i just finished it, it is truly the most incredible book i will ever read, if hermann hesse was still alive and i was female id kiss him on the lips

So what is 0.1% imperfect about this book?

I too just finished Steppenwolf. I was blown away by Harry's struggle to integrate the many facets of his soul and to reconcile with the disparity between his classical idealism and sensual reality.

well nothing can be perfect, i wish there was such a thing

What about for the example night sky with all the shining stars? I think that is simply perfect. There is nothing that I would want to change about that and it reminds me how very small and unimportant we actually areŸ.

i like your style. Oh no! monkey!

totally awsome book and multi layered. Fist read it 12 years ago, still amazed by it every time i flick open a page-can be read again and again and each time a new experience. Hesse is a true pilgrim on this wayward path called life.

I read steppenwolf about 6 months ago. I was chatting to a friend of mine who also read the book. We both have completly different interperations of the book.
My friend believes Steppenwolf never left his room and the girl (I can't remenber her name), Paulo, the dancing was all his imagination.
I think his experiences were real and some (the theater for mad men only) drug induced.
A fantastic book.

I think perfection should be intrinsic, which buddhism is all about. It isn';t the night sky that should be perfect, the state of our mind or heart. To be free from attachment and detachment. Therefore as long as there is "want thing" as part of us,,,that is the root.

I had always thought that the Magic Theatre was a symbol for Hallers inner mind. The workings of both neuroses and genius. For example the shooting gallery could show the primal rage and apathy of his being, while the room filled with all the women he had left behind shows that he was a deep, passionate soul. All of these rooms, aspects of Hallers psyche, reinforce the idea of a thousand souls existing within one man.

The question about Steppenwolf being 99.9% perfect cannot be answered. It is beautiful, it has changed me: in itself it is perfect.


Dreams are the illumination of night.