هذه الأرض وما لم ينكر الإنسان من أعماق قلبه وروحه الحرب لن يكون هناك سلام .

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of war-time essays, letters and short allegorical stories served many purposes. From a historical point of view, it showed the utter despair as WWI looked never to end, even after 4 years of fighting and civilian food rationing in support of the troops, especially given the fact that any possibility of “victory” was clearly lost. It similarly showed the optimism in the years after the abdication of the Kaiser and Hesse’s plea for Germany to return to the mediocre political entity, but one full of poets, philosophers and scientists, that it had been before unification. The reader familiar with Hesse’s work, especially Demian and Steppenwolf, will also see Hesse prefiguring the themes of searching for identity and the need to do so from within, something that he hopes the German people will be able to do in the aftershock of defeat. Some of these letters also show Hesse’s understanding of the role of the writer in the world and the importance of having them, without renouncing the specificity of their culture, speak for humanity as a whole and rise about the false walls placed to pit one community against another.

[Cayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

“THE NATIONS are at each other’s throats; every day countless men are suffering and dying in terrible battles. In the midst of the sensational news from the front, I have recalled, as sometimes happens, a long-forgotten moment from my boyhood years. I was fourteen”

“The subject of the essay we were to write was dictated to us: “What good and what bad aspects of human nature are aroused and developed by war?” What I wrote on the subject was based on no experience of any kind and accordingly the result was dismal; what I then as a boy understood about war, its virtues and burdens, had nothing in common with what I should call by these names today”

“The men who are risking their lives every day at the front may be entitled to bitterness, to momentary anger and hatred; the same may be true of active politicians. But we writers, artists, and journalists—can it be our function to make things worse than they are? Is the situation not already ugly and deplorable enough?”

“There has always been war, ever since the earliest human destinies known to us, and there was no reason on the eve of this one for the belief that war had been done away with. Such a belief was engendered only by the habit of a prolonged peace. There will be war until the majority of human beings are able to live in the Goethean realm of the human spirit.”

“the elimination of war remains our noblest aim and the ultimate consequence of the Western, Christian ethic. A scientist searching for a way to combat a disease will not drop his work because a new epidemic has broken out. Much less will “peace on earth” and friendship among men ever cease to be our highest ideal.”

“Human culture comes into being through the conversion of animal drives into more spiritual impulses, through the sense of shame, through imagination and knowledge”

“Precisely this wretched World War must make us more keenly aware that love is higher than hate, understanding than anger, peace than war. Or what would be the good of it?”

“you feel a certain respect for the Commandments and for the sayings of Jesus—at least in public. But if you believe in a single one of the ideals for which you are waging war, the freedom of nations, freedom of the seas, social progress, or the rights of small countries—if you truly, in your heart of hearts, believe in a single one of these generous ideals, you will have to recognize on rereading your speech that it does not serve that ideal or any other. It is not the expression and product of a faith, of any awareness of a human need,”

“Dilemmas are solved by necessities. One day it will become necessary for you and your enemy colleagues to face up to your dilemma and make decisions that will put an end to it.”

“perhaps the voice of a great poet, the voice of the Bible, the eternal voice of humanity that speaks clearly to us from art, would give you the power of true sight and hearing”

“ you would see the earth, our patient old earth, so littered with the dead and dying, so ravaged and shattered, so charred and desecrated. You would see soldiers lying for days in no-man’s-land, unable with their mutilated hands to shoo the flies from their mortal wounds. You would hear the voices of the wounded, the screams of the mad, the accusing plaints of mothers and fathers, sweethearts and sisters, the people’s cry of hunger”

“six months or even one month of war costs more than what anything it can achieve is worth.”

“your deed would stand higher in the eyes of mankind than the deeds of all those who have ever waged victorious wars.”

“EVER SINCE I WAS A BOY I have been in the habit of disappearing now and then, to restore myself by immersion in other worlds”

“I slipped away to breathe different air. I left the plane on which we live and went to live on another plane. I spent some time in remote regions of the past, raced through nations and epochs without finding contentment, observed the usual crucifixions, intrigues, and movements of progress on earth, and then withdrew for a while into the cosmic.”

