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A review by oofym
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
fast-paced
2.5
This was disappointing in all honesty. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is one of those books that has an interesting premise with a lot of potential but fails to really deliver on any of it. Perhaps it's because lately I've been engaging in a lot of theology, philosophy and metaphysics; but Siddhartha just felt really simple and childish in comparison to other things out there that deal with similar spiritual topics.
I feel like this is such a popular book for a couple reasons which I'll quickly go over.
1: Easy writing style. No kidding, I was shocked going from Steppenwolf by Hesse to this, Siddhartha is very, very readable in comparison, but not in a good way, it's bland and pretty unengaging. When you're dealing with topics such as universal unity, reincarnation and the beauty of the world; you have such an opportunity to show off your writing chops, go crazy with descriptive metaphors and allegories, whip out the dictionary. But no, the most famous Buddhist-inspired fiction book requires the reading comprehension of a 5th grader.
2: It tells you everything you want to hear, especially if you're a teenager. Life sucks? Parental control got you feeling down? Just run away from it all and "Find your own way". Also, there's no bad or good in the world, everything just is. Murder and rape? Don't worry about it, it just is. Plus, Women are sexual objects that will want to immediately have sex with you if you're chill and act like you're wiser than them.
3: The spiritual guidance of Siddhartha is the most generic and repeated "White guy tells you about eastern Asian mysticism" slop you've ever heard. How do you achieve spiritual purity, everlasting calm? Stare into a river and say "Om". Not kidding. Also, what does the world need? More love. Yeah, we get it Siddhartha, Peace and love, like we don't all know that already.
This book reminded me of The Alchemist a lot. It's fictional self-help for teenagers and adults who've barely read anything before. But, let me go over the main themes of the book for fairness' sake.
Self-discovery/Wisdom through experience, not knowledge.
A major theme of the novel is this belief Siddhartha has that knowledge and teachers are essentially useless, and to really know the world and how everything works, we must instead seek it through experience. This is fine, I somewhat agree to an extent, But the novel has a sort of self-defeating prophecy as the last thing Siddhartha does is attempt to preach and teach a fellow spiritual person. Also, Siddhartha's experience with the world is very, VERY unrealistic. We just know that as a kid he's smart, and then he becomes an ascetic monk, which we hear pretty much nothing about apart from the fact he doesn't really eat. Then he meets the Buddha and is like "Hm cool". Then he has sex with a lady and wears nice clothes for a decade. Then he's like "I've had enough of this" and goes and lives next to a river for the rest of his life.
If my description sounds weird and simple, that's because it's reflecting the tone and pacing of the actual novel. Everything in this book so obviously occurs for the sake of the plot, people randomly rock up, die, have sex, and all these other events occur with no logic or depth behind them, they simply happen to progress Siddhartha's sloppy discovery story.
The interconnectedness/unity of everything.
See, this was the part that could have been very interesting. Judging by other reviews some people did find this part of the story groundbreaking for their personal worldviews, but again, I feel like that would only be the case if you've never been exposed to this concept before.
Siddhartha has this revelation towards the end of the book, and although we do get one decent metaphor about a rock and the river, that's it. When you're trying to convince or show a reader a concept like the infinite chain of cause and effect, or about how everything blends into everything else; it's ok to spend more than a few pages on the topic. Instead, we get: "Rock is rock, but rock become soil, soil become plant, plant feed cow, cow feed human, human die, human become soil."
Great, cool idea, write about it with more depth next time.
In conclusion.
Siddhartha isn't egregiously bad or anything, it's only egregiously surface level. Baby's first spirituality. I'm honestly really glad this book has helped other people, that's great, if a book like this can grant you a profound understanding of the world and inner peace then all the power to you. I just didn't see any ideas or concepts that ancient humans two-thousand years before Herman Hesse hadn't already discussed. Plus, the pacing is really bad and the characters are bland. Ka-Chow.
I feel like this is such a popular book for a couple reasons which I'll quickly go over.
1: Easy writing style. No kidding, I was shocked going from Steppenwolf by Hesse to this, Siddhartha is very, very readable in comparison, but not in a good way, it's bland and pretty unengaging. When you're dealing with topics such as universal unity, reincarnation and the beauty of the world; you have such an opportunity to show off your writing chops, go crazy with descriptive metaphors and allegories, whip out the dictionary. But no, the most famous Buddhist-inspired fiction book requires the reading comprehension of a 5th grader.
2: It tells you everything you want to hear, especially if you're a teenager. Life sucks? Parental control got you feeling down? Just run away from it all and "Find your own way". Also, there's no bad or good in the world, everything just is. Murder and rape? Don't worry about it, it just is. Plus, Women are sexual objects that will want to immediately have sex with you if you're chill and act like you're wiser than them.
3: The spiritual guidance of Siddhartha is the most generic and repeated "White guy tells you about eastern Asian mysticism" slop you've ever heard. How do you achieve spiritual purity, everlasting calm? Stare into a river and say "Om". Not kidding. Also, what does the world need? More love. Yeah, we get it Siddhartha, Peace and love, like we don't all know that already.
This book reminded me of The Alchemist a lot. It's fictional self-help for teenagers and adults who've barely read anything before. But, let me go over the main themes of the book for fairness' sake.
Self-discovery/Wisdom through experience, not knowledge.
A major theme of the novel is this belief Siddhartha has that knowledge and teachers are essentially useless, and to really know the world and how everything works, we must instead seek it through experience. This is fine, I somewhat agree to an extent, But the novel has a sort of self-defeating prophecy as the last thing Siddhartha does is attempt to preach and teach a fellow spiritual person. Also, Siddhartha's experience with the world is very, VERY unrealistic. We just know that as a kid he's smart, and then he becomes an ascetic monk, which we hear pretty much nothing about apart from the fact he doesn't really eat. Then he meets the Buddha and is like "Hm cool". Then he has sex with a lady and wears nice clothes for a decade. Then he's like "I've had enough of this" and goes and lives next to a river for the rest of his life.
If my description sounds weird and simple, that's because it's reflecting the tone and pacing of the actual novel. Everything in this book so obviously occurs for the sake of the plot, people randomly rock up, die, have sex, and all these other events occur with no logic or depth behind them, they simply happen to progress Siddhartha's sloppy discovery story.
The interconnectedness/unity of everything.
See, this was the part that could have been very interesting. Judging by other reviews some people did find this part of the story groundbreaking for their personal worldviews, but again, I feel like that would only be the case if you've never been exposed to this concept before.
Siddhartha has this revelation towards the end of the book, and although we do get one decent metaphor about a rock and the river, that's it. When you're trying to convince or show a reader a concept like the infinite chain of cause and effect, or about how everything blends into everything else; it's ok to spend more than a few pages on the topic. Instead, we get: "Rock is rock, but rock become soil, soil become plant, plant feed cow, cow feed human, human die, human become soil."
Great, cool idea, write about it with more depth next time.
In conclusion.
Siddhartha isn't egregiously bad or anything, it's only egregiously surface level. Baby's first spirituality. I'm honestly really glad this book has helped other people, that's great, if a book like this can grant you a profound understanding of the world and inner peace then all the power to you. I just didn't see any ideas or concepts that ancient humans two-thousand years before Herman Hesse hadn't already discussed. Plus, the pacing is really bad and the characters are bland. Ka-Chow.