Goethe's Faust, Hesse's Steppenwolf...

Eckermann records for January 10, 1825 the visit of an English engineer officer during which Goethe heard that he had read Egmont and Torquato Tasso, but was quite amused to learn that he was reading Faust. “Really I would not have advised you to undertake Faust. It is mad stuff, and goes quite beyond ordinary feeling.”

Hesse in his 1961 author’s note to Steppenwolf described how it had been the most misunderstood of all his works, in part because it was read and understood by those who did not have the needed age, perspective and experience.

the “blogs” here – just recent pieces of nearly 40 years of journal notes – are written from a view similar to the experience of life and world of “Harry Haller”. there are those who call themselves Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, even, God(s) help us, New Agers…  I find myself to be a “Steppenwolf” -- a kin of Hesse’s “Harry Haller”. In my case: Stephenwolf.

the blogs here have all the “optimism” and angle on life and world as those with which “Harry Haller” saw the world.