Book Club: Demian by Hermann Hesse

[Originally published on my Medium page: link here]

• Rate: 4/5
• Time: Can be read in less than a day
• Length: Smidge over 100 pages (short)

Demian is a coming-of-age novel of the protagonist and narrator Emil Sinclair. The reader is pulled into Sinclair’s psychological labyrinth as it grows desire, fear, confusion, and frustrations with the world and his own being. The underlying themes of the book bringing up age-old discussion and interpretations that reads differently towards every reader. I’d like to say that the first half reads as an autobiography of an ordinary person. The last bit of the novel does venture deep into Carl Jung’s’ theory of the collective unconscious, embedding archetypes and symbolisms that would make Jung proud.

I planned to take my time, reading only two chapters a sitting. However, it became impossible to want to put it down. Didn’t love Sinclair nor felt particularly any hate for him, I was curious to see where Sinclair ended up; Hesse has a way of introducing a character and wrapping you into them, as opposed to their world or relationships. I will say that I had to double-take when trying to figure out the Emil/Demian/Eva scenes.

Would you need to know psychology to enjoy the book? Nope, it’s a good story for readers that love classics and take pride in discussion (either alone or with a book club!)

Would it help to know a little psychology? Yes, and it’ll take you on a margin scribbling joyride.

Final sayings? Totally PG should be in the school curriculum, and the egg/bird quote is phenomenal

If you’ve already read it or don’t care for spoilers keep reading below.

Concept Spoilers:

1. TWO WORLDS: At first glance, this concept seems to reflect heavily on religious upbringing that a vast majority of individuals experience. The notion of growing up with preconceived ideologies attach Sinclair to dogmatic judgements of everything from the world, his peers, and even towards himself. While this concept and system of rights and wrongs does hold some foundation, it doesn’t encompass the complexity of the real world. The black and white perspective gets ultimately defeated and rendered useless when the argument of what is forbidden and permitted come up. The individual is in control of the rights and wrongs through their own boundaries, the external enforcement (be it laws or religion) deters back the Lawrence Kohlberg’s first level of cognitive development.
2. DEMIAN: Theres an interesting push and pull throughout the novel, as Demian, this enigmatic characters is a key figure in the development of Sinclair, allows Sinclair to do as he pleases only acting and speaking in pivotal scenes. Arriving with a district interpretation of the biblical Cain and Abel, he embodies the conflict and the temptation of breaking out of the two worlds view. He lets Emil retreat into his safe heaven after rescuing him from Franz’ tormenting, withdrawing his thoughts when going too far, and not interfering when seeing him at his lowest point. Guidance is the main word that comes up when thinking of Demian and he plays the role flawlessly.
3. ABRAXAS: I think the presence of the bird/egg painting and Abraxas is the major turning point in the novel where Emil goes from going through life to seeking a purpose and venturing into and outside of himself. Can write a 10 page essay on just how much I love the quote. The processes of Emil being introduced to his passion and his life goal and desires depends desperately on him breaking free from his past self and world. To be reborn into something new there must be the destruction of the old self/way. Abraxas also has strong attachment towards mysticism, mystery, and exclusivity of acquired knowledge - it is something that is not found by accident, but by intention.
4. PSYCHOLOGY: The concepts are there and this book provides great points of psychological discussion involving Freuds’ Oedipus complex and the majority of archetypes and symbols in Jung’s Collective unconscious. This shifts a lot of the relationships between the characters to be treated more like symbolic events/theories and personas. It’s would be simple to say Emil love Eva, but it wouldn’t do the novel justice by dismissing many other references that fit into this; such as the great mother, the dual mothers, and the animus-anima. Pick your poison, explore, and discuss.

Noteworthy Quotes:

• When poets write novels they are apt to behave as if they were gods, with the power to look beyond and comprehend any human story and serve it up as if the almighty himself, omnipresent, were relating it in all its naked truth. (Prologue, Demian)
• When I pictured the devil to myself, I found no difficulty in visualizing him in the streets below, disguised or undisguised, or at the fair or at the taverns but never at home. (Chapter 1, Demian)
• He too was a ‘temper’ and moreover my link with the second, evil world with which I never wanted anything more to do. (Chapter 2, Demian)
• Therefore each one of us must discover for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden as far as he himself is concerned. It is possible never to do a forbidden thing yet be the real villain. (Chapter 3, Demian)
• It was the pattern of my life and death; It expressed the tone and rhythm of my fate. (Chapter 4, Demian)
• The bird is struggling out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born must first destroy a world. The bird id flying to god. The name of the god is called Abraxas. (Chapter 5, Demian)
• When we hate someone we are hating something that is within ourselves, in his image. We are never stirred up by something which does not already exist within us. (Chapter 6, Demian)
• I have grown accustomed to my inner life, resigned to the fact that I had lost my feeling for the outside world and that the loss of its bright colors was an inseparable part of the loss of childhood and that one must to some extent pay for the freedom and maturity of the soul with the renunciation of those pure gleams of light. (Chapter 6, Demian)

Demian by Hermann Hesse

Synonyms for “Walk”:

▪️Theystrolled through the garden hand in hand.

