Books : Hermann Hesse On Duality

Note: Hesse wrote a lot of fiction on the concept of duality: in Siddhartha, it was 'Siddharta' and 'Govinda', in Steppenwolf it was the protagonist and the 'wolf', in Narcissus and Goldmund it was them both. I'm sure in Demian as well. In this post, I only focus on Narcissus & Goldmund because that's the one I'm reading this month. 

“All existence seemed to be based on duality, on contrast. Either one was a man or one was a woman, either a wanderer or sedentary burgher, either a thinking person or a feeling person-no one could breathe in at the same time as he breathed out, be a man as well as a woman, experience freedom as well as order, combine instinct and mind. One always had to pay for one with the loss of the other, and one thing was always just as important and desirable as the other.”- Hermann Hesse

This is a coming-of-age story, that mostly focuses on Goldmund's perspective, and his friendship with Narcissus. They meet at the cloister school, Narcissus as the young gifted teacher and Goldmund as the student full of life. Goldmund leaves his monastery school in search of the 'meaning of life'. He wanders aimlessly for years, he has a passion for love and has numerous love affairs. The wandering years fill up this story until he reunites with his friend again in the end, and the two reflect upon their chosen past: contrasting the artist and the thinker.

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In the book, Narcissus is a devout spiritual monk, he represents science and logic, the 'masculine conscious mind'. 

He is a classic view of the left-brain dominant intellectual, a classical scholar who focuses on theology and philosophy. He has a strong ability to understand people and it leads him to a leadership/teacher position. Typically, the left-brainers are goal-oriented, organized, realistic, logical, and precise. The logical side of the brain is used in reading, writing, and calculations.

Narcissus is the one that stayed in the monastery, fulfilling his tasks to God wholeheartedly because he can't imagine doing anything else than what he decided upon. 

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Goldmund otherwise, the restless wandering artist. He represents nature and the 'feminine conscious mind'.  

He has a stronger right-brain ability: the right brain is more visual, and it processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous manner. Usually linked with creativity, artistic and spatial ability. The right-brainer tends to be disorganized, unpredictable, spontaneous, emotional, intuitive, and more comfortable with the unknown. Goldmund later became a wood carver. 

Goldmund is the one that left the monastery, drifting around the countryside and forest for years as a homeless vagrant, enjoying freedom from any commitments, searching for pleasure from women and childhood fulfillment (mommy-issue). During his travels, he faces the cruelty and corrupt nature of mankind as well. 

Every time he starts to settle down, he is either overtaken by his own restlessness or sabotages his position by seducing the maids, or any forbidden family members in the household. He just kenot tahan his love, and he kenot stay at one place, tsk.

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They are the yin & the yang, and their friendship is odd because they don't have anything in common except for their belief in God. The best thing in their friendship is their openness towards each other's views in response to religion and life, both accepted their differences and didn't feed each other with what they have learned. 

Narcissus once told Goldmund: 

“Ich lerne viel von dir, Goldmund. Ich beginne zu verstehen was Kunst ist.” - I learn a lot from you, Goldmund. I am starting to understand what art is.

• It is then said that this book is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of duality in Apollonian vs Dionysian from Greek mythology - The Birth of Tragedy. Apollo is the god of the sun, represents rational thinking and order, and appeals to logic, purity, and reason. While Dionysus, is the god of wine & dance, of irrationality and chaos, and represents passion, emotions, and instinct. 
• He also might reference Carl Jung's psychological symbols and archetypes in his books. He became a patient of Carl Jung's staff for psychotherapy. 

When I read Narcissus & Goldmund, I can see myself in Goldmund. I am obviously the wandering artist tu kan. The one that can't stay in one place and be content with the 'planned & structured system'. I understand his need to choose his passion beyond everything, to choose life, love, and nature. We don't care about money, power, or status. We don't care what society says about what's right and wrong, we want to figure it out ourselves. We are emotional, prone to mistakes and heartbreaks, unstable, and perhaps even dramatic. 

Sometimes I don't even understand why I'm like this. But by learning about Goldmund, about Siddhartha, I come to learn myself better. Accepting that there are wandering artists in this world that need all the freedom the world can offer. Thank God there aren't that many, or the whole system would collapse. 

Anyway, reading Hesse has been fruitful in learning about myself. 

I'm very much interested to read Demian next. 

 

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Image by Patrick Perkins, Unsplash