The Glass Bead Game
(A book by Herman Hesse)
I'm rereading it now. Unless you are a particular fan of reading, this book is probably too long and subtle. But Wikipedia pages on books are often quite enlightening.
Once when I was younger I read a whole rack of Cliff's Notes. I think I became immediately more intelligent. I like book summaries even more nowadays, and Wikipedia is a great source. Even better is literature that itself contains summaries of imaginary books. Why don't you read the Wikipedia entry for one great such short story by Jorge Luis Borges and revel in how meta you are.
The book describes a future where the most elite intellectual activity is playing a game, the "Glass Bead Game", where the moves correspond to principles across music, mathematics, all the artistic fields, etc. The main character ascends this essentially academic hierarchy to become the top official in charge of this game.
The book is even more interesting if you remember that it's written by a German, and you have some experience with the difference between German board games like Settlers of Catan, versus American games like Scrabble. German games are more balanced, usually with several different possible styles of play, or different ways of scoring points. It's usually hard to gain a large advantage in a German game.
American games are different. (Or just non-European games, really; chess and go seem non-German.) More often you must perform one sort of mental feat, do it over and over, and if you are better at this one skill then you will smash your opponent.
For example, if you know all the two-letter words and AEINST* bingos, it is no fun to play Scrabble against a newbie. And nobody ever wants to play 24 with me. I think you could have quite the entertaining game of Settlers, though.
So I think it is easier for a German to imagine a game whose subject matter is so broad, it extends to all academic subjects.
I'm rereading it now. Unless you are a particular fan of reading, this book is probably too long and subtle. But Wikipedia pages on books are often quite enlightening.
Once when I was younger I read a whole rack of Cliff's Notes. I think I became immediately more intelligent. I like book summaries even more nowadays, and Wikipedia is a great source. Even better is literature that itself contains summaries of imaginary books. Why don't you read the Wikipedia entry for one great such short story by Jorge Luis Borges and revel in how meta you are.
The book describes a future where the most elite intellectual activity is playing a game, the "Glass Bead Game", where the moves correspond to principles across music, mathematics, all the artistic fields, etc. The main character ascends this essentially academic hierarchy to become the top official in charge of this game.
The book is even more interesting if you remember that it's written by a German, and you have some experience with the difference between German board games like Settlers of Catan, versus American games like Scrabble. German games are more balanced, usually with several different possible styles of play, or different ways of scoring points. It's usually hard to gain a large advantage in a German game.
American games are different. (Or just non-European games, really; chess and go seem non-German.) More often you must perform one sort of mental feat, do it over and over, and if you are better at this one skill then you will smash your opponent.
For example, if you know all the two-letter words and AEINST* bingos, it is no fun to play Scrabble against a newbie. And nobody ever wants to play 24 with me. I think you could have quite the entertaining game of Settlers, though.
So I think it is easier for a German to imagine a game whose subject matter is so broad, it extends to all academic subjects.
posted by Kevin at
10:54 PM
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