Tag: Hermann Hesse
The human being as multiplicity: mask, "doppelgänger" and puppet
Since modern man has dramatically realized that the unity of the human being is an illusion some of the highest minds of his consortium have sought - in a uncanny game of masks, mirrors and dolls - to understand how to integrate one's infinite personalities and overcome the existential nihilism that such masks potentially offer: from ETA Hoffmann's “The Sandman” and EA Poe's “William Wilson” to Hermann Hesse's “The Steppe Wolf”; from the contemporary cinema of Roman Polanski and David Lynch to Thomas Ligotti's "marionette metaphysics" and HP Lovecraft's "cosmic horror".
From Montague Rhodes James to Ari Aster's “Hereditary”
In some of the most terrifying stories of Montague Rhodes James emerges the Hoffmannian-Ligottian theme of man as a puppet or marionette, at the mercy of demonic entities that hide behind the scenes of reality: particularly successful is "The Haunted Doll's House", which has partially inspired by Ari Aster's film “Hereditary”.