Hermann Hesse is the number one for me in German
literature with his authentic writing style and his philosophy behind his great
works. It is very clear in his books that he is the seeker of wisdom and love.
He always questions the education system and other institutions. He is
interested in spirituality and Eastern philosophy. These are pretty satisfying
for me to have fun while reading his books. Hermann Hesse is a very prolific
and successful writer. “Siddhartha” and “Demian” are two of his best novels. In
Siddhartha, one of the important points is that knowledge is nothing without
wisdom. Actually, it means that knowledge is not as valuable as wisdom. More
importantly, wisdom is not a thing that can be gained easily. It requires a
long way or path to go through. Then, it finds you after realizing your genuine
existence. I think Siddhartha is not a book that can be understood just by
reading once. I have read it three times. Each reading was like a new experience
for me, and I found some themes which I had not been able to catch previously.
I also felt relaxed and enlightened whenever I read it. In Demian, the
characters are really different from one another and enchanting. Max Demian is
one of these characters but I think he is the most mysterious one. Hesse is so
strong in his descriptions which tell Max Demian that I have frequently
imagined Max Demian as a supernatural hero. I do not want to write anything
about plots of these books. I think you should read them and taste the pleasure
of thinking about Hesse like me. To sum up, German literature means Hermann
Hesse to me, and I really like being lost in thoughts while reading his
books.
VIDEO REFLECTION: In the Fog
Hermann Hesse is not only a writer but also a poet. “In
the Fog”(in German “Im Nebel”) is one of his poems. The video that I share with
you is a creative work, and the man who reads the poem prefers the English translated
version. I think it is a really good idea to choose a station to shoot this
video because the poem is about loneliness. I also like the way the poem is
read. People hear the poem from the speakers at the train station. The irony in
this video is interesting. Here is the best and striking part of the poem for
me:
“…
Truly, no one is wise,
Who does not know the dark
…”
This proves us that the real
wisdom is to know what the darkness is and to face with it. Hesse says that “Life
is loneliness.” and “No one knows the other one.”. When you think about the people
in the station, it is true. They do not know each other. For this reason, I
like the thought behind this video. It represents the theme of the poem successfully.
Dear Emel,
YanıtlaSilI read you reflective journal with a great pleasure. Introducing a succesful man of letters with an interesting text and related video is a brilliant idea. You have a fluent style of writing. However, I realized that you mix the spoken language and formal language into each other. You should be more careful about it. On the other hand, you could have told about the writer more elaborately to provide us with a satisfactory information. To sum up, I liked your journal's writing organization and topic.
Zeynep Eda ALPSOY
Dear Zeynep,
YanıtlaSilThank you for commenting on my entry. I am glad that you liked it. I will be more careful about the points that you warned me while writing.
Dear Emel,
YanıtlaSilI think that providing you with the mistakes that I observed while reading your journal would be helpful to see them better. To begin with, "These are pretty satisfying for me to have fun while reading his books." The usage of 'pretty' is not formal and suitable for academic writing. Additionally, using 'satisfactory' instead of 'satisfying' sounds more appropriate. Lastly, "Hermann Hesse is the number one for me in German literature..." Subjectivity of the sentence and the order of the components of the sentence make it sound like a sentence of oral speech.
Thanks for paying attention to my comments.
Zeynep Eda ALPSOY