Hermann Hesse's Demian is a profound and moving work that defies easy description.

This novel follows the journey of Emil Sinclair, a young boy who discovers the existence of two worlds - the safe and moral world of his home, and the dark and mysterious world of the street.

As Sinclair navigates these two worlds, he befriends Max Demian, an enigmatic and androgynous figure who serves as a symbol and mentor in his life.

Demian embodies Nietzsche's superman, living by his own values and showing Sinclair the path to self-discovery and acceptance.

The novel is a psychological, bildungsroman, and novel of ideas all in one, exploring themes such as good and evil, the unconscious, and the search for meaning.

It is also a beautiful meditation on friendship, with the relationship between Sinclair and Demian serving as a powerful example of the transformative power of love and connection.

Written under the pseudonym Emil Sinclair, this tiny book contains all the concepts that would haunt Hesse's future works and is a must-read for anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, or literature.

In conclusion, Demian is a masterpiece that continues to resonate with readers today, offering a profound and inspiring vision of the human spirit.

Hesse's Demian presents a complex and often disturbing narrative. The protagonist's journey from school to war is filled with various encounters and experiences. Along the way, Demian offers interesting interpretations of biblical events, such as those related to Golgotha and Cain. The "Mark of Cain" serves as a metaphor that lingers throughout the story, although its exact meaning remains somewhat elusive.

The story treats juveniles in a non-patronizing manner, challenging the notion that children are incapable of deep and complex emotions. It also presents a superhuman friend who disputes human freedom and questions the poverty of religion, creating an odd combination of reason and unreason.

As the narrative progresses, the protagonist becomes fixated on a passing woman, Beatrice, and channels his frustrated libidinal energy into painting. The resulting portrait, however, blurs the lines between Beatrice and Demian, and ultimately reveals something about the protagonist himself.

The story also delves into themes of sexuality and the Oedipal complex, with the protagonist's encounters with Demian's mother adding another layer of complexity. Additionally, there are elements of Nietzschean philosophy and Jungian symbolism, such as the concept of "Abraxas."

However, the story also contains some disturbing ideas that could be interpreted as fascist. For example, the dismissal of certain individuals as not truly human and the anticipation of a new birth through conflict. These ideas, along with the excessive self-obsession and adolescent sex drama, make the story a difficult read at times.

Overall, Demian is a thought-provoking and challenging work that will appeal to serious gender critics, proto-fascist neo-gnostics, and those interested in exploring the darker aspects of the human psyche. However, it is not without its flaws and may be too disturbing or complex for some readers.

Hermann Hesse’s Demian has been my favorite book in the world ever since that fateful day when I first laid my eyes on it during my teens.

By some strange coincidence or perhaps it was destiny, I had just discovered Siddhartha and was hungry for more of Hesse’s literary works. Demian happened to be the very first one I chanced upon on the used paperback table at the Strand. It felt like a serendipitous encounter, a gift from the universe.

I can't quite put into words the profound effect it had on me back then. At that tender age, I didn't fully comprehend either the book or the intense emotions it stirred within me. But I knew deep down that it had left an indelible mark. Reading Demian was like being initiated into a mysterious and exclusive society. I hung on every word as Demian and later Pistorius enlightened Sinclair about Abraxas, the enigmatic and all-encompassing deity.

Throughout my adult life, I have held this old paperback dear. I cherished it with all my heart, yet I never felt the need to reread it. Its mere presence was like a magical talisman, comforting and inspiring. But then, there came a day when I found myself in need of its wisdom once again. So, after over thirty years, I picked it up and read it for the second time. And now, I find myself longing to read it again and again, eager to extract every single golden drop of its mystical meaning.

I have always been a seeker, traversing the lonely road of self-discovery. But I know that this is the only path worth taking. And Demian, with its profound insights and spiritual guidance, is my trusty road map, leading me towards a deeper understanding of myself and the world around me.

Now, looking back after several years, I can better understand what this book meant to me when I read it years ago.

What starts as an interesting story about growing up suddenly tips into a mysterious, esoterically tinged and increasingly incomprehensible nonsense at some point. I once described it to someone as "yoga mom lit" and I still stand by that.

What also gets on my nerves are the dichotomies: The world of light (safely bourgeois) and the world of darkness (the damned, unchristian, that which moves on the sidelines). I think especially the light-and-darkness metaphors are so clichéd for me that it's really my problem. Hesse then searches for a synthesis, for a connection of both, and then I become more conciliatory again. The androgyny, the homosexuality, these are in my opinion always fascinating elements in Hesse - also in "Steppenwolf".

But this... Obscurantism, this tendency towards esotericism with its feeling of belonging to a special, initiated group, then hails my sympathies again and spoils this book for me from the back.

I did not want to live according to the motives that stem from my true self. But wasn't that so difficult?

Those novels that are the hardest are the ones that put you face to face with yourself.

They make your spirit and your mind directly confront the intellectual rigidity that affects your beliefs, and what you think also affects your religion.

Once again, Hermann Hesse cuts off a period of his youth and childhood to be his inspiration in his novel "Siddhartha".

