does the story get any better after the first hundred pages?

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9 years ago
14 answers

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Kate Parr I would say if you're waiting for a big event, or grand set piece, that doesn't really happen. You're reading a biography, albeit a fictional one, and it is more concerned with Joseph's relationship to the game, his understanding of it, and by extension his society. I found it a most peaceful and delightful book, but then a society who reveres learning and scholarly study is my idea of heaven! However, if after a hundred pages, the language and descriptions haven't grabbed you, then there's probably nothing that follows that will. Good luck!

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Tristan If he'd stopped at about 150 and then added the three end stories somehow, then it would have been fine. But good grief, it's just so dry. I think as an idea, the book is very interesting, and it's very well written but there's no emotion in it. Zilch. Zip.

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Ray Franklin Yes, but maybe not in the way you might expect. Reading the book is like watching an oil painting emerge from a master's hand. Unless you already know how the early layers of paint will affect the finished painting, you will not grasp the full image until it is finished. Keep reading. It has the greatest impact when the whole is finished.

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George Unfortunately no car chases, roundhouse kicks or vampire erotica. Nevertheless, it was one of the most influential books on my personal development.

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Todd Dewhurst Anything that comes from Hesse's pen with is worth the time it took to write it, though his poetry may not have translated too well. Kate Parr's comment is excellent, fair, and intelligent. I would also add that anyone who knows Hesse understands that his story lines are mere vehicles to a higher psycho-emotional influence.

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RevivedNerd I find the first part f the book quite dry and confusing, but it gets better as in, when you get the biographical part of the book. You see the whole timeline of Knecht, how he evolves as a person, how past events impact current events etc. Hesse's books are, in my opinion, always like that, very hard to read but when you finish the book, you realize its complete meaning. By the way, the book is quite confusing if you don't have some basic knowledge of philosophy.

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James Guy

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Dry???? Hesse's GBG is not so much about the "bead game itself" but certainly about "Castalia," (as a vision of the future) which, if you are familiar with Timothy Leary and Castalia at Millbrook, makes a lot of sense in light of the politics of psychedelics and Hesses reference to "Journey to the East" and "The League of Eastern Wayfarers."
Here is what Leary said about Hesses book:

“Most readers miss the message of Hesse. Entranced by the pretty dance of plot and theme, they overlook the seed message ... the electrical message, the code…”

“Groups which attempt to apply psychedelic experiences to social living will find in the story of Castalia all the features and problems which such attempts inevitably encounter: the need for a new language or set of symbols... the central importance of maintaining direct contact with the regenerative forces of the life process through meditation... the crucial and essentially insoluble problem of the relation of the mystic community to the world at large. Can the order remain an educative, spiritual force in the society, or must it degenerate through isolation and inattention to a detached, alienated group of idealists?"

And for those who don't read far enough into GBG, they miss a very visual description of how the game is played. And although written in 1945, look at the reference to "stylus and small tablet" and "Gigantic board" (monitor) on the rear wall of the hall, and "broadcast" (internet) to the world. Here is the description right out of GBG:

“… he appeared in the festival hall in the midst of his many acolytes, conducting step after step of his Game with the ritual gestures. With a luminous golden stylus he delicately inscribed character after character on the small tablet before him, and the same characters promptly appeared in the script of the Game, enlarged a hundred fold, upon the gigantic board on the rear wall of the hall, to be spelled out by a thousand whispering voices, called out by the Speakers, broadcast to the country and the world. And when... he wrote the summary formula ... upon his tablet, ... gave instructions for the meditation, laid down the stylus and, taking his seat, assumed the perfect meditation posture... throughout Castalia and beyond, in many countries of the globe, the faithful devotees of the Glass Bead Game reverently sat down for the self same meditation and sustained it until the moment the Magister in the hall rose to his feet once again... The abstract and seemingly timeless world of the Game was flexible enough to respond, in a hundred nuances, to the mind, voice, temperament, and handwriting of a given personality, and the personality in this case was ... cultivated enough to subordinate his own inspirations to the inviolable inner laws of the Game itself.” Submitted to GoodReads by James Guy
(hide spoiler)]

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Peter No, nothing exciting is going to happen. There isn't really a story as such. Think of it more as a meditation. You cannot decode this book or grasp what it is "about" in any simpler terms than the book itself. It is what it is, which in my view is sublime. I sometimes think of it and feel a slight chill.

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Jerrod I got half-way through and put it down. It's a bit like Siddhartha but 4 times the length.

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Benjamin Richards I gave it 200 pages before quitting!

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Daniel Hofmann I quit about a third into it. Just too boring.

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Susan Trent For myself it did get better, but after reading over 200 pages I had to start over and take the essence from each chapter. When I finished I felt I had had a spiritual experience like none other.

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