The Glass Bead Game and User talk:Aude: Difference between pages
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{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> |
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| name = The Glass Bead Game |
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| title_orig = Das Glasperlenspiel |
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| translator = Richard and Clara Winston |
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| image = |
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| author = [[Hermann Hesse]] |
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| cover_artist = |
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| country = [[Switzerland]] |
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| language = [[German language|German]] |
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| series = |
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| genre = [[Novel]] |
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| publisher = [[Holt, Rinehart and Winston]] |
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| release_date = [[1943]] (Eng. trans. [[1969]]) |
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| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]]) |
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| pages = 558 pp |
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| isbn = NA <!-- published before ISBN system --> |
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| preceded_by = |
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}} |
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{{User:Aude/talkheader}} |
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'''''The Glass Bead Game''''' ([[German language|German]]: '''''Das Glasperlenspiel''''') is the last work and [[magnum opus]] of the German author [[Hermann Hesse]]. Begun in [[1931]] and published in [[Switzerland]] in [[1943]], the book was mentioned in Hesse's citation for the 1946 [[Nobel Prize]] for Literature. |
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"Glass Bead Game" is a literal translation of the German title. The title has also been translated as '''''Magister Ludi'''''. "Magister Ludi," [[Latin]] for "master of the game," is the name of an honorific title awarded to the book's central character. ''Magister Ludi'' can also be seen as a [[pun]]: ''lud'' is a Latin stem meaning both "game" and "school." |
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[[Image:Information.svg|left|38px]] I will respond to messages here on my talk page, in order to keep conversations together. I may or may not respond to any [[WP:CIVIL|rude]] comments. --[[User:Aude|Aude]] <small>([[User talk:Aude|talk]])</small> 22:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC) |
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==Building of the World Trade Center== |
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==Plot summary== |
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{{spoiler}} |
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''The Glass Bead Game'' takes place during the 23rd century. The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Hesse mentions the political violence of the 20th century in passing, but his main critique of that century is encapsulated by his dismissive name for it: the Age of the [[Feuilleton]], an intellectually superficial and decadent period, when [[middle brow]] journalism replaced serious reading and reflection. |
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{| style="border: 1px solid {{{border|gray}}}; background-color: {{{color|#fdffe7}}};" |
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Castalia is home to a [[monastic]] order of [[intellectual]]s with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys (the novel is thus a detailed exploration of education and the life of the mind), and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game (see below). |
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|rowspan="2" valign="middle" | [[Image:Barnstar.png|100px]] |
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|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: middle; height: 1.1em;" | '''The Original Barnstar''' |
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|style="vertical-align: middle; border-top: 1px solid gray;" | What a fantastic article at [[Building of the World Trade Center]]! — '''[[User:Rebelguys2|Rebelguys2]]''' <sup><font color="#CC5500">[[User talk:Rebelguys2|talk]]</font></sup> 02:22, 10 July 2007 (UTC) |
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:I just came here to agree, [[Building of the World Trade Center]] is a stellar example of a Featured Article...and it's incredibly well-referenced and illustrated...''many'' congratulations. [[User:Sherurcij|Sherurcij]] <sup>([[User_talk:Sherurcij|Speaker for the Dead]]) </sup> 06:17, 10 July 2007 (UTC) |
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::Thanks for the honor. Hopefully in due time, we can get the rest of the WTC articles organized and fully referenced. --[[User:Aude|Aude]] <small>([[User talk:Aude|talk]])</small> 21:42, 10 July 2007 (UTC) |
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The novel chronicles the life of a distinguished member of the order, Joseph Knecht (the surname translates as "servant" or "farm hand"), as narrated by a fictional historian of the order. Hence the novel is an example of a [[Bildungsroman]]. At any given time, the member of the order deemed the best Game player is honored with the title ''Magister Ludi''. |
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==Invitation to Join WikiProject Crime== |
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Polarities lie at the heart of the work, as is commonly the case in Hesse's novels. Two relationships are of particular interest, that of Knecht with his teacher, the learned monk Father Jacobus, and with his best friend at the boarding school run by the order, Plinio Designori, the scion of a rich family. At the end of their school days, Knecht, representing [[aestheticism]] and the Life of the Mind, joins the order, while Designori returns to the world. He embodies a failed reconciliation between mind and world. |
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Would you like to upgrade from an honorary member to a full member of the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Criminal Biography]]? You have contributed a great deal to crime articles and being an administrator I think you could |
