Magister Ludi (The Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse - Book Chat

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Magister Ludi (The Bead Game) sometimes published as The Bead Game or The Glass Bead Game was written by Hermann Hesse and originally published in 1943 in German as Das Glasperlenspiel. Hermann Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 and this work was mentioned in the Prize. The book is the fictional biography of Joseph Knecht, a Magister Ludi in Castalia in a world several centuries in the future than our own where the ultimate synthesis of knowledge is studied in a ritualized game known as the Glass Bead Game.

[@user-yup-you-are-human2]

What an amazing book edition. I’ve only had the chance to read this on audiobook as a recommendation from a friend, and it has left and ever lasting life impact on me.

[@rr7firefly]

I studied classical music in college during my years in Architecture School. Our professor told us that music and architecture were closely related -- to illustrate this he would "play buildings" on campus on the piano. This usually showed the underlying structure of both. // From the book this lovely passage: "A magic dwells in each beginning, and protecting us, tells us how to live."

[@James_Haskin]

This book was mentioned in TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, by Erik Davis. Thank you for your summary!

[@hyejue]

지금 이 책을 읽고 있어요. 너무너무 아름답고 섬세해요. I am reading this book. It is so beautiful and mysterious. 감사합니다. Thanks for your summary.

[@EarnestlyEston]

Thank you for commenting!

[@pamelas65roses]

Well done. I read it years ago also: your take on the book seem to express my memory of it as an "experience" I don't remember ....the framework, the feelings while reading but hearing you express it clearly, as an over view, is wonderful. Your voice and cadence are easy to listen to without the distractions of ego, rather a gentle curiosity and desire to "share the knowledge forward" thank you

[@EarnestlyEston]

Thank you so much for your kind words. I want my video style to be unedited and conversational but sometimes I think I ramble too much...and there is always so much more that could be said!

[@jeffsmith1284]

Thank you for a great review! I also really appreciate your re-read approach. A masterpiece changes as we engage with it throughout life. We have very similar experiences with this work. I also recently re-read it. And I also reflected more on the feuilleton which I hadn’t really appreciated on my first reading. The meaning of the game has changed for me on my second reading.

[@ruygranja]

Wonderful review. Thank you very much. It will be my next reading. Hermann Hesse and his Steppen Wolf created a great impact one me previously.

[@williambaker3112]

Thank you for the great review. I read the book about 2 years ago, and asked myself why it should be relevant to me, and I'm still unsure. But something tells me that it is the conclusion where the heart of the book is: an image of becoming ready to let go of a system or structure ... and the system that lets YOU go, should be perhaps a good system. The image of the Master taking a swim.

[@EarnestlyEston]

What a fascinating insight! I had not thought it that way but it's an excellent observation. I think in my second reading I focused on the game itself as an academic and specialized exercise in the unification of knowledge along with the Master's realization that in order to transform the world this knowledge needed to be taken to the outside world. Interestingly, I recently thought of Magister Ludi after reading Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. In that book Harari talks about how technology is shifting how we understand the world as we move beyond the Enlightenment framework that we more or less still operate under. He refers to this new framework as "dataism" or sometimes called "Big Data" and I immediately thought of the bead game with its complex attempt to connect fragmented knowledge.

[@user-yup-you-are-human2]

❤ There is so much wisdom in that last scene of the young, strong and ignorant, and the old wise and ignorant

[@SlumberBear2k]

I am listening to this on audible so didn't catch the specifics of how the bead game works(maybe I haven't got there yet, but I'm over half way done). Your video is the first description of it that I've heard. I always found the concept so vague but now it makes more sense. thanks for clarifying it.

[@Arkapravo]

I tend to find some similarities between this book and "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson.

[@imanfazel7157]

Thank you for the review. Very straightforward.

[@EarnestlyEston]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@marktankersley3618]

Genuine thanks.

[@ferguscurrie5937]

Love your Faistos disc T-shirt!

[@mahmoudwalid6679]

glasperlenspiel لعبة الكرات الزجاجية το παιχνίδι με τις χάντρες

[@user-ht4xt2sh9m]

umm

[@cblse]

Is that all you got from this?

[@rickgonzales5194]

Um, um, um