It expresses the soul's courage for freedom, liberation, and knowledge, the passionate soul that is satiated with illness because of the intellectual commitment in religions.

He walks on his way in search of his own religion, the religion of the soul, but without a decision.

He worships the god of good and evil, and he worships man, and he worships the tablets of man, because they all carry good and evil. He worships the truth and reality and exits the ideal stage represented in religion. He excels in Jesus in describing man in his different stages from childhood, especially childhood. I did not find the patience of a child's eyes in my life as I read in that great novel.

Then adolescence and youth, a stage of forming independent thought and embracing strange ideas outside the framework. We all went through that stage of intellectual fragmentation.

We doubted everything and about our truth and the truth of what we live and what is around us and what we worship, and the spirit of Siddhartha expressed us.

And on our way in life, as long as we found spiritual guides, some of them misled and some of them guided.

And those are the cycles of life. We all play two roles in our lives, the role of the spiritual guide and the role of the lost seeker.

The things that you see are the same things that we carry in our subconscious, and there is no truth but that which we carry within us. And for this reason, there are many who live an untrue life. They consider the external appearances as truths and do not allow the world existing within them to reveal itself. You can be happy in this way, but what about knowing the other interpretation, until you become unable after that to follow the crowd. The way of the majority, o Siddhartha, is easy, while our way is difficult.

The novel is not a revolution against religions as one might understand. It is a revolution against the single interpretation of the texts of religions that is affected by intellectual crucifixion. It is easy to find the soul's courage for liberation and thinking, many contradictions and illogicalities in the texts of religions. Humans have turned to the worship of the texts of religions and not the god of religions.

So they accept them as they are without thinking that they carry another interpretation, or that they have not been affected by distortion over the years.

So Siddhartha came out rebelliously from the world of light to the world of error, and in fact, he finds in life that there is no world of light and no world of error.

And that man is man wherever he is, and that man errs in the world of light and the world of error.

It is a novel that will surely put you in front of yourself in the face of nature and truth, and will make you wonder about the meaning of many things.

It is not heresy and apostasy. It is true reason, it is the truth.

What is wonderful about that novel, and what it carries in its pages of philosophy, unity, and integration with the power of nature and diving into the self of man to reach what lies in its depth of questions and ideas that have frozen and are difficult to change. It is difficult to change the fixed, but it is easy to get out of it and liberate yourself from the chains of the crucified society.

The Superman's Rebirth from Nietzsche's Perspective

In this work, Herman Hesse has been influenced by Nietzsche. Nietzsche views Christianity as being in opposition to human life. According to Nietzsche, Christianity aims to soften humans, which he believes is incorrect. Because in his opinion, humans are like wild beasts, and if tamed, they will lose all their pride. Nietzsche presents another image of humans as the Superman. The Superman in Nietzsche's view is beyond good and evil, and everything is permitted for him.

I am teaching you the Superman... What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the Superman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment... The Superman means the meaning of the earth...

Nietzsche describes that humans should discard their old clothes and start a new life with both the good and the bad worlds. In this novel, the cracking of the egg and the hatching of the bird symbolize the birth of Nietzsche's Superman, and war is also considered a struggle with the past world, and according to him, it brings another birth to humans.
Max Demian believes that everything that exists in nature should be respected, and not only a part of it should be recognized ceremoniously, but the whole world should be regarded as sacred. Demian bases his view on the Greeks and other nations, who had deities for everything, both good and bad, and they worshipped them.
The message of Herman Hesse is that humans are neither angels nor devils, but a being composed of both.

Humans have the potential to rise above their ordinary selves and become something greater, just as Nietzsche's Superman concept suggests. We should not be limited by traditional moral concepts but explore and embrace the full range of our human nature.

At the same time, we should also respect the diversity and complexity of the world, just as Max Demian advocates. Only in this way can we achieve a more complete and meaningful life.

I thought that mark was not a disgrace but a distinction and that I was superior to my father, superior to the good and pious precisely because of my wickedness and my misfortune.

This is a book that, at least in its first part, is told in the manner of a juvenile story. It's like a childhood memory story like many others, but of course our character has rather sinister hues almost from the beginning.

As the subtitle says, it is the story of the youth of Emil Sinclair, a young man who seems to have everything to be "happy" and who, after a really "childish" event, sees a great problem awaken within him: things begin to seem banal to him, he begins to like seedy affairs, and he starts to think that he can be superior to his parents because of the sufferings he thinks he has gone through. During his school life, he meets a classmate, Demian, who seems to have a very strange control over things that seem insignificant and yet quite profound and vital in his existence. This work deals with what happens while both grow, mostly from a philosophical point of view (thoughts and the way they see life).

It can be read as a parable. I think it's not a story that can be spoiled because of its construction. In general, the meaning is the same: "Know thyself, don't care what people say or what has been built in society, reach your destiny." In the first half, it seemed interesting to me especially because of the gradual, almost accidental discovery of "evil" that seduces because it explains many things that pass through the child's mind, although it seemed quite artificial and Hesse himself says that the story "will not be believed by ordinary people." In the second half, on the other hand, it becomes something fantastic and touches on religious and even sectarian themes, which was no longer of much interest to me and even made the tone of the work or the intention change.

