Mykhailyn I. L. The recipe to overcome the mass society in the novel by Hermann Hesse "The glass bead game"

Abstract

By the novel "The Glass Bead Game" (1943), G. Hesse responded to the discussion of European intellectuals
about the relationship of mass society and the elite. The novel is written as a response to the book by H. Ortega y
Gasset "Revolt of the masses"; there are hyperlinks to the treatise "The Decline of Europe" Spengler and «Homo
ludens» J. Huizinga in it. Considerable attention is given to the characteristic "feuilletonistic" era, that is
identified with the modern city of Hesse, while the main action of the novel takes place in the indefinite future.
Elite rescued from mass society through the escape, creating a state within a state — province of Castalia. But
attempts to delimit the mass and elite hermetically failed. The Master of the Game Joseph Knecht, the protagonist
of the novel, has experienced an act of awakening and seeks to return to the world to serve the very same massive
man. There was an escape from the escape, which meant a return to the service of elite to its people.