Julie G (also not receiving notifications)'s Reviews > Narcissus and Goldmund
Narcissus and Goldmund
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Julie G (also not receiving notifications)'s review
bookshelves: bavarian-cream, 30-from-the-1930s, could-use-as-kindling
Jun 08, 2024
bookshelves: bavarian-cream, 30-from-the-1930s, could-use-as-kindling
I guess they didn't have “Penthouse Letters” on the magazine racks in 1930, so a publisher must have approached Hermann Hesse and asked him if he'd write an early version of what would letter become known as “soft porn.”
This is the most overrated, ridiculous book I have almost ever been tasked to read, right up there with Jim Harrison's Dalva, a book that so many men claim to love for its “literary merit.”
It's not that this book is “sexy” or “scintillating” and that I am a prude. . . it is that this book is trying, cleverly, to disguise what is perverse as natural. . . it tries, under the guise of literary fiction, with pretty lines like these in the background. . . “brown, sunny butterflies rose and vanished capriciously in ragged flight” to make you believe you are reading something worthy, rather than soft porn. You're not.
The story starts with Narcissus, the obviously gay monk who tells Goldmund early on, “Your dreams are of girls; mine of boys.”
Narcissus's problem isn't that he's gay. . . it's that he claims to be celibate, committed to the life of a monk, yet he is in a constant state of being tempted by the boys around him, thus showing his moral superiority by denying himself. He is arrogant, a potential pedophile, and is completely ruled by his ego, while boasting to be devoted to God.
Goldmund's problem isn't that he's a sensualist (as Hesse describes him, over and over again, ad nauseam); he's a predator, a man who justifies sleeping with married women and virgins he has no plans to marry (these are Medieval times--ha! Don't even get me started on the "historical time period"). Every married woman who succumbs to him is a personal triumph of his; every virgin he defiles is a conquest.
When Goldmund arrives at the home of two teen-aged sisters who live with their father, a knight who has taken in Goldmund as an apprentice (in the 1980s, his role would be modernized to a “pool boy”), I was hanging on by a thread to this “novel.”
Sure enough, as Goldmund tries to get both teen-aged girls to sleep with him, he consoles one “with gentle caresses, only by holding her head against his chest, humming soft, meaningless, magic sounds that nurses hum to comfort children when they cry.” Of course, silly, because he was comforting AN ACTUAL CHILD he was trying to have sex with!
And. . . sure enough. . . you guessed it. . . another entry in “Penthouse Letters,” the ultimate male fantasy: he gets to have his way with two teen-aged sisters. Spoiler alert? Nah! He sleeps with every woman under the age of 30. (Everyone over 30 was, naturally, a toothless hag).
Truly. . . this was a revolting read for me, one that I wish I could erase right out of my mind. This novel is a celebration of everything that women and children have suffered since the beginning of time.
Up next: THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
This is the most overrated, ridiculous book I have almost ever been tasked to read, right up there with Jim Harrison's Dalva, a book that so many men claim to love for its “literary merit.”
It's not that this book is “sexy” or “scintillating” and that I am a prude. . . it is that this book is trying, cleverly, to disguise what is perverse as natural. . . it tries, under the guise of literary fiction, with pretty lines like these in the background. . . “brown, sunny butterflies rose and vanished capriciously in ragged flight” to make you believe you are reading something worthy, rather than soft porn. You're not.
The story starts with Narcissus, the obviously gay monk who tells Goldmund early on, “Your dreams are of girls; mine of boys.”
Narcissus's problem isn't that he's gay. . . it's that he claims to be celibate, committed to the life of a monk, yet he is in a constant state of being tempted by the boys around him, thus showing his moral superiority by denying himself. He is arrogant, a potential pedophile, and is completely ruled by his ego, while boasting to be devoted to God.
Goldmund's problem isn't that he's a sensualist (as Hesse describes him, over and over again, ad nauseam); he's a predator, a man who justifies sleeping with married women and virgins he has no plans to marry (these are Medieval times--ha! Don't even get me started on the "historical time period"). Every married woman who succumbs to him is a personal triumph of his; every virgin he defiles is a conquest.
