The Immortals are laughing at us

"Steppenwolf" is a near-incomprehensible, surrealist novel by the German writer Hermann Hesse. It was first published in 1927, and has been both widely read and widely criticized ever since. To be honest, I didn't like the novel. To the uninitiated, it sounds like a frivolous joke. Most avant-garde art does. I guess you have to be like the main character of the story to really get it. And the main character, a certain Harry Haller, seems to be Hermann Hesse's alter ego. Hesse suffered from psychological problems during a large part of his life, and apparently found some solace in Eastern religions, including Buddhism. This is reflected in "Steppenwolf".

My problems are more mundane than those of Hesse a.k.a. Haller (I don't like my job, Amazon packages are sent to the wrong post office, bla bla), and I'm more into Darwin than the Buddha, so the weird spiritual quest of The Steppenwolf meant nothing to me. Often, the story made me laugh, a mocking laughter not unlike that of Goethe and Mozart when they meet Haller in the novel!

The main character is a failed, pathetic intellectual who tries to find himself by frequenting dancehalls and jazz clubs. He is entangled in a relationship with a hooker, who turns out to be bisexual. Haller also meets the mysterious Hermine, who is both bisexual, hermaphroditic and his own anima. Another bizarre character is Pablo, a Black Carribean saxophonist with a penchant for opium, hash and threesomes. He later turns out to be a guru. Goethe and Mozart also turn up in the story. Both of them have reached a higher plane of existence, and call themselves The Immortals. In the end, Haller frequents a masked ball and walks through a magic theatre, and somehow this helps him to find his true self. There, in complete surrealist confusion, the novel ends.

Hesse later wrote that "Steppenwolf" was his most misunderstood novel (his short comments are included in the Penguin Modern Classics edition). Many critics considered the book to be pessimistic and nihilistic. The reason, perhaps, was that they didn't understand the Buddhist parts. To Hesse, it was precisely the Buddhist angle that promised transcendence and liberation from the woes of this world. I tend to side with the critics. Hesse's alter ego is drawn to the more questionable parts of the Buddhist tradition. Who are the Immortals, and why do they laugh so mockingly at humanity? Why is their world so cold, and yet so enchanting for Haller? Are the Immortals some kind of Tantric supermen? Probably, and it seems Haller wants to join them, looking down with chilling laughter at the rest of creation, still groaning in samsara.

Somehow, this sounds more like Gurdjieff and Nietzsche than the really existing Buddhism of Southeast Asia.

"Steppenwolf" was a product of the author's spiritual crisis. It should be read with that in mind. Indeed, the story is best if you take it with a large grain of salt.