HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ... HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
Through Klingsor, who defines time as the worst illusion, Hesse reminds us that the mystery of time and its contradictory nature constitute the origin of the aforementioned antitheses, which would all disappear if time did not exist. The elusiveness of this 'geheimnisvolle[s] Element' (Mann 1924, i) or 'ratselhaftes Ding' (Mann 1924,169), as Thomas Mann calls it, has been much debated since classical antiquity, as also demonstrated by the renowned statement of Saint Augustine that underlines the intuitive understanding but problematic explanation of time. 6 Life would be inconceivable without time, yet it is time that terminates every existence, as Guy Debord, paraphrasing Hegel, has more recently observed: 'time is a necessary alienation, being the medium in which the subject realizes himself while losing himself, becomes other in order to become truly himself (115-16). 7 Hesse cannot pin down 'The point of intersection of the timeless I With time' (T. S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages' V; 1944, 30), nor can he provide any definitive solution to the riddle and contradictions of time. What he does offer is a poetic and dialectical answer. Like Goethe, who perceives the ebb and flow of time in the life of the universe ('Ein- und Ausatmen der Welt', see Chapter 1), and T. S. Eliot, who stresses that 'For most of us, there is only the unattended I Moment, the moment in and out of time' (T. S. Eliot, 'The Dry Salvages' V; 1944, 30), Hesse resolves the tension between the here and now and the eternal in a perennial pendulation between the two extremes, as he does with all polarities such as ideal and reality, the spiritual and the sensual. 8 However, to reach this 'elasticity' and to be able to 'breathe in and out of time', individuals have to intensify their personality to the point where they can relinquish their selves, which need to be subdued, or crushed through 'Galgenhumor' and self-irony, and finally dissolved in the totality of existence. In other words, Hesse prescribes 'selflessness and self-surrender' (T. S. Eliot, The Dry 6 'Provided that no one asks me [what time is], I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know' (Saint Augustine; Book XI, 230; see also the Introduction to this thesis). 7 Debord's observation resonates with Hesse's perspective on the temporality of change (imposed by time) and metamorphosis (afforded by time). 8 Hesse exemplifies his oscillation between opposites in Kurgast: 'Mein Verhaltnis zum sogenannten "Geist" zum Beispiel ist genau dasselbe wie das zum Essen oder Trinken. Manchmal gibt es nichts in der Welt, was mich so heftig anzieht und mir so unentbehrlich scheint wie der Geist, wie die Moglichkeit der Abstraktion, der Logik, der Idee. Dann wieder, wenn ich davon satt bin und das Gegenteil brauche und begehre, ekelt aller Geist mich an wie verdorbenes Essen' (SW 11,114). 201
Salvages' V; 1944, 30), as one of his diary entries of approximately January 1921 illustrates: das Ziel ware die Entwicklung zum iiberpersonlichen Ich, zum Heiligen, der auf die Welt und Zeit nicht mehr personlich reagiert, sondern in dessen Seelenzustand das Chaos der Welt zu Sinn und Musik wird, in dessen Atem Gott ein und aus geht' (Tagebuch 1920/1921', SW 11, 633) In this respect, the dual character of Pablo and Mozart represents a paradigmatic synthesis of Hesse's perspective on time, being also, as we have sought to demonstrate, the point of convergence of all the themes analysed in this thesis. The transformation of Mozart into Pablo represents the 'unexpected moment' of revelation for Harry, and an instance of metamorphosis. Their joint identity affirms the interdependence of eternal, classical music and ephemeral tunes and also suggests that the laughter of the Immortals is the prolongation of the earthly quips of those individuals who, like Pablo, have been able to go beyond their principium individuationis and laugh at themselves without losing sight of their ideals. Most importantly, their pairing indicates that the eternity of Mozart and the temporality of Pablo's life are not mutually exclusive but