The image comes from the Internet
"I saw a steppenwolf struggling to declare war on fate, but trapped in layers of cobwebs, unable to extricate itself, the spider staring at it, ready to bite it at the first opportunity, while one of my hands was waiting not far away to save it. I understand what makes me so miserable, what makes me obsessed, what makes me sick, I understand my nervous system and the relationship between them, and I know that it all stems from my stupidity and irrationality. However, what I aspire to now is not an understanding of the intellectual level, but a breakthrough and transcendence of real experience. ”
Knowing the book existed was on the night of January 13, 2018, when a writer said it was her book of the year, Steppenwolf forever, and then on the night of April 2, 2018, I saw the writer again saying I love Steppenwolf.
Because I love this writer, I pay special attention to her favorite books. So, on May 18, 2018, I bought this book online and wrote the date of purchase on the front page of the book, which may be the so-called Aiwu and U!
When I bought the book, I didn't know exactly what the content was in, but I was curious about what magic it had that made a depressed patient mention this book repeatedly, and where was its power? What is the essence of this "book within a book"?
I'm ashamed to say that even if I bought it for so long, I have seen it several times, and in addition to some intellectual understanding, I may need some Taoism to penetrate deeper things.
I didn't realize the righteousness, so I put it in the corner until my family returned to my hometown a while ago, and the only thing I wanted to ask was: You come down and help me bring a book called Steppenwolf! I don't want anything else yet.
After reading this Nth time in all these years, I feel that this type of book may really be the only one who has been tossed by this earthly world, and who has been robbed for the rest of his life, is qualified to read him, Herman. Hesse, the writer born a hundred years before me, wrote about the dilemma.
The story of Steppenwolf is written about disease and crisis, but it does not describe destruction, not a crisis leading to death, but quietly, it describes treatment. --- Hermann Hesse
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" >1</h1>
"This glimpse of Steppenwolf sees through our entire epoch, through the busy life of the whole epoch, through the superficial activities of the spiritual world of those who are chasing deer, vanity and ignorance, self-esteem and conceit, and superficiality."
"He sees not only our time, our spiritual world, our cultural loss and hopelessness, but he also reaches the heart of humanity."
It can be seen from this that steppenwolf, in addition to its contempt for reality, also points out the lack and hopelessness of the times and culture, which points directly to the imperfection of thought, culture, hopelessness, and hits the key to all human nature, perhaps this is the doubt of the prophets and foresights about the meaning of human life!
He not only extends the problem of an era to the whole of mankind, but also extends the problem of a time node to the problem of eternity, and even reflects such a big problem to the small individual himself.
"The basis of his grief is not contempt for the world, but contempt for himself, because when he mercilessly lashed out, deeply criticized various institutions, all kinds of characters, he also never excluded himself, his arrow always pointed at himself first, and the first person he hated and denied was himself..."
"Hate yourself. His whole life, all the imaginary geniuses, all the thinking abilities, were used to criticize himself, to criticize this innocent and noble object.
Sometimes I feel that this is a pathological, extreme self-hatred that pushes me into loneliness and the brink of despair. The text is based on Harry as the character, people in the change of times, they have no sense of security, they will not feel innocent, their fate is to doubt life, to think about whether life is meaningful as his personal pain and fate to continue to experience. He will not love others, nor will he love himself, and there is no such thing as "happiness" in his life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="85" >2</h1>
"Ah, in our lives, in this age of contentment, civicism, spiritual emptiness and poverty, how difficult it is to find traces of the gods in the face of this form of architecture, this way of doing business, this kind of politics, this kind of person! I can't agree with the purpose of this world, I don't have a trace of happiness in this world, how can I not be a steppenwolf, a sloppy hermit in such a world! ......”
We got used to it and compromised. In real life, we can only be in the middle of the times, to become a "small citizen", but some keen souls have not compromised.
Harry was accustomed to the life of the citizens, but he hated it, and he wanted to tear apart this layer of illusion. But he is an intellectual, he has artistic pursuits, but the times and art have become distant, and he can only be trapped in such contradictions and cannot extricate himself.
"All beings in this world, even those things that seem pure, from the day they are born, carry the original sin of multiple personalities, they are divided and thrown into the river of sin, and there is no way to turn back."
Steppenwolf Harry is aware of this duality in himself, that although man is one, the soul is divided in two. In fact, he did not want to give up his wolf nature and be a pure human being, but he also did not want to give up the characteristics of human beings in himself, to be a pure wolf, and to spend a fragmented life in peace.
In the midst of these divisions and contradictions, our Steppenwolf will only grow stronger. If he cannot move toward unity, as his personality continues to split, his soul will not narrow or become smaller, but will only become more and more complex as the world experiences more and more, until the end of this life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="86" >3</h1>
Steppenwolf said to himself, 'In two years, I'll be able to cross the gates of death and let all this go to hell!"
Steppenwolf has suicidal tendencies and the ability to resist suicide temptations, on the one hand, because they believe in the depths of their souls that suicide is not only not the right way, but also very undignified; on the other hand, they want to do their best to overcome the predicament of life and save the nobility of their lives.
Steppenwolf maintains the habit of fighting, even doing whatever it takes to achieve victory. At the age of forty-seven, he positioned his fiftieth birthday as a day on which he could allow himself to end his life, and if needed, he could cross the door of death without guilt. He was delighted with this wonderful idea of his own.
This ultimate failure and escape is a farewell to the moral world, the world of upbringing, and the world of citizens. Like a loser or a deserter, I declare defeat to myself. ”
Perhaps when Harry decided to go to the professor's house to make an appointment, and decided to tear off his mask of hypocrisy in front of the professor, he had completely broken with the world, and the difference between them was also Harry's difference with the world. The conversation may have been disappointing for the professor, but it had important implications for Steppenwolf because it symbolized Steppenwolf's victory.
As a human being, he felt that everything had no meaning at all, so why did he have to live such a life and suffer such a sin? In such a contradiction, he wanted to end such a farce without cutting his throat with a razor. However, at the thought of death in front of his eyes, he subconsciously felt an unusual fear.
In the moment of death the cold bone-chilling razor in his own body, this fear spread throughout the body. He picked up the razor, put it down, picked it up, put it down again... He encouraged himself again and again, as if to instigate a child, and as long as such a trace of pain disappeared. But the child did not obey, he ran away, he still had to choose to live.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="87" >4. Self-exploration, rebirth after enlightenment</h1>
"If you are fighting for your own thoughts or something beautiful, and you must win in the struggle, that is really mediocrity and ignorance. Not all ideals come true, Harry. Do we live to resist death? Of course not, we live precisely in the love and hate of death, because of death, we cherish the minutes and seconds of life, cherish the bits and pieces of life. ”
"Life should be overcome and destroyed by life itself, which is fundamentally more noble and beautiful than with one's own hands.
It wasn't until Harry met the Magic House that he began to redeem himself. During this time he had conversations with Hermina, rejoiced with Maria, learned to dance, attended balls, and met Goethe... The Enchanted House is a projection of the real world, filled with filth and purity, meanness and nobility, calmness and madness, sin and redemption... All contradictions and conflicts are nakedly displayed here. It was also in this place that Harry, under the guidance of Pablo, completed the false suicide of himself, killing the countless splinters of himself one by one, and what was left was the most real self.
After this experience, Harry finally realized that whether it is human nature or wolf nature, they are not opposites, but exist as a whole. Living as wolves and thinking as humans are not one-or-other relationships, they coexist without interfering with each other, even for mutual benefit.
As Hesse said: "A man who knows how to live only for the moment, to live in the moment; to appreciate every little flower on the side of the road in a friendly and careful way; to cherish every game-like, minimal momentary value, then life cannot treat him like this." ”
Being born human and being able to exist is a great thing.
--END--
![Days are a feeling of happiness in the like[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)