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marcomywords 's review for:
The Glass Bead Game
by Hermann Hesse
This is it. The worst book ever.
Now, I have to concede that this book is uniquely brillant at what it's trying to do.
But what it's trying to do was never a good idea.
It's a book entirely devoid of stakes and action, and it is obviously the point, the mastery of its writing lies here. That's what you're supposed to enjoy, and marvel at.
One could even say it has no character, since the main character is pretty much a blank slate, if you don't coun't being a boring indecisive wuss as a character trait. The glass bead game itself, as a game and spiritual practise and supposedly the center of the non existing plot, is never described clearly to you. So you have no idea what it looks like, or what a marble really mean. You endlessly get told how subtle and complex, and refined it is though. It's the longest book about nothing you'll ever read.
If this intrigues and excites you, by all means, go ahead and read it. But don't get the mistake to think it's just "slow paced" like the Search of Lost Time, for example. I mean it when I say the Glass Bead Game is 500+ pages of nothingness. Which again, is a performance. But not one I enjoyed at all.
Now, I have to concede that this book is uniquely brillant at what it's trying to do.
But what it's trying to do was never a good idea.
It's a book entirely devoid of stakes and action, and it is obviously the point, the mastery of its writing lies here. That's what you're supposed to enjoy, and marvel at.
One could even say it has no character, since the main character is pretty much a blank slate, if you don't coun't being a boring indecisive wuss as a character trait. The glass bead game itself, as a game and spiritual practise and supposedly the center of the non existing plot, is never described clearly to you. So you have no idea what it looks like, or what a marble really mean. You endlessly get told how subtle and complex, and refined it is though. It's the longest book about nothing you'll ever read.
If this intrigues and excites you, by all means, go ahead and read it. But don't get the mistake to think it's just "slow paced" like the Search of Lost Time, for example. I mean it when I say the Glass Bead Game is 500+ pages of nothingness. Which again, is a performance. But not one I enjoyed at all.