▪️Shetramped through the mud, her legs aching.

▪️Hehiked up the hill.

▪️The cat awoke and moseyed to her food bowl.

▪️Heprowled around the corner as the girl neared.

▪️Hemarched around the school yard, feeling proud.

▪️Sheambled into the kitchen with a yawn.

▪️Hewandered through the hallways, staring down at th map.

▪️Shetrodslowlyacross the old bridge, watching her feet.

▪️Heproceeded on his way after stopping for a drink.

▪️The boys trooped into the locker room after a long game.

▪️The boy and girl sauntered down the road.

▪️Sheplodded toward the house, having finished her jog.

▪️Hepatrolled up and down the street.

▪️The dogs roamed the open meadows.

Writing Hooks

• Start your book with an onomatopoeia: (Sounds words)

Bark!

I jet up in bed with a racing heart. Why is Luna barking at this hour?

Bang!

The sound echoed through the woods, birds hurrying into flight.

• Start your book with repetitive phrases:

No. No. I stared at the torn picture in unbelief.

“Where’s dad? Where’s dad?” I asked, tears running down my face.

• Start your book with ADJECTIVES:

White swirls covered the top of my salted caramelcoffee.

Agiant blue wave crashed over the little blonde-headedgirl.

• Start your book with a personal experience:

I always loved the way rain sounded on a tin roof; it would lull me fast to sleep.

When I was five, my big brother had punched me in the nose. He used to always get away with bullying me.

• Start your book with SETTING:

The neighbors’ house was dark, always shadowed even on a sunny day. The black iron gate that surrounded the mansion kept everyone out and what was in, stayed in.

The park was full of children and their pets, racing back and forth through the sandboxes and dewy morning grass.

letswritesomenovels:

Give each chapter a descriptive title. 

Especially if you find yourself at sea when deciding how exactly to chop your story into pieces. Even if you don’t want to use chapter titles in your final draft, they’re of enormous use when you’re still figuring out exactly what the shape of your story is. By giving your chapter a descriptive title, you’re giving your chapter a focus and a particular story for your chapter to tell. 

Make sure each chapter has its own self contained narrative arc. 

This is not to say that every novel must be episodic, but that each section should have its own beginning, middle, and end. It should have set up, build up, and resolution. It should ask a question an implicit question at the beginning and provide a slightly more explicit answer at the end. 

Example: one chapter in my book is just 500 words. Two new characters drive into town, get out of a car, knock on a door, and they say their names. The beginning is the introduction of the mystery of these characters. It’s the question “who are these people?” As they drive, you see them and where they are going, which builds towards the answer. As a resolution, you get their names. 

You wouldn’t call this a “short story” by any means, but it does have a firm beginning, middle, end. It is a contained unit. 

A chapter break can–and sometimes should–come in the middle of a scene. 

Twists and cliffhangers can appear at the end of novels, so it would be silly to say you couldn’t end a chapter that way, too. Cliffhangers and twists are usually both a result of other plot points, and the cause of a new problem. Narratively, they function both as the ending of one thing and the beginning of another, so they make for great chapter breaks. Separating the scene at a cliffhanger is often better/cleaner than lumping the entire scene into one chapter. 

Example: Alex is warned to stay away from a dangerous cliff. Alex gets adventurous and wanders toward cliff. Alex falls off of cliff. Beginning. Middle. End. 

Alex is actually hanging from cliff! Alex figures out a way to get back to solid ground, struggles. Alex makes it back to solid ground. Beginning. Middle. End.

You want your readers to “just one more chapter!” their way through your book. Stuffing moments of high tension into the middle of chapters that resolve neatly won’t keep them turning pages.

Always end your chapters on a point of intrigue. 

Using points of tension to bookend chapters is important because chapter endings are usually where readers put a book down during a reading session. They’re very naturally places to close the cover and walk away. 

As a writer, you don’t want this. You absolutely don’t want to give your reader great places to put the book down, because you need them to pick the book up again as soon as possible. Not the next day, or the next week, (or never), but while they have a spare minute during their commute, or during their lunch break, or under their desk in class. 

