Joseph Knecht's posthumous writings...

The "Glass Bead Game" by Herman Hesse, ends with lengthy postscriptum called "Joseph Knecht's posthumous writings". There are some poems and short stories. The most interesting is the triptych entitled "The Three Lives". Every story of the triptych is a kind of philosophical fairy-tale. "The Rainmaker" tells about a magus of a prehistorical tribe; "The Father Confessor" is about ancient monks of Early Christianity and is placed in the Holy Land. "The Indian Life" is a kind of Vishnu legend placed in ancient India.

The stories are interesting, mainly because they, in some sense alleviate the pain of elitism and aloofness of the main part of the Book. I wouldn't say, they change my opinion, but they make me a bit easier about Herman Hesse...

One remark - I found some far resemblance of many passages and thoughts found in these stories to thoughts of Eckhart Tolle found in his "Power of Now". I wonder if my impression is nothing more than serendipity of some far connections, found only because I just read some of Tolle's texts or whether there is some deeper link ...