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A review by lookhome
The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse
4.0
Hesse's The Journey To The East is arguably a precursor to Olga Tokarczuk's Flights.
Unlike Kafka or Pessoa, this work is intentionally and purposefully constructed as a fragment
and it is as a fragment that The Journey To The East crafts a sort of rhythmic inner experience.
This experience is more comparable to Narcissus and Golmund and Siddhartha than Steppenwolf.
It consists of a journey best described as set or series of philosophical fragments that present the reader with situations that allow for and arguably demand self-reflection.
While the narrative is relatively straightforward, the conclusion transforms the text into a sort of prayer or ritual.
By its end, it become an entity unto itself, think House of Leaves or Invisible Cities.
The text's events serve as a sort of ritual documentation towards seeing things as they are.
To most readers, the journey provides a metamorphosis allows its observer to discover how to prepare for a meaningful personal transformation.
If this sounds a little hoity toity it isn't.
This is a grounded text that creates a sort of mental space where this process seems inevitable.
Read it and find out for yourselves.
I read it because it was on Patti Smith's recommended reading list.
Unlike Kafka or Pessoa, this work is intentionally and purposefully constructed as a fragment
and it is as a fragment that The Journey To The East crafts a sort of rhythmic inner experience.
This experience is more comparable to Narcissus and Golmund and Siddhartha than Steppenwolf.
It consists of a journey best described as set or series of philosophical fragments that present the reader with situations that allow for and arguably demand self-reflection.
While the narrative is relatively straightforward, the conclusion transforms the text into a sort of prayer or ritual.
By its end, it become an entity unto itself, think House of Leaves or Invisible Cities.
The text's events serve as a sort of ritual documentation towards seeing things as they are.
To most readers, the journey provides a metamorphosis allows its observer to discover how to prepare for a meaningful personal transformation.
If this sounds a little hoity toity it isn't.
This is a grounded text that creates a sort of mental space where this process seems inevitable.
Read it and find out for yourselves.
I read it because it was on Patti Smith's recommended reading list.