The Journey to the East

I was frustrated at first by the seemingly purposeful obscurity regarding the journey itself and the lack of identifiable characters and the attention paid to details about tangential matters in such a short book, thinking: "When is Hesse going to get to the...ohhh, wait a minute. Maybe this IS the point. Maybe this IS the book." Upon which I enjoyed it immensely as a parable about the journeys we imagine amidst the journey we are actually on (which we glimpse in fragments and which sometimes seems like only an interruption in our journey or the preparation for a journey or the bitter end of a journey.) Had that same satisfyingly frustrating real-life dream-like atmosphere of a Kafka tale.

Hermann Hesse showed in Siddhartha that he could create a profound piece of literature in a short span of pages, but The Journey to the East, which is of a similar length, falls well short of that standard. Its titular journey is disappointingly sketchy, being neither a compelling story in its exterior adventure or a profound spiritual experience in its internal odyssey.

For the most part it seemed a sort of mystical Goodbye Mr Chips, with Hesse relating with excessive brevity a thinly-fictionalized account of his own spiritual journey. The characters (such as they are) are mere transplants of people Hesse knew, namechecked and given a loose fictional sheen that does not explain their presence or importance. The reader is quickly show more alienated, and the fact that the promised encounters with the likes of Mozart and Plato do not materialize provides only further disappointment. Their token appearance, alongside the likes of Sancho Panza, is only to illustrate that in Hesse's spiritual quest he has been accompanied, like any intellectual, by "the beloved characters of my books" (pg. 50).

Ultimately, this is an autobiographical summary given some strange and irrelevant fictional trappings, and of little sustenance to readers of Hesse. The problem is that the book is too slight to draw us in, and although the story is about the search for an inner truth, as readers we're kept on the outside. The final revelation is decent enough, if a bit inevitable, but The Journey to the East lacks the power to go behind the punch. show less

The other morning as I was grabbing my stuff to head out to work I realised that I didn't have a book with me. A quick glance at the bookcase and my eyes fell on this little novella. I am not sure why I decided on this, I've had it ages but never picked it up before.

The book started off in an easy enough way and I did wonder where it was heading. There didn't seem to be much happening and I was left feeling a little deflated. One thing that did stand though was that I liked Hesse's writing style. Its fairly light, flows off the page a paints images of magical places very well. The land in which the journey occurs is no real place but one which I could see in my minds eye quite well.

Once the parting of the ways had occurred the book show more really picked up and started to make a bit more sense. The drama in the second half of the book was fantastic and it all felt very mystical. In the end the books struck me as an idea which hadn't been fully developed. I don't know if this was actually the case but I wonder if Hesse had bigger plans for it eventually.

This was a decent quick read. show less

… mentre in certe tappe del nostro pellegrinaggio, rinunciando a tutte le banali risorse del moderno turismo, a ferrovie e piroscafi, telegrafo e automobili, aeroplani e cosi’ via, noi penetrammo veramente in una zona eroica e magica. Allora infatti era finita da poco la guerra mondiale, e soprattutto al pensiero dei popoli vinti si era affacciato uno stato eccezionale di irrealta’, di disposizione al surreale, anche se in pochissimi casi si varco’ effettivamente qualche barriera e si intrapresero puntate nel regno di una futura psicocrazia. (10-1)

Io sto con Siddharta, il nostro saggio amico d’Oriente, che una volta disse: “Le parole non fanno bene al senso segreto, ogni cosa diventa subito un po’ diversa, un po’ show more falsata, un po’ strampalata anzi, e pur questo e’ bene, anche con questo sono d’accordo, cio’ che per un uomo e’ tesoro e saggezza, per l’altro ha sempre un tono di stoletzza”. (11)

