r/hermannhesse

…and please suggest other similar authors with thematic likeness

Reading steppenwolf, and I can’t believe Hesse came up with the tomboy mother gf in 1927. A true innovator I wish I could show him how his ideas have finally become mainstream.

I'm curious

So, I loved Demian. All the way through, its been the first book in a long time for me that I truly got something off of.

I think I will read it again in the not so distant future, since now I have read it more so on an "emotional level" if that makes sense, so I probably missed some of the more intricate themes and details, but the one thing that leaves me hanging right now is this;

I very much understand the general theme of the book. The path to finding oneself through everything, and I really enjoyed this thought and perspective Hesse paints.

However, as a queer person myself, I cannot get over the absurdly visible homoerotic/-romantic undertones of the book. I like Miss Eves character, but somehow she feels more like an addition to an already existing story, like a piece of what Hesse wants to portray through Sinclair and Demians relationship, that was exported from that to another character.

Onward from the seventh chapter, I felt like the story became a bit superficial. Not in the sense that it wasn't something in line with the books general theme and thesis, quite the opposite, but that the sort of "ménage à trois" that Hesse opens, sometimes I felt completely disregarding Demian up until the end, does not come natural to the literary flow in my reception.

Interestingly, I felt like the ending, which at first seemed a little rushed, actually cleared this up quite impressively. I believe that the suspense and narrative tension that is released by the kiss Demian and Sinclair share then, is not at all something that Demian merely acts as a vessel for Miss Eve for. One could say that it never really was about Miss Eve or any personage else for that matter in the first place, as she also only acts a waypoint for Sinclair to find himself, but I sort of think that the narrator himself contradicts that, by stating that physical and symbolic admiration for Eve eventually merge, so most definetly and explicitly physical and smybolic admiration. Tying into my reading of this, however, is that all of this for me felt all again very superficial; as if Miss Eve was not really acting in a manner that fits her well, as in a sexual object. In my interpretation, this is only resolved by not her but Demian being the one to give Sinclair that kiss.

All this to say, that after Miss Eve really being introduced, I felt as if the narrator had somehow lost an honesty that he previously alluded, as if, consciously or sub-consciously, Hesse was not ready or willing to write the story in the natural way he did the beginning and middle part.

Unfortunately, I had already spoiled myself the ending before completing the book, so I knew it wouldn't be a homoromantic ending in the first place. Still, I at multiple points thought about this while reading.

Most notably I believe Hesse alludes this explicitly not only romantic but also homoerotic narrative when Sinclair first meets Demian and speaks of his dreams of being abused by Kromer, but at some point him being replaced by Demian and him, Sinclair, then weirdly enjoying it. I read the book in German, so I don't know how the translation notes this, but in the german original, in this passage Sinclair speaks of more broadly "abuse" but also explicitly of "rape".

So, from the very beginning to the end there for me is a very clear at least sexual undertone Demian and Sinclairs relationship polludes. I think its probably harder to argue for the romantic aspect of my reading of this, but I believe at least what described now is very hard to refuse evidence for my interpretation. Maybe I will mark some points of reference for the romantic tension I also believe is presented on a future read.

Is this a common interpretation of Demian? Both my parents have read it when they were around my age now (18) but were both very surprised when I told them about my interpretation. Both of them never thought about Hesse more broadly as a somewhat gay adjacent author, whereas I have found these traces of what I would call alluded same-sex narratives in most of what I read by him up until now, best of which I can remember is Steppenwolf. So maybe its a generational thing? I know that many authors now regarded as classics lived in a time where very intense and explicitly loving man to man friendships were more common, Goethe and Schiller being the best example I think, but with Hesse I feel like this reaches a point where one can reasonably arrive at an interpretation like mine.

What do y'all think? I'd love to hear some thoughts on this