HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

superior wit. Furthemore, Mozart's laughter has the same distinctive characteristics
of Pablo's:
Dabei lachte er [Pablo] laut auf, nur ein paar Tone, aber sie durchfuhren mich
heftig, es war wieder das helle, fremdartige Lachen, das ich schon vorher von
oben gehort hatte.59 (SW 4,166; my emphasis)
Pablo's laughter is defined by the adjective 'hell 7 and by the fact that it seems to
resound from another realm 'fremdartige Lachen' (cf. 'aus einem den Menschen
unerhorten Jenseits' below), both attributes of Mozart's laughter:
Da klang hinter mir ein Gelachter, ein helles und eiskaltes Gelachter, aus einem
den Menschen unerhorten Jenseits von Gelittenhaben, von Gotterhumor
geboren. (SW 4,191; my emphasis)
It is therefore my contention that the 'Gotterhumor' of the Immortals and the
'Humor' prescribed as a passage and stage in the process of 'Menschwerdung' in the
'Tractat' are not mutually exclusive, but the former manifestation of 'Humor' is
rather the ideal prolongation of the latter.60 Through the dual character of Pablo /
Mozart, Hesse, perhaps to some extent unconsciously, portrays the reconciliation
between humour and ideals a synthesis which was still far to be prefigured in
Hermann Lauscher (see note 46 in this chapter). 61 Pablo's humour contains a spark of
immortal laughter, and death is not the dividing line between authentic and trivial
laughter but rather their point of union, as Hesse indirectly alludes in one of his
diary entries of 1921:
59 In this passage, Haller associates Pablo's laughter with the chilling sound he hears at the end of the
'Maskenball': 'Irgendwo, in einer unbestimmbaren Feme und Hb'he, hb'rte ich ein Gelachter klingen, ein
ungemein helles und frohes, dennoch schauerliches und fremdes Gelachter, ein Lachen wie aus Kristall und Eis,
hell und strahlend, aber kalt und unerbittlich' (SW 4, 163). The attributes of this laughter, which is as cold as ice
anticipate, by implication, the 'scheufilich dunne Eisluft' (SW 4, 194) Haller feels in the atmosphere of the
Immortals.
60 As Furst notes, the contrast between divine and mundane laughter can be traced back to F. Schlegel, who
'drew a sharp distinction between different levels of irony, underlining the divergence between the "lower"
types-rhetorical, polemical, and parodistic-and that irony which he designated as true, complete, absolute,
partaking of the divine. Such authentic irony is "das hochste Gut der Menschheit" for it is the means whereby
man may confront and, ideally, transcend the contradictions and limitations of the finite world' (33).
61 This is also in line with Hermine's exhortation to Haller not to abdicate the battle for what he believes in,
although ideals are not fully attainable: 'Dein Leben wird auch dadurch nicht flach und dumm, wenn du weiBt,
daB dein Kampf erfolglos sein wird. Es ist viel flacher, Harry, wenn du fur etwas Gutes und Ideales kampfst und
nun meinst, du mussest es auch erreichen. Sind denn Ideale zum Erreichen da?' (SW 4, 115). Similarly, as Hollis
notes, the detachment humour affords is not necessarily at odds with the pursuit of one's ideals and should not
ultimately be a hindrance to action: 'Far from stopping him [Haller] fighting war, "Humor", would allow him to
continue' (1973, 134). Moreover, Theodorou points out: 'Auch Goethe [in Der Steppenwolf] hat, trotz seines
humorvollen Lachens seinen Ernst nicht verloren (143).
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