"Demian" by Hermann Hesse is a short, engaging, and highly enjoyable text with well defined and developed characters that make the book very easy to read; little mental effort is required to follow Hesse's clear and precise prose. The book revolves around the experiences of a young man growing up in early 20th century France, and traces in minute and penetrating detail the painful transition from adolescence to adulthood that most of us experience.
Growing up is rarely a smooth and linear process. It usually entails ruptures, dramatic breaks and breakthroughs, and experiences of pain that lead to emotional and mental maturity. As this happens, a personality is shaped that colors, enriches, or impoverishes future experiences. Often, it is relationships with specific people that have these effects. Our first crush, or romantic experience, or that deep feeling of connection and belongingness from our childhood friends often alter us for good, and for the better if the inevitable disappointments are dealt with constructively. For Sinclair, the first major turning point is his attempt to impress the bully Kromer. The latter exudes brute physical force and a contempt for civilized norms of conduct, and as so often happens in these kinds of situations, the relatively weaker Sinclair wants to impress him. He does this by concocting a story about a theft that never took place. Kromer uses this to extort Sinclair and, in the process, teaches him important lessons: that evil exists, acquiescing to it only makes it stronger, and that dishonesty can lead to unpleasant and degrading consequences, in this case, being subject to the arbitrary will of someone much physically stronger.
Demien, perhaps the most significant person to enter Sinclair's life, represents a Jesus-like figure who comes to save him from the depredations of Kromer. The text is not clear on how he does this; one assumes that he either cast a spell, or threatened Kromer's life (my impression is that it was the latter). Demien's greatest impact on Sinclair is philosophical and spiritual. The latter's socialization was Catholic, a worldview with a clear division between good and evil, a cosmology that gives order and meaning to the universe, a teology that gives the flow of history a clear chronological narrative: man's pride leads him to sin against God, he is redeemed by Christ, and will enter heaven if he is good in this life, a life full of temptations and seductions. Demien's philosophical framework does not completely reject the Christian worldview. Rather, he complements it by introducing the Eastern philosophical embrace of contradiction: rather than reject evil, Demien accepts it as an intrinsic and inevitable element in the structure of life and the universe. In that sense, he seeks a new spirituality in the form of a new god, Abraxas, which is both good and evil and which, like the gods of yore, must be sought, worshiped, and loved. Needless to say, this worldview was, in early 20th century France, quite heterodox.
Another dominant theme is the necessity to go against the grain, to challenge dominant norms, to be the black sheep, to not follow the herd. But for Demien, one cannot choose to do this; rather, one is chosen by some quasi-mystical force to carry out this mission. But how does one know if they have this status? Only by peeling away the crusty layers of rules and desires that are imposed by the dominant culture. Once this is done, the "true self" emerges to enlighten and guide towards the mission that one has been chosen for. Practitioners and devotees of New Agism and other fadish forms of spirituality will find much to admire here; it affirms their belief in the existence of some spiritual force in the universe (like "energy" or "vibes") that somehow unites with our deepest selves to provide direction and enlightenment, as opposed to the ostensibly corrupt and polluted influences of the human-constructed order.
Although both Demien and Sinclair are presented as agents actively aiming to discover and actualize their true selves by uniting with Abraxas, much of the subtext is focused on how little we actually control our fate. Sinclair discovers, through dialogue and interpretations of his dreams, that he is special in the sense that he has been chosen with some specific mission to alter the course of civilization. The meta-narrative is that he was lost in the oppressive society in which he grows up, and is subsequently redeemed through the discovery of the truth. This will sound familiar to students of the three monotheism's, especially Christianity. But it is also a metaphor for Europe at the time that the "Demien" was being written. The previous decades (late 19th century) saw huge advances in technology and global trade, as well as the secularization of Europe's elites. But below the surface there were dark forces festering: the anomie and ennui that resulted from the loss of meaning provided by organized religion, the rise of nationalism, the popularity of social darwinism, and the colonial aggrandizement of Europe's powers, all of which reached a crescendo with the outbreak of World War 1. These forces were created by human agents and yet seemed outside of human control; it is as if one way or another the conflagration would have happened regardless of efforts to stop it. But of course, this devastation set the framework for a new world order that would emerge, such as the rise of the US as global policeman, a system of global governance to regulate inter-state behaviour, and eventually, self-determination as a cardinal principle of international politics. Out with the old, in with the new, death and birth, destruction and triumph: these are the eternal truths that are revealed in "Demian", as they become manifest at the levels of both the individual and broader social aggregates.
No comments:
Post a Comment