One would rarely see me without a book in my hands all through my growing years in school and college. I had grown up watching my parents read a lot and my hubby also shares my love for books. We are both voracious readers and our daughters are bookworms too! đ
Motherhood found me re-reading and discovering old and new authors who wrote exclusively for children - Enid Blyton, Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson, Ruskin Bond and many others. Our daughters had more books than toys or clothes! When they started reading on their own, I got back to some 'mature' reading.
Daddy's sudden demise hit me very hard. I just lost interest in everything that I loved, like music and reading. I couldn't bear to read books or watch movies which were too emotional or sentimental.
When Naomi introduced me to BTS, it wasn't just their catchy songs with deep lyrics or their spellbinding choreography which impressed me. It was their leader RM aka Kim Namjoon, who simply floored me with his love for reading and for books, his thirst for knowledge, his maturity and depth of thought.
It was "Blood Sweat and Tears", an iconic song by the famous Korean Boyband BTS, that made me curious about the book. Its music video replete with references to Greek mythology, the Bible and Herman Hesse's masterpiece 'Damien', the song talks about coming-of-age, about transition from a childhood to adulthood and from innocence to maturity, about accepting the good and bad that comes with adulthood - lust, greed, temptations...
I loved the song - aesthetics of the music video, the lyrics loaded with meaning, the brilliant performance of the artists! My interest piqued and I ordered the book. After a long time, I was thrilled to curl up on my bed with a book. It was a thin book, heavy with depth and insight.
Only a handful of other books had earlier influenced me as much as Demian - The Alchemist, 1984, Animal Farm and Pride and Prejudice to name a few.
Unlike my eclectic choice in music, I tend to lean towards fiction when it comes to books, especially those that dive deep into the human psyche.
Herman Hesse was a German poet and author, born in 1877 in Switzerland. While Demian is his psychological masterpiece, his other notable works are Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game. Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. He enjoyed a cult status and wrote about man's journey of self discovery and his struggle to reconcile what ought to be and what is!
To be honest, I don't think am qualified to review this genius author's creation. But I felt like sharing my feelings about it . Hence this blog.
The story is about a 10 year old boy, Emil Sinclair, brought up in the sanitised environs of his conventional household. Emil was innocent and gullible till something turned his life topsy turvy. His attraction towards his classmate Max Demian leads him on a path of self discovery and self awareness.
The mysterious Demian, with his intelligence and depth of knowledge, awakens Emil's dormant desires alongwith countless doubts and questions about his sexuality, about religion, about life. The conservative ideals he had been brought up with were in constant conflict with reality. Demian made him curious and thirsty for knowledge.
I was reminded of my growing years while reading this book.
The teenage years mark the beginning of our quest for self discovery and acceptance of our real selves, with both the good and bad. We aren't innocent anymore. We are aware that we are changing and evolving. Our body, mind, emotions, thoughts - everything is changing and we are trying to deal with this transformation from a child to an adult. We are learning to think and to express our thoughts rationally, even if they go against all that we have seen, heard and learnt since childhood. We are curious, doubtful, cynical, defiant, thirsty and hungry to know more and to explore more.
Demian is the story of each one of us going deep into our consciousness and discovering who we really are.
A simple story about the complicated process of 'growing up'.
Nicely written đ