How is it that you firsted respond to Herman Hesse’s book, Siddhartha? For me, I was in about my sophomore or junior year of college when I read the thing, and I found it absolutely riveting. And so I took my color-coded highlighters to it as a Pentecostal would her bible. In particular, I remember underlining some passage in the beginning about Siddhartha’s as of yet meandering and unsuccessful quest for enlightenment. I very much identified with this.
Looking back upon it now, this was probably the perfect time for me to read that book. I’d taken the requisite eastern religious studies courses, that’s for sure. And my mind was still open to the possibility of mysticism… But reading Siddhartha today would be akin to something my sister did a while back: Having not read Catcher In The Rye when she was fourteen (like the rest of us did), she became interested in it after reading a magazine article about how all those serial killer-types are inspired by it. And then she saw The Silence of the Lambs. She read the book in her late twenties… Hello?
In any case, I’m glad as all get out that the Lit 6 Project will be having some fun with Siddhartha tonight, and probably at the book’s expense, as part of The Rake’s very cool Raking Through Books party!
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