linked dimensions, connected through the channel of sporadic moments of understanding. Hesse underlines that earthly life contains the germ of the timeless and that, as T. S. Eliot expresses it in the final line of the second section of 'Burnt Norton': 'Only through time time is conquered' (1944, 6). A final point, which was only briefly mentioned at the end of Chapter 6 and might attract further attention from scholars, is that all aspects of temporality discussed in this thesis have ethical implications and overtones. Morality is one of the attributes of the music Hesse calls 'klassisch' which, to his mind, is of exemplary, everlasting significance. 'Selflessness' is a quality which, according to Hesse, most virtuosi lack. Memory, in H. H.'s account in Die Morgenlandfahrt, should have prevented Europe from consigning the atrocities of the First World War to oblivion, thereby avoiding an even more catastrophic conflict twenty years later. As opposed to the aesthetic implications of Romantic irony, the scope of Hesse's 'Humor' and self-irony is, in fact, essentially ethical. 202
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Through Klingsor, who defines time as the worst illusion, Hesse reminds us<br />
that the mystery of time and its contradictory nature constitute the origin of the<br />
aforementioned antitheses, which would all disappear if time did not exist. The<br />
elusiveness of this 'geheimnisvolle[s] Element' (Mann 1924, i) or 'ratselhaftes Ding'<br />
(Mann 1924,169), as Thomas Mann calls it, has been much debated since classical<br />
antiquity, as also demonstrated by the renowned statement of Saint Augustine that<br />
underlines the intuitive understanding but problematic explanation of time. 6 Life<br />
would be inconceivable without time, yet it is time that terminates every existence, as<br />
Guy Debord, paraphrasing Hegel, has more recently observed: 'time is a necessary<br />
alienation, being the medium in which the subject realizes himself while losing<br />
himself, becomes other in order to become truly himself (115-16). 7<br />
Hesse cannot pin down 'The point of intersection of the timeless I With time'<br />
(T. S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages' V; 1944, 30), nor can he provide any definitive solution<br />
to the riddle and contradictions of time. What he does offer is a poetic and dialectical<br />
answer. Like Goethe, who perceives the ebb and flow of time in the life of the<br />
universe ('Ein- und Ausatmen der Welt', see Chapter 1), and T. S. Eliot, who stresses<br />
that 'For most of us, there is only the unattended I Moment, the moment in and out<br />
of time' (T. S. Eliot, 'The Dry Salvages' V; 1944, 30), Hesse resolves the tension<br />
between the here and now and the eternal in a perennial pendulation between the<br />
two extremes, as he does with all polarities such as ideal and reality, the spiritual and<br />
the sensual. 8 However, to reach this 'elasticity' and to be able to 'breathe in and out of<br />
time', individuals have to intensify their personality to the point where they can<br />
relinquish their selves, which need to be subdued, or crushed through<br />
'Galgenhumor' and self-irony, and finally dissolved in the totality of existence. In<br />
other words, Hesse prescribes 'selflessness and self-surrender' (T. S. Eliot, The Dry<br />
6 'Provided that no one asks me [what time is], I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know'<br />
(Saint Augustine; Book XI, 230; see also the Introduction to this thesis).<br />
7 Debord's observation resonates with Hesse's perspective on the temporality of change (imposed by time) and<br />
metamorphosis (afforded by time).<br />
8 Hesse exemplifies his oscillation between opposites in Kurgast: 'Mein Verhaltnis zum sogenannten "Geist"<br />
zum Beispiel ist genau dasselbe wie das zum Essen oder Trinken. Manchmal gibt es nichts in der Welt, was mich<br />
so heftig anzieht und mir so unentbehrlich scheint wie der Geist, wie die Moglichkeit der Abstraktion, der Logik,<br />
der Idee. Dann wieder, wenn ich davon satt bin und das Gegenteil brauche und begehre, ekelt aller Geist mich an<br />
wie verdorbenes Essen' (SW 11,114).<br />
201