Pour la Suite du Monde

"You know that in this I did not make an image of myself, but of my best friend...It was he who brought the peace and light, not I.  It is not really I who have shaped this figure, but he, who brought it to my soul."

                                               --Hermann Hesse Narziss and Goldmund




After several years of knowing about this film...

It is maybe one of the most beautiful documentaries that I've ever seen.  The faces of the people from the island are all so incredible that its hard to believe.  The dancing and music, the discussions about the moon, the arguments about Cartier, the Easter water, and of course the whale.

A good friend of mine once talked about certain films that would grow inside of him over long periods of time, I already know that this is one of those experiences for me.

In addition to the specific narrative that the film deals with, it beautifully captures individual lives while they are in mid-stride.  If you only encounter a figure for a moment, somehow you know everything about where they've been and where they are going.

"you know it yourself, such a work can never be repeated.  It is a secret."

                                          --Hermann Hesse Narziss and Goldmund

Waking

When Goldmund woke it was dark.  His head swam, no thoughts came into it.  He could feel himself lying on a bed, but where he knew not.  He strove, and yet nothing came to him.  How had he travelled here:  from what strange country of new knowledge?  He had been in some far-off place, where he had seen some rare and glorious sights, terrible, and never to be forgotten.  Yet now he was forgetting them all.  When was it?  What was this thing that had risen up before him, so dolorous, mighty, full of beauty, to fade again?  He strove to see far down into himself, to the deeps out of which this thing had come.  What had it been?  A covey of vain images swirled around him.

--from "Narziss and Goldmund" by Hermann Hesse  

It is interesting the way that Hesse makes this waking state so vivid.  The use of so many questions in sequence evoke so much without assigning a precise interpretation of what has taken place during Goldmund's sleep.  This passage so beautifully leaves you suspended with the character, hovering in between the reality of a dream and consciousness.  These ideas always seem to be what Hesse is driving at, maybe balance or the idea of it, or maybe its birth.