You want to encourage this by taking that perfectly natural endpoint, that place they expect to be able to put the book down, and forcing them to take even a tiny peak at the next chapter. 

This doesn’t mean ending everychapter on a verifiable cliffhanger, but there has to be something.A character can solve a mystery. A new character can appear. There can be a moment of irony. A new idea. Just so long as it’s something that will make the reader think “I need to know what happens next.” 

Beta-reading release for the first 5 chapters of “The Sario Effect”. Image’s not final. Summary and Link attached in this post.

Summary:It was supposed to be a normal Saturday afternoon. We deserved a break after everything we’ve been through. Then out of the blue, a kid bumped into us with a strange device. A Yeerk device. And the Yeerks want it back from her.

We don’t know what’s going on. What that device is. Or how this Controller is connected to everything. The only thing Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Ax, Marco and I do know is that she might have the answers we need.

And she might actually be more dangerous than Visser Three himself…

Since my note regarding my fanfiction writing, I’ve re-evaluated what I wanted for my story idea: a disabled Host with a Yeerk, and reedited the entire story of the Sario Effect thanks to several peoples’ help. I do wanna give a small apology that “here we go again! Another version of this one fic I’ve made” and honestly, I feel the same as you do. This is like the fifth version and I’ve been pulling my hair wondering why on Earth did I not just make this version from the beginning. 

So considering this has gone through versions, by all means, wreck this piece with all the constructive criticism to the ground. I want your harshest, honest feedback to make up for it. In order words, break my legs.

Link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/11VfIy0jDgr9gReqThWHQWk4Lw5Wvb8Peoyj9LPfqmkw/edit?usp=sharing

Viewers have the option to comment/suggest changes to the fic. Unless I didn’t again, please inform me if that’s the case.
This post will get updates in the comments from me for the next releases. Chp 6 to 10 are still in progress/refining. Once I finish my covers for this fic and editing is finished, I’ll upload this version to FFN and AO3.

always thinking about him

My fourth novel with Chapters comes out on Tuesday! This one is a really adorable and sexy friends to lovers tale with an absolutely swoonworthy LI.

I love this story and can’t wait for you all to read it.

❤️❤️❤️

Download the app Chapters to read. You can also read my previous works Bossman, Under Covers, and Thd Mafia Prince, all of which are finished for you to binge.

letswritesomenovels:

Give each chapter a descriptive title. 

Especially if you find yourself at sea when deciding how exactly to chop your story into pieces. Even if you don’t want to use chapter titles in your final draft, they’re of enormous use when you’re still figuring out exactly what the shape of your story is. By giving your chapter a descriptive title, you’re giving your chapter a focus and a particular story for your chapter to tell. 

Make sure each chapter has its own self contained narrative arc. 

This is not to say that every novel must be episodic, but that each section should have its own beginning, middle, and end. It should have set up, build up, and resolution. It should ask a question an implicit question at the beginning and provide a slightly more explicit answer at the end. 

Example: one chapter in my book is just 500 words. Two new characters drive into town, get out of a car, knock on a door, and they say their names. The beginning is the introduction of the mystery of these characters. It’s the question “who are these people?” As they drive, you see them and where they are going, which builds towards the answer. As a resolution, you get their names. 

You wouldn’t call this a “short story” by any means, but it does have a firm beginning, middle, end. It is a contained unit. 

A chapter break can–and sometimes should–come in the middle of a scene. 

Twists and cliffhangers can appear at the end of novels, so it would be silly to say you couldn’t end a chapter that way, too. Cliffhangers and twists are usually both a result of other plot points, and the cause of a new problem. Narratively, they function both as the ending of one thing and the beginning of another, so they make for great chapter breaks. Separating the scene at a cliffhanger is often better/cleaner than lumping the entire scene into one chapter. 

Example: Alex is warned to stay away from a dangerous cliff. Alex gets adventurous and wanders toward cliff. Alex falls off of cliff. Beginning. Middle. End. 

Alex is actually hanging from cliff! Alex figures out a way to get back to solid ground, struggles. Alex makes it back to solid ground. Beginning. Middle. End.

You want your readers to “just one more chapter!” their way through your book. Stuffing moments of high tension into the middle of chapters that resolve neatly won’t keep them turning pages.

Always end your chapters on a point of intrigue. 

Using points of tension to bookend chapters is important because chapter endings are usually where readers put a book down during a reading session. They’re very naturally places to close the cover and walk away. 

As a writer, you don’t want this. You absolutely don’t want to give your reader great places to put the book down, because you need them to pick the book up again as soon as possible. Not the next day, or the next week, (or never), but while they have a spare minute during their commute, or during their lunch break, or under their desk in class. 

