Charles Smith’s Reviews > The Glass Bead Game > Status Update

the journey of magister ludi joseph knecht has come to an end.

"he loved nothing but his freedom, his perpetual student status, and preferred spending his whole life as the unpredictable and obstinate loner, the gifted fool and nihilist, to following the path of subordination to the hierarchy and thus attaining peace"

i'm slightly disappointed that the titular game is seemingly more symbolic in the story than an actual game, but i do appreciate how it is representative of joseph's growth in the story.

"History, after all, consisted of an unbroken sucession of rulers, leaders, bosses, and commanders who with extremely rare exceptions had all begun well and ended badly. All of them, at least so they said, had striven for power for the sake of the good; afterward they had become obsessed and numbed by power and loved it for its own sake."

"There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught."

i'm amazed at how so much was detailed about the history of the glass bead game, yet very little was said about the actual rules of the game or how it's even played.