Quando poi in qualche valle ritrovavo il nostro gruppo, e ascoltavo i nostri canti e mi accampavo dirimpetto alla tenda delle Guide, allora mi rendevo facilmente conto che il mio ritorno all’infanzia o la mia cavalcata con Sancio erano parte integrante del mio viaggio; la nostra meta infatti non era soltanto il paese di levante, o meglio il nostro Oriente non era soltanto un paese e un’entita’ geografica, ma era la patria e la giovinezza dell’anima, era il Dappertutto e l’In-Nessun-Luogo, era l’unificazione di tutti i tempi. (25)

Chi di noi avrebbe mai immaginato che il cerchio magico si sarebbe spezzato cosi’ presto che quasi tutti noi - e anch’io, anch’io! - ci saremmo smarriti negli afoni deserti della realta’ in carta bollata, come impiegati e commessi, dopo un banchetto o dopo una gita domenicale, si riassoggettano prosaicamente alle occupazioni quotidiane! (28)

Si era detto che i personaggi di opere poetiche sono di solito piu’ vivi e reali dei loro poeti. (84) show less

In The Journey to the East our narrator attempts to recount his mysterious pilgrimage with “The League” through Europe and Asia to the East. Like all pilgrimages, however, the narrator’s spiritual journey is far more important than the actual physical journey, and he struggles to put into words his perceptions of everything that happened.

Of the Hesse books that I’ve read so far, this one is my favorite, and I will probably reread it sometime. This novel could be a precursor to some of Paulo Coelho’s works. It’s short enough to be read in a few hours, and it’s very easy to understand (especially compared to some of Hesse’s other novels). My favorite quote from the book: “Words do not express thoughts very well; show more everything immediately becomes a little different, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another." show less

Mistična družina glavnog lika H.H.-a bez granica prostora i vremena po datom naslovu putuje ka istoku. Kako na odredište nisu stigli istok to čini simbolički određenim, jednako kako putovanje čini trajnim stanjem koje se nikada neće dovršiti. Članovi su tu dok su spremni služiti. Dojma sam, obzirom na stil pisanja, spomen istoka i Hesseova ostala djela, samo služenje nije pretpostavljeno osobi već ideji umjetnosti. Članovi družine su umjetnici svih vrsta, biti će tu dok budu podredili sebe onom što traženo djelo zahtjeva.

U Sidarti, napisanom deset godina ranije, kraj romana povezan je sa Sidartinim odbacivanjem ega uz istovremeno shvaćanje kako je ego sastavni dio čovjeka, on je unutarnji poriv koji ih tjera da si show more daju vrijednost i svrhu. Sidarta tako živi izvan društva, promatra ga u obliku rijeke i njenog toka kojim je simbolično prikazana ljudska povezanost. Produhovljenje nije tu za čovjeka, tako ni dolazak na odredište u naslovu romana. Članovi će ostati u družini na putovanju dok sebe budu podredili umjetničkom djelu, nešto što je temelj stalnog konflikta svakog umjetnika. U romanu je to naglašeno željom H.H.-a da napiše povijest družine, ne zbog toga što svijet treba imati pisani dokaz njenog postojanja već što mu je potrebno da On napiše to djelo. Ono mu je svrha kako bi dao značaj i pisani trag svom postojanju. show less

The astounding vagueness of this short novel probably conceals a spiritual allegory under the guise of a universal message, though it is still too cryptic. It takes on new meaning when you realize Hesse was engaged in antiwar activities and was driven out of Germany during WWI. He became a naturalized citizen of Switzerland and eventually won the Nobel Prize. Perhaps some of his writings might have benefitted from a freer hand.

Combining many disparate literary and historical references, dashes of wisdom, and a blurring of the line between history and fable, this is a chronicle of inspiration, like many of Hesse's other books. He's enchanted by the East, and nostalgic for the Golden Age, but the geography of the region of his obsession show more is largely a mystery. Here is the trademark mysticism and the prospect of a loss of faith and the awakening of a spirit:

"Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through a life with virtue, justice and understanding... Children live on one side of despair, and the awakened on the other."

His lack of definitive time and place, and the lack of defining characteristics of the "League" that provides the impetus for this journey limit the reader's experience of the ideas Hesse wishes to explore. This is easily overshadowed by his more complex books. show less