You want to encourage this by taking that perfectly natural endpoint, that place they expect to be able to put the book down, and forcing them to take even a tiny peak at the next chapter. 

This doesn’t mean ending everychapter on a verifiable cliffhanger, but there has to be something.A character can solve a mystery. A new character can appear. There can be a moment of irony. A new idea. Just so long as it’s something that will make the reader think “I need to know what happens next.” 

Won’t Stop

    You are the newest recruit for the Avengers. Your room is right next to the Winter Soldier, and since being here you are awaken by the sound of Bucky restless after his nightmares. One night you decide to go in to check if he’s okay, and your relationship transforms in a way you never thought possible.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

With all the bad news I’ve received this week (and, mind you, it’s only Tuesday!) the fact that today was mail day made me feel a little bit better. :’)

1. Oh no
2. But what if
3. Well that didn’t work
4. Here we go again
5. How many times are we going to try this?
6. It was, in fact, impossible
7. Just why?
8. We should have been farmers
9. Six feet apart but totally gay
10. He forgot again
11. Does this count as murder
12. The end, but not really
13. Pot meet kettle
14. And there were two beds but no one cared
15. We are still walking
16. This wasn’t supposed to happen
17. Yeet
18. It was all a lie
19. Group chat gone wrong
20. The idiots were left unsupervised again
21. It’ll be fun they said
22. Still afraid of dogs
23. Are we there yet?
24. It’s too late to back out
25. Curses aren’t real.. probably
26. Some people shouldn’t bake
27. R.I.P.
28. It was a mistake
29. Spies, Lies, and Tasty French Fries
30. Be afraid
31. The teachers wig
32. It wasn’t over but it should have been
33. An alligator in the hallway
34. I didn’t know he was a ghost
35. The devil told me to
36. Who let the dogs out
37. He had many regrets
38. Just kiss already
39. Everyone is having sex 
40. Oops

New Post has been published on https://bit.ly/3wTqicC

Tensions Are High in “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery”

May is quickly ending, and we’ve had quite the ride in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. With Chocolate Frog hunts, new creatures, and new Chapters – there’s been a lot going on and our characters are feeling the pressure. Let’s catch up on what the month has held.

As always, we look forward to a new Magical Milestones event every month. May’s look, Sun Dress to Impress is one you’ll not want to miss out on. The gorgeous green coloring pairs nicely with the vine accents on the blazer and dress – depending upon your character. Of course, no outfit is complete without a stylish hat to match.

Sun Dress to Impress look for May’s Magical Milestones in “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery”

The Quidditch season picked up this month. In one of our last updates, we accepted a Seeker position on the team and things were already seeming to go downhill. In Chapter 2, we figured out who was behind the destruction of our locker room and we get ready to face our first Quidditch match of the season. Chapter 3 brings rumors of a secret weapon that will be used against our team during the upcoming match and we question if we’re doing the right thing by leading the team.

Quidditch always seems to get everyone’s appetites going. To help stave off the hunger, maybe you played along with the Chocolate Frog hunt that happened in Hogwarts Mystery. Day 1 of this hunt took us to the castle grounds where we scooped up 500 coins for finding the Chocolate Frog. On day 2 we found the Chocolate Frog in the courtyard and received 50 energy, and on day 3 we went to the east towers where we received another 500 coins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now that we’re all caught up on Quidditch and feeling the effects of a successful Chocolate Frog hunt, let’s get back to the real drama – Year 7 and the ongoing problems our characters are facing. Chapter 36 had us picking up the pieces of a break-in at Gringotts and we learned that “R” is still after us to be their leader. Chapter 37 took us down a dark path that we thought we had successfully left, after an unexpected run-in with an old professor and some magical luck we made it back to Hogwarts safely. Chapter 38 is filled with arguments, some unsuccessful de-escalation tactics, a whole lot of tension, and one major plot twist. Who can we even trust right now and when will “R” just give it up already?

Source

When you’re no longer trying to save the wizarding world, there’s a new creature needing some love and attention – the giant dung beetle. This creature has been given to Hagrid for some TLC after being in a Muggle circus. The poor creature is extremely disoriented and ends up wandering away. We’re the best creature finder at Hogwarts, so of course, we do what we can to help find the dung beetle and acclimate it to its new home.

This creature has opened up a new magical creature reserve area to explore, the Desert Dunes. We have no doubt this area will be filled with magical creatures in no time. After you’re finished exploring there, it’s time to head back to Godric’s Hollow for a special event and it’s looking to be intense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The storyline in Hogwarts Mystery is enough to set us all on edge, so we could use some good and exciting news. Let’s hope we can solve the mystery of “R” before it’s too late.

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