When Goldmund arrives at the home of two teen-aged sisters who live with their father, a knight who has taken in Goldmund as an apprentice (in the 1980s, his role would be modernized to a “pool boy”), I was hanging on by a thread to this “novel.”
Sure enough, as Goldmund tries to get both teen-aged girls to sleep with him, he consoles one “with gentle caresses, only by holding her head against his chest, humming soft, meaningless, magic sounds that nurses hum to comfort children when they cry.” Of course, silly, because he was comforting AN ACTUAL CHILD he was trying to have sex with!
And. . . sure enough. . . you guessed it. . . another entry in “Penthouse Letters,” the ultimate male fantasy: he gets to have his way with two teen-aged sisters. Spoiler alert? Nah! He sleeps with every woman under the age of 30. (Everyone over 30 was, naturally, a toothless hag).
Truly. . . this was a revolting read for me, one that I wish I could erase right out of my mind. This novel is a celebration of everything that women and children have suffered since the beginning of time.
Up next: THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
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Reading Progress
April 16, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 16, 2017
– Shelved
March 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
bavarian-cream
March 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
30-from-the-1930s
June 1, 2024
–
Started Reading
June 5, 2024
–
9.94%
"How was it possible that the awakening of sex met with such bitter antagonism in such a beautiful, healthy, flowering adolescent? There must be a secret enemy who had managed to split this magnificent human being within himself and turn him against his natural urges."
page
32
June 5, 2024
–
12.73%
"". . . your thoughts I take less seriously. I take seriously all that I find essential and necessary in you. Why do you want particular attention paid to your thoughts, when you have so many other gifts?""
page
41
June 6, 2024
–
19.25%
""There were times when you refused to understand me, you often kicked like a foal, it wasn't always easy, I was often forced to hurt you.""
page
62
June 8, 2024
– Shelved as:
could-use-as-kindling
June 8, 2024
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-43 of 43 (43 new)
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Mikaela
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Jun 08, 2024 06:11AM
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So awful! I'm throwing it in the donation box and I think I'll put a post-it note on the front of it, "Consider yourself warned!"
I know. I typically take it as a personal failing, to review a book that I haven't finished. I made it to the halfway mark and I just could not go on without feeling like I was going to throw it (or myself) across the room. I have only reviewed it because it is a part of my project. Ack! I need a palate cleanse!
I've had two stinkers in a row now (despite 4 stars for CAKES AND ALE, it was not an easy read for me), so I'm hoping that THE MALTESE FALCON puts some wind back in my sails!
My brother has been here, visiting, and, while I've been suffering through CAKES AND ALE and this beast, he picked THE MALTESE FALCON and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and read them both and said, "Great project!" I was like, "not from this point in the pile!"
Thank you for a much needed laugh!
You don't know how much I appreciate that validation. The story started weird, but there were a couple of shiny, bright, one-liners and I thought it was going to be thought-provoking and clever, then I realized I was on a road-to-nowhere with a pedophile/egomaniac and a pedophile/womanizer, no character development, and no plot to speak of, other than inappropriate sexual conquests.
Was Siddhartha worth reading? Why was this author so popular??!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thank you. You are so right, and I appreciate your observation. It is rare for me to get this upset, and almost every time I have, it has involved the topic of rape or the sexual manipulation or abuse of children. This was the perfect storm of an undesirable story line, mixed with misogyny, coupled with zero character development or plot. In short: a real turd.
Interesting watching you read this. It’s made me start thinking about a number of books I read in my early 20s that seemed great at the time. Now that I’m older, I wonder if some of the same novels would have the existential heft they seemed to way back when. Likely not… but it’s like the pop singer says, “Each bud must blossom and grow.”