Of the style, I thought it was good although not so extraordinary. The way of narrating is fast and agile and, above all, it stops at the existential doubts that assail the character at every step of his life. The reflections are interesting. I'm sure they were quite innovative for their time and set precedents for other philosophers or writers of the time.

Of course, I'm going to keep reading more of the author and something tells me that "Steppenwolf" will be more to my liking.

"Many are shipwrecked forever on this reef and remain painfully attached all their lives to an irrecoverable past, to the dream of a lost paradise, which is the worst and most disastrous of all dreams."

Ależ to było dobre!

It was truly amazing!

This simple phrase holds a world of meaning. It could refer to a wonderful experience, a delicious meal, a great achievement, or just a moment of pure joy. When we say "Ależ to było dobre!", we are expressing our satisfaction and appreciation for something that has brought us happiness or fulfillment.

Maybe it was a beautiful sunset that took our breath away, or a kind gesture from a friend that made our day. It could be a successful project at work that gave us a sense of pride, or a peaceful walk in the park that helped us relax and unwind. Whatever it was, it was something that made us feel good and reminded us of the beauty and goodness in the world.

In a world that can often seem chaotic and stressful, it's important to take the time to appreciate the good things in life. Whether it's a small moment of happiness or a major accomplishment, every positive experience is worth celebrating. So the next time you have something that makes you say "Ależ to było dobre!", take a moment to savor it and let the joy fill your heart.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately it didn't quite work for me.

The rating of 4.14 should have been a warning, as 4.14 is equal to a lot of cherries and I should have held a small basket, but I was holding a large crate. And the story by Demian was rather poor for me.

The first two chapters (Two Worlds, Cain) I liked quite a bit. We see an eleven-year-old child lying about stealing to seem worthy in the eyes of his older classmates, but this will turn against him and he will become a victim of bullying. He is redeemed in a mysterious way by the even more mysterious classmate Demian.

My redemption from my martyrdom was accomplished in a completely unexpected way and at the same time something new entered my life that still affects me deeply today.

From here begins his spiritual journey with Demian, Beatrice, the god/hero/magician/whatever Abraxas was in the end. In the following chapters there was a reading pleasure that became muddy sludge in the chapter Jacob's Ladder. It improved in the last two chapters (Eva and The Beginning of the End) but not as much as I would have liked to be an enjoyable read overall.

This book is said to have become the gospel of the German youth after 1919 (the year it was published). Now 100 years later it is starting to lose its power. For me, it's still a topic of discussion.

Scattered throughout the book were elements that left me completely indifferent such as mysticism, the supernatural, gods versus demons, soul - universe. It started to smell or rather reek of Coelho in the whole thing. Especially when it started to mention the universe within us and the bird in the egg.

See the continuation and end of my review as always on my blog Book Alchemies

There is something truly infuriating at the very core of Hesse's "Demian".

It seems highly probable that the root cause of this lies in the repression of homosexuality. "Demian" can, in its most basic form, be regarded as THE coming out story.

All the vivid imagery and the numerous Biblical allegories within the text allude to the protagonist's closely guarded secret: he is irresistibly gay.

He finds himself in a kind of hell as he struggles to reach a certain point (the climax towards the end is disappointingly dull).

The reader is forced to endure what can only be described as true bicurious leanings and rather tame homoeroticism.

The whole stance that God should personify both good and evil is indeed a worthy one. It is explored in great depth, and perhaps this is the sole reason why the novel has managed to survive in the first place.

So, the idea of peppering the cliched coming out legend with authentic philosophy is a good one. And in doing so, you have yourselves a (somewhat dubious) winner.

I extremely loved character analysis in the book. It seemed very vivid and real, and it was easy to empathize with the main character of the story.

In the middle of the story, there is the raw and inexperienced youth's worry named "Emily Sinclair". Although she is not inherently bad, she has a tendency towards evil and is constantly in a struggle between her half-light and half-dark side! However, since she was born and grew up in a religious family, every step she takes in the wrong direction is regarded as a great sin that will lead her to eternal hell.... In the meantime, "Sinclair" gets acquainted with a mysterious and older boy named "Damien", who has a wonderful influence on her and her entire life.

Damien maintained his charm and allure for me until the last page and even after that, and I will definitely read it again in the future.

If you are interested in reading the book, I highly recommend that you read the translation by Mohammad Baqai because both in terms of the style of translation and in terms of the explanations and appendices of the book, it is better than the translated version by Mrs. "Lili Bour Bour".

This book had such a profound impact on my mind that upon completing it, I actually threw it to the ground and remained speechless for half an hour.

It truly opened up a whole new world of thoughts and ideas for me, ones that I had never even considered before.

The experience of reading this book was simply amazing.

It made me realize how much we can expand our perspectives and understanding through the power of literature.

I am so grateful to have come across this book and look forward to exploring more works that can have a similar effect on me.

It has definitely changed the way I think and has left a lasting impression on my intellectual journey.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a thought-provoking and life-changing read.

It is truly a masterpiece that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.