“Sentimentality is our typical attitude toward Christmas and the few other outward occasions on which vestiges of the Christian order still enter into our lives. Our feeling on such occasions is this: “This idea of love is a great thing!” How true that only love can redeem us! And what a pity that our circumstances allow us the luxury of this noble sentiment only once a year, that our business and other important concerns keep us away from it all the rest of the time”

“Because it is sentimentality to comfort ourselves with feelings that we do not take seriously enough to make sacrifices for, to convert into actions.”

“The “cultivated” man of today takes a characteristic attitude toward the teachings of Jesus: all year long he neither gives them a thought nor lives by them, but on Christmas Eve he gives way to a vague, melancholy childhood memory and wallows in cheap, tame, pious sentiments, just as once or twice a year, while listening to the St. Matthew Passion for instance, he makes his bow to this long-forgotten but still troubling and secretly powerful world.”

“Before we celebrate another Christmas, before we try once again to appease our one eternal and truly important yearning with mass-produced imitation sentiment, let us face up to our wretched situation. No idea or principle is to blame for all our wretchedness, for the nullity, the coarseness, the barrenness of our lives, for war and hunger and everything else that is evil and dismal; we ourselves are to blame. And it is only through ourselves, through our insight and our will, that a change can come about.”

“It makes no difference whether we go back to the teachings of Jesus and make them our own again, or whether we seek new forms. Where they strike the eternal core of humanity, the teachings of Jesus and of Lao-tzu, of the Vedas and of Goethe are the same. There is only one doctrine. There is only one religion. There is only one happiness. There are a thousand forms, a thousand heralds, but only one call, one voice. The voice of God does not come from Mount Sinai, it does not come from the Bible. The essence of love, beauty, and holiness does not reside in Christianity or in antiquity or in Goethe or Tolstoy—it resides in you, in you and me, in each one of us. This is the one eternal and forever identical doctrine, our one eternal truth. It is the doctrine of the “Kingdom of Heaven” that we bear within ourselves.”

“Demand more of yourselves! Love and joy and the mysterious thing we call “happiness” are not over here or over there, they are only “within ourselves.”

“if anywhere a peaceful blade of grass tries to pierce the ground, a military boot is quick to trample it.”

“The bigger, the bloodier, the more destructive these final battles of the World War prove to be, the less will be accomplished for the future, the less hope there will be of appeasing hatreds and rivalries, or of doing away with the idea that political aims can be attained by the criminal instrumentality of war”

“it is our duty, the one sacred duty of every man of good will on earth, not to sheathe ourselves in indifference and let things take their course, but to do our utmost to prevent this final catastrophe.”

“This is possible only because we are all too lazy, too easygoing, too cowardly. It is possible only because somewhere in our secret hearts we approve or tolerate the war”

“Every politician in the world is all in favor of revolution, reason, and the laying down of arms—but only in the enemy camp, not in his own”

“We Europeans at all events have the bloodiest and most ruthless of all rulers: war”

“Peace is at hand! As a thought, a desire, a suggestion, as a power working in silence, it is everywhere, in every heart. If each one of us opens his heart to it, if each one of us firmly resolves to serve the cause of peace, to communicate his thoughts and intimations of peace—if every man of good will decides to devote himself exclusively for a little while to clearing away the obstacles, the barriers to peace, then we shall have peace.”

“AT LAST the Lord God relented and sent the great flood, so putting an end to the era in the history of the earth that had culminated in the bloody World War. Compassionately the waters washed away what had desecrated the aging planet, the blood-drenched snow fields and the mountains bristling with cannon, the rotting corpses along with those who mourned them, those drunk with blood lust along with the impoverished, the starving along with those who had gone mad.”

“the sole surviving European drifted about in the waters, employing his last strength to record the events of the last days, for he wished the men of the future to know that his fatherland had outlived its enemies by several hours, so securing the palm of victory for all time”

“Night fell, and in the morning the pointed summit of the Holy Mountain emerged from the waters.”

“From one minute to the next I saw the world as it looks when we are free from care. Plump blackbirds darted through the bare hedges and the lime trees bordering the farms etched the fine network of their branches into the blue, lightly clouded spring sky. Here and there on the fringes of the fields there were patches of glistening fresh green, and the light played over the lush moss on the trunks of the walnut trees”

“ while my walk lasted, I lived not in what we call “reality” but in the beautiful authentic reality we bear within us. I did what children and lovers and poets do. I forgot all will and purpose and let myself drift in pursuit of lovely, colorful dreams.”

