Hermann Hesse's last novel, Das Glasperlenspiel ("The Glass Bead Game") first appeared in Switzerland in 1943. First translated (somewhat clumsily) into English in 1949 as Magister Ludi (Latin for "Master of the Game") by Mervyn Savill, it failed to make as much of an impact upon the English-speaking intelligensia as it had in German circles, which latter readership was the key factor in Hesse's 1946 Nobel award for literature.

The book is written in the style of a biography. The narrator, writing at the beginning of the 25th Century, presents a brief biography of Joseph Knecht, or Ludi Magister Josephus III. Knecht (whose name, in German, means "servant"), a 23rd Century Glass Bead Game master, is an important figure in 25th Century history and philosophy, and is remembered not only for his contributions to the Glass Bead Game Archive, but also for being the first Magister Ludi to abandon Castalia for the outside world.

Castalia, named for the sacred spring of Greek Mythology, was a province in Europe administrated by the Order of Castalia, an institution devoted solely to the pursuit of the Glass Bead Game. The Order was publicly funded, but its members have a tradition of complete isolation. Admission to the Order is reserved for the intellectual élite, and members live their entire lives in Castalia, researching, composing, writing, and playing the Glass Bead Game.

The Glass Bead Game is an incredibly demanding exercise, bound by the strictest rules and requiring virtuoso discipline and skill. Hesse deliberately avoids elaborating on the rules of the Game, for the simple fact that it is to be a product of the future. Nonetheless, playing the game involves years of extensive scholarly research, extensive knowledge of mathematics, history, philosophy, music theory, literature, and many other diverse disciplines. The purpose of the game was to relate every idea and fact to every other, synthesizing the sum of all human intellect into a single, overarching system.

The story of Joseph Knecht is a unique one in the history of Castalia. Knecht was the first Magister Ludi to leave the Order behind and return to the outside world. Of course, leaving Castalia was not all that of an unusual occurence; it being an élite school, many students often simply didn't have what it took to play the Game. But for an actual Member of the Order to leave, let alone its highest representative, was unprecedented in Knecht's day.

Knecht didn't leave the Order because he couldn't fulfill his capacity as Magister, of course. In fact, he was widely held to be the most competent Magister the Order had seen, perhaps ever. Nor did he leave because he had ceased to believe in the Order's ideals; – quite the contrary, in fact. Knecht came to feel that the Order's ideals were actually best served by his break with tradition and his entering the world of politics and activity.

Because the Order is a publicly-funded institution, and because of the Order's tradition of isolation and seclusion, many of those responsible for committing money to the Order didn't understand the role of the Order. Although Castalia had always had its staunch sympathizers in key governmental positions, with the threat of war or economic crisis, Castalia's very existence could be threatened without the Castalians themselves ever being aware of the fact.

Furthermore, in the decades of his service to the Order, Knecht had come to believe that both the Order of Castalia and the outside world would be better served if there were closer ties. The isolation of the Order was an extremely important aspect of the Castalian way of life; but life did not stop in the outside world, and members of the Order only had access to old ideas, rarely new ones. Furthermore, the outside world stood to benefit from the perspectives generated in Castalia, even if they related to old ideas, because if history suffered as a study in the outside world, then that world stood to forget the mistakes of the past.

The Glass Bead Game is, of course, a parable about institutional philosophy and scholarship, and has a very Taoist theme. It is important to learn certain things about life in isolation and freedom for learning's sake – but, unless this wisdom is applied to real-world concerns, it is vacuous. This thesis, and the book as a whole, is therefore incredibly important for all scholars, even if it is often overlooked by English speakers.

Noder's Note: In Grade 12, a friend of mine gave me Steppenwolf, one of Hermann Hesse's other famous novels. I tried to read it, but couldn't even get halfway through. A couple of years later, I tried again, and again I couldn't read it. I found the plot completely irrelevant to my life.

"I've already found my animal spirit," I told my friend.

"Really?" he asked. "What is it?"

"Human," I responded.

So I really wouldn't have considered myself a big Hesse fan.

But when I got The Glass Bead Game, I swear I couldn't put it down. Maybe it's just because I'm in training to be a philosopher and professor, and it was therefore particularly relevant, but it's the kind of book I will read again.

Noder's Note (November 16, 2000): The translation I have is as follows:

Hesse, Hermann. The Glass Bead Game. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. Bantam Books, Inc., New York: 1969.

Noder's Note (November 26, 2000): Waugh! I can't believe I didn't notice this before! Holy crap! Everything is a Glass Bead Game, of sorts. The mandate of Everything being the ultimate synthesis of all intellectual material of mankind, it is the same as that of the Glass Bead Game, only executed in an entirely different fashion.