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In his introduction to ''[[Demian]]'', [[Thomas Mann]] likened his relation with Hesse to that of Knecht and Jacobus, adding that their knowledge of each other was not possible without much ceremony. Mann extrapolates on Hesse's observance of Oriental customs in the novel. The ''Glass Bead Game'' manifests Hesse's enduring dream of combining East with West. For example, the discipline of the imaginary monastic community includes breathing and [[meditation]] techniques of clear Oriental inspiration. |
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greatly improve our Project. [[User:Jmm6f488|Jmm6f488]] 07:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC) |
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== Africa discussion == |
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Castalia is an [[Ivory Tower]], an ethereal protected community within a larger nation, devoted to pure intellectual pursuits, and oblivious to the problems posed by life outside its boundaries. Knecht gradually comes to doubt whether the intellectually gifted have a right to withdraw from life's big problems. He eventually concludes that they do not, and that conclusion precipitates a sort of midlife crisis. Accordingly, he does the unthinkable: he resigns as Magister Ludi and asks to leave the order, ostensibly to become of value and service, in some way, to the larger culture. A few days later, he drowns in a mountain lake, while attempting a swim for which he was not fit. Tragically, living in Castalia made Knecht unfit for life in the world. Hesse also makes an [[existentialist]] point: faced with a dilemma, Knecht opts for the world and not the ivory tower. |
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Hi, Aude -- |
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Many characters in the novel have names that are allusive word games. For example, Knecht's predecessor as Magister Ludi was Thomas van der Trave, a veiled reference to [[Thomas Mann]] who was born in [[Lübeck]], situated on the Trave River. Father Jacobus is based on the novelist [[Jakob Wassermann]]. The character of Carlo Ferromonte is a punning reference to Hesse's nephew Karl Isenberg. |
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Thanks, I think I will look into registration. Very helpful info from you. |
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==Central characters== |
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*Joseph Knecht: The central character of the book. The Magister Ludi for most of the book. |
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*The Music Master: Knecht's spiritual mentor who when Knecht is a child examines him for entrance into the elite schools of Castalia. |
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* Plinio Designori: Knecht's antithesis in the world outside. |
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*Father Jacobus: Knecht's antithesis in faith. |
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*Elder Brother: A former Castalian and student of Chinese. |
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*Thomas van der Trave: Joseph Knecht's predecessor as Magister Ludi. |
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*Fritz Tegularius: A friend of Knecht's but a portent of what Castalians might become if they remain insular. |
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To help other unregistered dweebs like me who stumble onto (semi-permanently?) semi-protected "Africa" article, I suggest that if you like my points and think they are germane, you move them to the top of the stack (overruling the usual etiquette). |
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==Hesse's Glass Bead Game== |
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At the center of the monastic order lies the (fictitious) glass bead [[game]], whose exact nature remains elusive. The precise rules of the game are only alluded to, and are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Suffice it to say that playing the Game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. Essentially the game is an abstract [[synthesis]] of all arts and scholarship. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics. For example, a [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] [[concerto]] may be related to a mathematical [[formula]]. One [http://www.sfhreview.com/workingpapers/?p=1 description] says: |
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''“Theoretically,” writes the Narrator Archivist, “this instrument is capable of producing in the Game the entire intellectual content of the universe. The manuals, pedal, and stops are now fixed. Changes in their number and order and attempts at perfecting them, are actually no longer feasible except in theory.” And with this statement, he reveals the limitations of the game: its elitism, its hubris, its stagnation, and its sterility.In its infancy, the Game was played with delicate glass beads, which have since been discarded as too . . . real? They connected the Game with the spiritual beads played by religious believers worldwide, as the robes, and secret language, and ceremonial trappings of the game form a mock religious experience in the time of the Narrator Archivist. Without them, the game flies into the ether without a tether to reality. In our world, prayer beads and the repetition of simple phrases serve as keys to transcendence. In Castalia, they are discarded and the key is lost. The Narrator Archivist makes no reference to the ecstatic states that might be achieved by Glass Bead Game players. The games as he describes them in Knecht’s time (the twenty-second century) and his own (the twenty-fourth century) apparently fall short of what seems the obvious goal.'' |
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The Game derives its name from the fact that it was originally played with tokens, perhaps analogous to those of an [[abacus]] or the game [[go (board game)|Go]]. At the time that the novel takes place, such props had become obsolete and the game is played only with abstract, spoken formulas. The audience's appreciation of a good game draws on its appreciation of both [[music]] and mathematical [[elegance]]. |
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The Glass Bead Game also brings to mind [[Leibniz]]'s notion of a universal [[calculus]] and his dream of a [[Mathesis universalis]]. [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'', even though it does not mention Hesse's novel, is an intellectual exercise very much in the spirit of the Game. |