“I almost fell asleep in the warm sun, but suddenly it all came back to me: I was free and my own master, I could do whatever I liked, I was lying on a beach, and far and wide there was no one but me”

“as I chewed, a remote, forgotten childhood happiness flowed from the bread and sausage and engulfed me completely.”

“The barely intimated greens of the foreground and of the leafy chestnut trees began to play upon one another and enter into a harmony with the muffled red and blue of the background. The friendships and affections of the colors, their attractions and enmities rang out, and soon all the life within me was concentrated in the little square of cardboard on my knees. Everything the world had to say and do to me, to confess to me and ask my forgiveness for—and I to the world—lay there ardent and still in the white and blue, in the bold joyful yellow and the sweet serene green. And I felt that this was life! This was my share in the world, my joy and my burden. Here I was at home”

“Insofar as man is an animal, he lives by struggle, he lives at the expense of others, whom he fears and hates. Life then is war.

“Peace” is much harder to define. Peace is neither an original paradisiacal state nor a form of coexistence by mutual consent. Peace is something we do not know; we can only sense it and search for it. Peace is an ideal. It is infinitely complex, unstable and fragile”

“When first uttered, the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” was enormous in scope. It was almost synonymous with “Thou shalt not breathe”! It was seemingly impossible, insane, and self-destructive. And yet this maxim has retained its power down through the ages, it has created laws, attitudes, and ethical doctrines; few other maxims have borne such fruit and so revolutionized the life of man.”

“It means: don’t deprive yourself of the other man, don’t harm yourself! The other man is not a stranger; he is not something remote, unrelated to me, and self"

“one opinion that has often been expressed in the course of the war is absolutely mistaken: the opinion that, through its sheer magnitude and the gigantic mechanism of horror it set in motion, this war would frighten future generations out of ever making war again. Fear teaches men nothing. If men enjoy killing, no memory of war will deter them.”

“What then can give rise to a true spirit of peace on earth? Not commandments and not practical experience. Like all human progress, the love of peace must come from knowledge.”

“It is the knowledge that, starting from this innermost point, we can at all times transcend all pairs of opposites, transforming white into black, evil into good, night into day. The Indians call it ‘Atman,’ the Chinese ‘Tao’; Christians call it ‘grace.’ Where that supreme knowledge is present (as in Jesus, Buddha, Plato, or Lao-tzu), a threshold is crossed beyond which miracles begin.”

“Each thing on earth discloses itself twofold, as ‘of this world’ and ‘not of this world.’ But ‘this world’ means what is ‘outside us.’ Everything that is outside us can become enemy, danger, fear and death. The light dawns with the experience that this entire ‘outward’ world is not only an object of our perception but at the same time the creation of our soul, with the transformation of all outward into inward things, of the world into the self.”

“WHEN I WAS A BOY attending a bad Latin school, what was known as ‘history’ seemed to me as infinitely venerable, remote, noble, and great as Jehovah or Moses. History was once upon a time, it had once been present and real, it had hurled its thunders and lightnings and long since passed away; now it was remote and venerable, framed in books, and studied in school.”

“the whole thing had been magnificent and genuinely ‘historical’—quite different from yesterday and today. Men and women had performed amazing deeds, suffered amazing hardships; the people all together had wept and laughed, swept off their feet by the heady events; strangers had embraced one another on the street; bravery and self-sacrifice had been self-evident. Heavens above! To have witnessed such times! None of the people we knew were heroes”

“I began to doubt the venerable character of history, I refused to believe any longer that the men and nations of earlier times were different from those of today, that their lives had consisted not of everyday events but of scenes from grand opera”

“I was becoming distrustful of voices from outside, and the more official they were, the more I distrusted them. All in all, I was beginning to feel that what is really interesting and worthwhile, what can truly concern us, excite us, and give us fulfillment, is not outside us but within us.”

“course I understand why these times seemed great to a good many people. Thousands made their first contact with the soul, with some kind of inner life. Old maids who had been feeding poodles were caring for the wounded; in risking their lives, young men gained their first overpowering feeling of what life is”

“For the rest of us, the poets and religious-minded, who believed in God even on weekdays and were already familiar with the life of the soul, to us these times seemed no greater or less great than any others. Because, in our innermost heart and being, we lived outside the times.”

“we distinguish two varieties of human being: those who try to live by their principles and those who carry them in their vest pockets.”

