Monday, November 17th

I will write in a fresh and creative way. I will analyze symbolic aspects of the setting.

What is an aphorism?

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) “Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult.” (Hippocrates) “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” [William Faulkner] “Life’s Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” [Benjamin Franklin] “Life is a tale told by an idiot — full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Shakespeare’s Macbeth)

Aphorism is a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner. An original thought about life spoken or written in a concise and memorable form.

Three-word tradeoffs. No clichés! When one ends, begin another.

There will be a much shorter quiz on Thursday or Friday. It will be like the last one, but it will not be open note. It will still be open book.

Hesse was fascintated by the dualistic nature of existence  mind and body. Siddhartha experiments with and exhausts both possibilities. Father’s house  With the Samanas  With Kamala and Kamaswami  At the River with the Ferryman 

“Above all, he learned from it how to listen, to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinions” (106). He learns how to listen to both at the same time.

What do you make of all this? What does Siddhartha learn about time? Can you make any sense of it?

He learned the secret from the river that there is no such thing as time. It is only the present moment It “flowed and flowed yet it was always there. It was always the same yet at every moment it was new” (102). The river is everywhere at the same time. It all adds up to one, unified, total entity. When you try to break time down into measureable amounts or you try to break one’s lifetime into separate periods, you detract from the unity of things.

“Siddhartha’s previous lives were also not in the past, and his death and his return to Brahma are not in the future. Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.” Or in other words, every part of him, every part of his life is with him in the present. (This kind of reminds me of Willy Loman and Arthur Miller playing with time and reality.)

I hope you’re paying attention to all of these beatific smiles! Siddhartha and Vasudeva are smiling up a storm!

What do you think the river might symbolize? Before you answer this, take some time to draw the river using the details mentioned in this chapter. What’s on each side of the river? How many times does Siddhartha cross the river? Can you find a way to depict the sounds of the river? Where are Siddhartha and Vasudeva? In Buddhist symbolism, a river symbolizes an obstacle to cross. This is not the case for Siddhartha, right? Siddhartha feels that his life is like a river.

What is on one side of the river? What is on the other? How does he synthesize both sides together?

The landscape of Siddhartha’s soul.

Timelessness Oneness/Unity Totality Harmony

Silently to yourself. I will put up a question to consider in a few minutes. I don’t want you to spoil a key event.

Why isn’t Siddhartha sad when Kamala dies? What comforts him?

What makes life indestructible? Remember that Siddhartha realized that killing himself would not have destroyed the bird in his chest, his soul. It was part of something larger than just the shell of his body. He loses Kamala but gains his son.