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From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Magister Ludi - I didn't like it. - (nf)
Message-ID: <3247@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Oct-83 00:00:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.3247
Posted: Fri Oct 21 00:00:05 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Oct-83 10:40:20 EDT
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#R:eisx:-62000:uicsl:16700004:000:1014
uicsl!preece    Oct 14 15:07:00 1983

I read Magister Ludi about ten years ago along with a bunch of other
Hesse, mostly to provide conversation for my sister, who was very much
taken with them at the time.  Magister Ludi was the only one I really
liked.  I confess a prediliction for the well used word, so my
view may be biased in a different way than the author of the basenote.

As to sexism, I couldn't say I recall the book well enough to comment.
It's not really fair, though, to criticize a book for statements that
are of their time simply because their time is past. Rather marvel at
authors whose views somehow managed to transcend their milieu.
Jane Austen had no trouble writing of women who fashioned their own
lives despite the conventions of the day. Shakespeare's Merchant of
Venice is a stereotype at the same time that he cries out against the
stereotype.  You can't ask a writer of an earlier day to anticipate
our feelings about discrimination, no matter how pleasant it is when
one does.

scott preece
pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece