The Book

I really enjoyed this book thoroughly.

I have a friend who's into the theories of (psychoanalyst) C.G. Jung, and apparently Hesse often draws heavily on Jung's concepts of the "anima" and "animus" (the two conflicting parts of the human psyche/consciousness).
This explanation of the black and white in the novel (the part of the charming, earthy girl in "Steppenwolf" versus the part of the serious, intellectual man embodied in the character of Harry Haller) was an interesting insight for me, and I'm grateful my friend brought my attention to that concept.

However, even being unaware of the influence of Jung in Hesse's novel, I enjoyed it on a completely more down-to-earth level.

I saw in the novel a beautiful lesson: don't be so serious about life. Stop sometimes and enjoy the ordinary things that ordinary people enjoy. Don't look down on popular things. Stop concentrating on just the high-brow and intellectual parts of existence. Enjoy popular music and ordinary things sometimes. Reconnect with non-intellectuals.

That's the main message I got from this book.

You might enjoy Hesse's other novels, too. I've read "Siddhartha" and "Knulp", too, and both were very good and extremely thought-provoking.

The book Steppenwolf was written about a man in midlife crisis, but for some reason was embraced by my generation in the 60's. Hesse himself said that a young person could not possibly identify with the Harry character, that this really was something one could only begin to understand when approaching 50. I never believed that, but perhaps now that I am around the age of Mr Haller, I may reconsider Hesses thoughts on the matter.

It's been many years since I read that book,so I may be a little hazy on it. But I will say that I was always way in to Jung and everything your friend says is true. On a deeper level, the book/movie is about becoming a complete human being through what is commonly referred as the marriage of the Self, or the Alchemical Marriage. As you know, the anima, which literally means 'soul', is the feminine side of the male psyche. Without her a man will feel incomplete, a dry husk )the opposite being true in women). The artist must court her so she will bring the little jewels of creativity from the unconscious which are seeds of creativity from which all true art springs. This is why Hermine looks like his childhood friend, who was deeply in touch with his inner feminine, a creative type, a poet in fact. He was also a tragic figure in that he committed suicide at a young age, something that happens to the imbalanced psyche, in this case someone identified with the anima but out of touch with his own animus or male identity. This sort of male is soft and ineffectual, often unable to cope with the harsh realities of the "real world".

If you remember, Hermine tells him he must kill her in the end. What I think Hesse (and Jung) was getting at is the Alchemical Marriage or self integration. When one integrates the inner feminine with the male part of our psyche, we become whole. There is no longer a need to project that missing part onto someone else, hence the need to "kill" the externalized conceptit once it is internalized and psychologically metabolized. (Which is where the aphorism, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him", comes from.) Of course, Harry in his self loathing misinterprets that command, and while on the mescaline trip at the end of the book, self destructively kills this image. But in the 'Game of Life', we always get another chance. There is always a new moment to fall into, another opportunity to learn to accept ourselves and enjoy being in a body. The Harry character did not enjoy the embodied life. He was trying to escape the natural pain and suffering of existence and in doing so, created even more suffering for himself and others. He lost his sense of play, his sense of humor. He needed to lighten up and his soul (anima) in the form of Hermine (who could've been a real person he projected onto-it's ambiguous,) led him away from his solitary existence, back into the fullness of life.

I love this book and I loved the movie. Contrary to most critics, this is a fine film despite its dated video effects and "psychedelic" ending. I am pretty sure Harry takes mescaline in the book as well, so the trip at the end of the movie is entirely appropriate. Max von Sydow is brilliant as Harry Haller. (HH, same initials as the author's,) as is Pierre Clementi as the enigmatic Pablo. And Dominique Sanda is as lovely.sexy and mysterious as ever. Even with that nearly incomprehensible accent!

In its own way, it is a classic. See it if you can. Sometimes you can find copies on ebay. I'm still looking for the laser disc version which I saw once on ebay. I don't hold much hope for a DVD coming out any time soon. By the way, I love the score. It's by a german jazz composer, Grunz. Too bad the sound quality is mono and on top of that, really poor!

By the way, a movie that owes a lot to Steppenwolf, although its very different in many ways, is the 'Mystery of Rampo'. Its one of my favorite films of all time and deals with some of the same big themes as Steppenwolf, although in an entirely different way. It uses much more state of the art cgi (much was done by Industrial Light and Magic) and looks fantastic. It also has some great animated moments as well and a fantastic orchestral score. It is in my opinion, a masterpiece.

I have this on vhs for sale.