Proposing a new thread to discuss both Hesse’s novel - which came up recently in another thread in the context of the idea of new monasticism - and the practice developed by @Gen and others, which we are experimenting with in the research group.
I’ve been rereading the novel, and finished the first part about the history of the game. It struck me that Hesse is careful to avoid a simplistic characterisation of the game as serving no social function. On the contrary, he explicitly says that it is essential to the sustainability of civilization:
In almost all the countries of Europe today the schools that are not still administered by the Roman Church are in the hands of those anonymous Orders which fill their ranks from the elite among the intellectuals… Its integrity, its renunciation of all benefits and advantages other than intellectual ones, maintains and protects it. But it is also supported by what has long since become common knowledge, or at least a universal sense, that the continuance of civilization depends on this strict schooling. People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of the mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer’s slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue. It took long enough in all conscience for realization to come that the externals of civilization — technology, industry, commerce, and so on — also require a common basis of intellectual honesty and morality.
This seems to align with the ‘metatheory’ interpretation of the metacrisis as requiring integral philosophy as part of its solution.
There’s also the fact that the game itself is practiced outside the monasteries and is part of the general culture, and that the games by the masters are public spectacles similar to major sporting events in their integration in wider society.
So, while Hesse’s overall plotline does seem to challenge the premises of the Glass Bead Game, it is certaintly a very nuanced portrayal.
Curious to hear other people’s thoughts, and especially @gen in terms of how she thinks about the practice..