The art of laziness - Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962) starts from considering "the art of laziness" as one of the ancient arts that the traditional free thinking machine, soulless, has usurped, along with the educational system that steals the individual's freedom and independent personality, and he seeks to contemplate the employment of Eastern literature for this art in his narrative and storytelling voice: "The magic that puts us in the snares of Eastern literature is basically rooted in the spirit of beloved laziness, meaning the spirit of laziness that has developed and transformed into an art with its own taste and flavor." The author of "Siddhartha" links between the descriptive details in Eastern literature and his perceptions of "the art of laziness," saying that the Arab storyteller at the peak of moments of suspense in the story grants himself a pause of time to indulge in describing detailed narrative specifics, which may be "extremely precise details of a royal purple tent, or a saddle lining embroidered with gemstones, or narrating the virtues of a dervish or the deeds of a wise man in an elaborate manner that leaves nothing of the most accurate details." As for the reader or listener of the story here, he is also complicit in surrendering to the rhythm of the Eastern storyteller: "We also, while reading those fairy tales and wondrous interconnected stories that extend endlessly, discover that we are blessed with an astonishing patience and a strong desire to continue the story endlessly, because this great magic has bewitched us and because the queen of laziness has touched us with her magical staff." The author then moves to the artist himself, the storyteller, and the crisis of his "creative imprisonment" periods, and what they require of a bit of laziness and giving space for the ideas produced by the subconscious to mature. The book elaborates on insight into that period, and the relationship of the artist with the voice of the inner child residing within him, where those periods are the ideal time to return to him and summon him, or according to his expression, "dedicating themselves unconsciously to the idea of returning to being children again, to be friends and siblings of the earth, plants, rocks, and clouds." Hesse explains the periods of imprisonment for the creator or artist as those times when the soul is bubbling with something active, desiring to turn it into a beautiful visual artwork, but "the seed itself refuses to blossom because its time of ripening has not yet come, and because the seed still bears the secret of the only dilemma of imprisonment as a secret that is not yet time to reveal, and thus the creator has no choice but to wait."