Interestingly, I almost purchased this book the other day, based on some of your quotes. I decided not to in the end, but I did purchase Steppenwolf, as I remember loving that Hesse. I guess we will see how it works out. I also saw somebody review Geek Love the other day and some Henry Miller. I wouldn’t want to revisit those days now. Based on this review, even after all these years, I can tell that some of these reads would have a very different kind of takeaway as a mature man with a lot of experience… way less prone to give cred to what seems literary and even radical for its time and a first exposure, but likely comes off, at this stage of life, as masturbatory blather. (Where the silver foxes at… heeeey:)
I don't know if there's any connection between the two books, but I do know that a general disrespect for women has been apparent in all too many works of fiction (not to mention non-fiction!). The women in this novel aren't even real; they are not developed, they have no feelings, they might as well be cardboard cutouts.
I read the review you mentioned here. Very long, but very funny!
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that your co-worker was male, and I'm going to guess that he read this novel some 20+ years ago. Forgive me if I'm wrong!
I think, all across the board, this novel is a weak contribute to "literary fiction," but I suspect it was brought into the bathroom in many households, especially after the 1968 reprint of the cover had three naked women on it (that should have been my first red flag!).
You're funny! I hadn't thought about how lucky those 38-year-old "hags" were, by not having to fight off Goldmund's tireless advances.
As I mentioned in my review of Ursula Le Guin's TEHANU, I wish that the life trajectory for women could be different, going forward, for women. We spend the first 5 decades of our lives trying not to be sexually assaulted or molested, then we spend whatever time we have left being invisible. I've become so invisible in my day-to-day life now, I rarely even brush my hair before leaving my house. I mean. . . any chance there are options somewhere in the middle??
I think you may have just coined a winner here: "masturbatory blather." Brilliant!
I appreciate your comment, and you brought to mind my experience of rereading FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. In my youth, I thought it was a cutting edge novel, and I found the incest in it totally plausible and interesting. Rereading it as a fully grown woman. . . I was HORRIFIED! "Ghastly" doesn't quite capture the experience. So, yeah, I get it. . . we change, and the stories change, too (for better and for worse).
I do want to clarify one thing, particularly in case a person who doesn't know me reads this review and reads through this comment thread: I am no great moralist when it comes to fiction. I do not read fiction to improve my own morals, nor do I believe that fictional characters need to behave according to any moral code. As writers, we throw the balls up into the air, and we set some of them on fire, too, just to see how they will fall. So. . . I want to make it clear that even though I did find both of these male characters to have unappealing and predatory behaviors, that is still not the reason why the book didn't work for me.
If it's okay with you, I think we can consider me as reading this for both of us!
xoxo
This decade of the 1930s was a weird time!! I am definitely having an "up and down" experience with this particular reading project.
You always make me laugh. Yes, well, Mr. Hesse died in 1962, so he really did miss the best of what we had to offer (in terms of porn), but, poor guy, he really did try his best to shake things up a bit. Then again, I did just re-watch "The Graduate," which came out in 1967, and the stripper who plays a small, cameo role in the background, was hotter than anything I've seen in years, so maybe he was right there, for the best times, after all.
I've always said that I've never needed porn, because I have always manage to dream up all the best scenarios in my own head. Reality may be a disappointment at times, but my imagination has rarely let me down!
What a poignant and honest comment. It touched my heart that you shared it with me.
My sister's comment, below yours, is also interesting: this book DOES have an average 4.22 rating on here, so who knows who was impacted by this book, and WHY?
GREAT question!! If you would like to explore this 4.22 rating more. . . I am happy to take this book OUT of the donation box it is currently in and hand it to you on Friday! (But tell me soon, 'cause it's headed to Goodwill!).
I hope you are in your pajamas today, checking in on reviews (and hopefully writing one!), sipping coffee, hoping it will rain. . .
By "austere life," you mean marriage, right??
Yes, I hope it's clear that I was being snarky. . . I certainly hope it is NOT every man's fantasy. Now that I have two teen-aged daughters, my fantasy is that I stand at my front door with a shotgun, making it clear we don't want any men like "dear Goldmund" out sleeping in one of our haystacks. Get out!
I will keep that in mind! Thank you. I carefully selected 30 books for this project, and I have about 10 alternates, in case of failures, but, for the most part, I am trying to stick to what I selected. I really, really considered trading this one OUT, but it was important to me to keep as many international selections as possible.