“Nobody gets me, i hate authority but like the comforts of civil society! Look how everyone else finds joy in simple routines and i live in a messy room before running off and doing it again! I thought being alone made me cool and independent when i was young but now that im 50 maybe i was wrong??”

I mean it feels like this is a book about a guy with undiagnosed ADHD, or someone who just took decades to get out from his teenage existentialist phase. Tell me this book is more than just “nobody gets me” over and over again. All i can picture is that Harry Haller in 2023 would be the neckbeard wearing the 3-wolves-howling-at-the-moon tshirt. This shit is mediocre crap!

Comments

KosherNazi t1_jdnf79h wrote on March 25, 2023 at 6:28 PM

#2,356,905

😂

100% overrated. Harry Haller is a teenager that never grew up. He read the first paragraph of a few wikipedia philosophy articles and decided he was a genius.

GraniteGeekNH t1_jdnh5lo wrote on March 25, 2023 at 6:42 PM

#2,357,093

Never. Give up and read something else.

I think this is a case of a book that hit the culture very hard at the time but its attitude has become so integrated that it is now a tired cliche.

This is pretty common: a work (fiction, painting, dance, music etc) takes the world by storm which changes the world so that it comes to seem obvious and predictable. Who is shocked by Stavinsky's Rite of Spring any more?

Interesting to study in terms of cultural trends at the time in central Europe, perhaps - not interesting to read.

GraniteGeekNH t1_jdnhco9 wrote on March 25, 2023 at 6:43 PM

#2,357,111

Replying to GraniteGeekNH (#2,357,093)

I do wonder whether it invented every teenage boy's favorite fantasy - "I scorn all society and therefore women want to fuck me" - or whether that was already a thing.

CherryLeigh86 t1_jdnkl8i wrote on March 25, 2023 at 7:06 PM

#2,357,426

It does not

Unusual-Wash4227 t1_jdnzul2 wrote on March 25, 2023 at 8:58 PM

#2,359,110

That's not the point of the novel or of any of Hesse's works, really. Try to finish the novel. If you still don't understand it, look up an anaylsis of the work.

whoisyourwormguy_ t1_jdo4tus wrote on March 25, 2023 at 9:35 PM

#2,359,604

That sounds very similar to notes from underground which people seem to compliment a lot

HeySlimIJustDrankA5 t1_jdodfh1 wrote on March 25, 2023 at 10:41 PM

#2,360,452

“Born to be Wild” is iconic but, “The Pusher” is underrated. Everything else is very meh. If you’re looking for a group similar with a better discography, MC5, Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge will do that.

Edit: I’m lost. Anybody know what direction r/LetsTalkMusic is in?

boxer_dogs_dance t1_jdoeqwv wrote on March 25, 2023 at 10:51 PM

#2,360,590

Replying to HeySlimIJustDrankA5 (#2,360,452)

So sarcasm, or r/lostredditors?

HeySlimIJustDrankA5 t1_jdoh0mo wrote on March 25, 2023 at 11:08 PM

#2,360,812

Replying to boxer_dogs_dance (#2,360,590)

Jesus I definitely did not read the sub’s names I was in…..

potnia_theron OP t1_jdor0hm wrote on March 26, 2023 at 12:23 AM

#2,361,823

Replying to Unusual-Wash4227 (#2,359,110)

Can you give me the TLDR? Cuz i feel like 100 pages is more than i’d give most books.

Edit: lol at the fanboys downvoting this because they can’t articulate a defense that doesn’t sound cliche’d and ridiculous