“What mighty things are happening today, how many hearts are beating once again with passionate devotion and hope! How immense are the possibilities! We eccentrics and preachers in the desert do not stand aloof, we are not indifferent, we do not look down from above—but to us, only what happens in human souls seems great.”

“No one seems greatly excited over the fact that after four years of horror the senseless shooting has stopped. Strange world! Over what trifles, by comparison, people have started in once again to smash windowpanes and each other’s skulls!”

“Out of the darkness of these days a light beckons, showing the path that this defeated people must travel. It cannot return to childhood”

“go back to writing poems and playing sonatas in peaceful little cities. But it can take the path which an individual must take when his life has led him into error and deep torment. It can recollect its past, its origin and childhood, its greatness, its glory and its defeat, and through this recollection find the strength which is inherent in it and can never be lost. As the pious say, it must ‘look within.’ And deep within itself it will find intact its own innermost being, which will not try to evade its destiny but embrace it and, building on what is best and most essential in itself, make a fresh start.”

“AS LONG AS A MAN IS WELL OFF, he can afford to do superfluous and foolish things”

“When well-being gives way to affliction, life begins to educate us”

“The days of affliction have come. May they bring with them a beginning of education”

“Today we are not victors. Our role has changed. And whether we are able to go on living in the world and to prosper depends entirely on our ability to recognize our role, on our sincere willingness to bear the consequences of our situation”

“We have chosen the hardest path a man, not to say a people, can travel: the path of sincerity, the path of love. If we travel it to the end, we shall have won. Then this long war and painful defeat shall cease to be a festering wound and become our deserved good fortune, our better future, our pride and possession”

“words cannot convince the enemy of our sincerity. We must win him over slowly and irresistibly with truth and love”

“Ours is the role and the task of the vanquished. The task is the sacred and immemorial task of all the unfortunate on earth: not only to bear our lot but to assume it completely, to make ourselves one with it, to understand it—until our misfortune is no longer felt to be an alien fate, hailed down upon us from distant clouds, but becomes part and parcel of ourselves, permeating our being and guiding our thoughts.”

“We have grown accustomed to demanding something of ourselves that no man has in himself by nature: heroism. As long as you are winning, heroism seems very attractive. Once you are defeated and require the strength to face your situation and to master it, heroism proves to be a hostile, dangerous, and paralyzing force”

“If our revolution has been a mere attempt to get off easier, to shirk some part of our fate, then this revolution is worthless.”

“Let us resist the temptation of theatrical, hysterical heroisms; let us not clothe ourselves in the bitterness of unjustly chastised victims”

“Fate comes from God, and unless we learn to recognize it as holy and wise, unless we learn to love it and fulfill it, we shall have been truly defeated. Then we shall no longer be the noble vanquished”

“Love is self-mastery, the power to understand, the ability to smile in sorrow. Love of ourselves and our fate, fervent acceptance of what the Inscrutable has in store for us, even when we cannot fathom and understand it”

[Justin Labelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The burden of a nation.
What happens when the rebel is asked to represent or comment on behalf of others who did not rebel?
To what extent is pacifism rebellion?
Can one be called or become a pacifist by simply removing oneself from the action?
Can writing and commenting on something atrocious alone be proof that one is not a coward?
Who needs convincing on this thought, the man or the nation?
What to make of such an action when one does not actually preach or support pacifism?
Must the great majority of the great humans of the 20th century be doomed to exist as a contradiction?
To what is the country of one’s birth owed in regards to hope and participation in change and reconciliation?

Hesse’s set of essays explores many of these questions directly and indirectly.

He brings up Christianity often, way more often than any of his previous writing, where it has nearly always felt like spirituality was the key concept, to be one with something greater but not particularly with a specific religion.
To be one with nature and that which is greater than nature not necessarily God or His Word.

This book humanised Hesse for me.
If not from the first few essays at the start of the book than certainly the last three in which he specifically acknowledges both his awards and his foibles.
He understands people look up to him but he also needs them to know he’s either incapable or unwilling to be anything more than a writer.
He’s not a politician or even a man keen to inspire others towards a common good or common goal.
His novels have always been about the weight and burden of the artist and the individual pursuit of happiness.
Here, he doubles down.
He shows doubt as to his legacy and his forefathers.
He shames his country and those who run it.
He calls to arms but acknowledges
Those most valuable and need in this change are also least likely to pursuit it.

This is a very good set of essays and it presents a timely indictment in regards to group think.
Worth a read in what can only be called ‘these dire times’.