Hermann Hesse

A great writer, so I'm told. The biped is reading Siddhartha right now (thanks to Sumner!) and he said he is really enjoying it. A beautiful book, he said. Here's a passage that he thought was beautiful and demanded that I post...

Not long after settling in Kamaswami's home, Siddhartha was already taking part in his host's transactions. But every day at the hour that she set, he visited beautiful Kamala: he wore lovely clothes, fine shoes, and soon he also brought her gifts. Her clever red lips taught him a lot. Her tender, supple hand taught him a lot. In regard to love, he was still a boy, and he tended to plunge into pleasure blindly, endlessly, insatiably. So she thoroughly taught him that one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it. She taught him that after a celebration of love the lovers should not part without admiring each other, without being conquered or having conquered, so that neither is bleak or glutted or has the bad feeling of having misused or been misused. He spent wonderful hours with the clever and beautiful artist, became her pupil, her lover, her friend. Here, with Kamala, lay the value and purpose of his current life, and not with Kamaswami's business.

Hmmmmm. I don't know if I get it.