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However rather as being seen as a purely intellectual or rational notion it is more likely the glass bead game includes more [[Existential]] elements. As Hesse's other works (such as Steppenwolf for example) draw strongly on [[Existential]] themes it is likely that the glass bead game refers to the way in which people construct their realities. That is to say that the glass bead game is in fact life or existence and it illustrates the ways that people position not just themselves material but how they construct their entire perception of reality. As one needs to understand reality before one can deliberately allocate it this is the reference to the years of study. |
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==Allusions/references from other works== |
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* The [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] band [[Igra Staklenih Perli]], and their [[eponym|eponymous]] record, was named after the book.[http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=1614] |
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== See also == |
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*[[Hermann Hesse]] |
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* [[Existentialism]] |
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* [[Jorge Luis Borges]] |
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* [[Epistemology]] |
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* [[Noosphere]] |
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* [[Ontology]] |
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* [[Polysemy]] |
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* [[Rithmomachy]] |
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* [[Syncretism]] |
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* [[Efforts to Create A Glass Bead Game]] |
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== References == |
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* Hermann Hesse. ''The Glass Bead Game''. Vintage Classics. ISBN 0-09-928362-X |
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{{Hermann Hesse}} |
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== External links == |
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* [http://www.ludism.org/gbgwiki/ Glass Bead Game Wiki.] Links to efforts at developing a Glass Bead Game. |
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* [http://www.erpmusic.com/Glasperlenspiel.htm Glasperlenspiel Festival.] |
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* [http://glassplategame.org/ Details] of Dunbar Aitkens' "conversation in the trappings of a board game." |
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* [http://www.beadgaming.com/pageindex.html On the hipbone metaphor.] |
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* [http://www36.pair.com/waldzell/GBG/index.html The most complex of the attempts to create a real-life Glass Bead Game.] |
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* http://www.joshuafost.com/glassbeadgame/ A Semantic Web instantiation with examples from symbolism in Pulp Fiction. |
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* http://kennexions.ludism.org/ A link to Ron Hale-Evans' Kennexions game. |
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* http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/%7Etas3/wtc/ii21.html Timothy A. Smith's Shockwave movie analyzing a Bach fugue with visual symbols. |
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* http://log24.com/theory/kal/ Kaleidoscope Puzzle with symbols like those in Smith's movie. |
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* http://www.spookybug.com/bgirls/pif.html The Gospel of Pif: A playable variation on the glass bead game |
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* http://www.island.org/ive/1/leary1.html Huxley, Hesse and The Cybernetic Society |
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[[Category:1943 novels|Glass Bead Game]] |
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[[Category:German novels|Glass Bead Game]] |
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[[Category:Fictional games|Glass Bead Game]] |
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[[de:Das Glasperlenspiel]] |
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[[fr:Le Jeu des perles de verre]] |
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[[it:Il gioco delle perle di vetro]] |
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[[ja:ガラス玉演戯]] |
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[[nl:kralenspel]] |
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[[ru:Игра в бисер]] |
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[[fi:Lasihelmipeli]] |
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Revision as of 17:47, 14 July 2007
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Building of the World Trade Center
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The Original Barnstar | |
| What a fantastic article at Building of the World Trade Center! — Rebelguys2 talk 02:22, 10 July 2007 (UTC) |
- I just came here to agree, Building of the World Trade Center is a stellar example of a Featured Article...and it's incredibly well-referenced and illustrated...many congratulations. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 06:17, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
- Thanks for the honor. Hopefully in due time, we can get the rest of the WTC articles organized and fully referenced. --Aude (talk) 21:42, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
Invitation to Join WikiProject Crime
Would you like to upgrade from an honorary member to a full member of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Criminal Biography? You have contributed a great deal to crime articles and being an administrator I think you could greatly improve our Project. Jmm6f488 07:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
Africa discussion
Hi, Aude --
Thanks, I think I will look into registration. Very helpful info from you.
To help other unregistered dweebs like me who stumble onto (semi-permanently?) semi-protected "Africa" article, I suggest that if you like my points and think they are germane, you move them to the top of the stack (overruling the usual etiquette).