I hereby name nate Magister Ludi Nate I!

Noder's Note (August 12, 2001): A female friend of mine recently summed up the problem with Hesse's writings: "It's just about the fellas." He didn't know how to write female characters with actual personalities very well. They're all just archetypes.

There are many different tacks to be taken in discussing the Glass Bead Game, and I am surprised that more of them are not mentioned here. Especially since The Glass Bead Game is very closely related to our own undertaking. But the main thing that struck me while reading the Glass Bead Game is the same thing that sticks out in most works of science fiction: the anachronism of it.

The Glass Bead Game takes place in Europe sometime in the near to intermediate future. European society has recovered from something called "The Century of Wars", and developed what seems to be a slightly more intellectual, civilized climate than what prevailed in Herman Hesse's own time, which is not a hard achievement. Part of this culture was fostered by a group known as "The Order", an academic, somewhat religious elite that runs elite schools and runs a game called "The Glass Bead Game", which is not fully described, but is an intellectual competition where player-scholars attempt to connect concepts from music, philosophy and mathematics in innovative and subtle ways. How the culture of the Glass Bead Game is related to the rest of the world's culture and society is hinted at, but not fully discussed. Whether this was due to Hesse's own disinterest in the technology and society of the future, or whether he is taking the perspective of the conservative representatives of The Order, who would have little interest in such things.

In either case, the book displays no technological development. Transportation is at the early-20th century level, with trains and automobiles, but no use of airplanes for travel. There doesn't even seem to be mention of typewriters, which were hardly a new invention when Hesse was writing. In general, technology is not even mentioned, other than the dismissal with which "The Order" treats engineering. At no point is technology used as part of the games the order plays. Music is important, yet it is only straight forward, acoustical music. Even amplification is not mentioned. Any usage of information technology in the recording or playing of the Game is also not mentioned. But leaving technology out of science fiction is not always a bad idea: technology tends to progress in unpredictable ways, and in this case, it isn't even that relevant to the theme of the book, which is more about social and intellectual themes than technological themes.

If the lack of technological process is unusual, the social anachronisms portrayed in the book are truly unusual. The most overwhelming social fact in the book is that The Order is all-male, with elite education only available for men. I actually was surprised to learn after reading the book that Hesse was married, and was not openly homosexual. Homosexuality is discussed in the book, but only once, and the undertones of how all these men live close, celibate lives together where they display restrained affection for each other is not layed out. Not that I am expecting anything especially prurient, but the total absence of women in the book, and the idea that women can not take part in academic life, is especially striking. Especially since even The Catholic Church (which is described in this book in passing), which is in close parallel to "The Order" never denied that women could partake in academic life. It is also not simply anachronistic, it is truly "retrochronistic" since even at the time that Hesse started writing, Marie Curie had received the Nobel Prize twenty years before. So the total dismissal of women from intellectual life is puzzling and disconcerting.

Perhaps even more surprising than the sexism is the classism in the book. The book is about an intellectual elite, which is described as having close ties to a political and social elite. Although outside affairs are only dealt with in passing, the society outside does not appear to be democratic in great depths. Even if it may be democratic politically, it is not democratic socially: what is worthwhile in the culture is codified by "The Order", and seems to be a mixture of classical music and semi-Aristotelian philosophy that was again, retrochronistic for the time Hesse was writing. At no point is it hinted that the common people could innovate or create a culture or technology that would be relevant, liberating or intrinsically valuable. Instead, culture is created by a small cadre of men operating through personal loyalty.

To give an example of how "The Glass Bead Game" actually works, in the real 2009 instead of the pretend centuries future that Hesse imagined, I will tell a story about a friend of mine. A young woman I know sewed a Teddy Bear in imitation of a fractal pattern (a mathematical innovation that Hesse would presumably not have known of) and released the picture on the internet (which Hesse also wouldn't have known of), and several days later, received an e-Mail from Benoit Mandelbrot (who was a freshman in college when this book was finished) who was appreciative of fractal Teddy and requested one for his grandchildren. Hesse never describes exactly what goes on in the Glass Bead Game, but I doubt he could have imagined something as awesome as this.

My criticisms of the book shouldn't be taken as meaning either that I didn't enjoy it, or think that Hesse was ignorant or had a hidden agenda. Hesse the author is not, after all, the narrator of the book, and the book is in many ways critical of the society it presents. However, I still find some of the anachronisms in the book extremely puzzling, and it makes me realize that as an American, there are aspects of European society that do not make sense to me.