The Mark of Demian

The title character in Herman Hesse's first popular novel, released in 1919, is not the narrator. The story is told by the thoroughly imperfect young Sinclair, who stumbles and questions his way through life, occasionally -- and thankfully for him -- along the same path with the tall boy named Max Demian.

Demian convinces Sinclair early in their intertwined lives that many within the human population are descended from the original bad boy, none other than Cain himself. He is certain that he is among the company, and is pretty sure Sinclair bears 'The Mark' as well.

Somewhere along the course of their life-long conversation, Demian shares the following, and I remember how much it changed me when I first read it 20 years ago, so I'm just gonna let the Hermanator hold the wheel while I light up the italics ...

"We who bore the mark might well be considered by the rest of the world as strange, even as insane and dangerous. We had awoken, or were awakening, and we were striving for an ever perfect state of wakefulness, whereas the ambition and quest for happiness of the others consisted of linking their opinions, ideals, and duties, their life and happiness, ever more closely with those of the herd. They, too, strove; they, too showed signs of strength and greatness. But as we saw it, whereas we marked men represented Nature's determination to create something new, individual, and forward-looking, the others lived in the determination to stay the same. For them mankind--which they loved as much as we did--was a fully formed entity that had to be preserved and protected. For us mankind was a distant future toward which we were all journeying, whose aspect no one knew, whose laws weren't written down anywhere."

I'm not going to try to presume to be able to say it any better than that.

Where is there a better description of the people who are here to make the world better? It just happens that Hesse believed that the Children of Cain got a bad rap in the original Comedown, and in this particular story he went ahead and let them be the good guys for a change.

With that aside, where do you fall, or should I say 'Fall?'

"A distant future to which we are all journeying..." Hell yeah, Double-H.

I have one more tidbit for you about Herman Hesse. According to the About the Author at the back of Demian, Hesse had a rough couple years before he wrote this first of many great books. He spent a year in a 'sanitorium' and underwent psychoanalysis. With whom you might ask? None other than Mr. Synchronicity himself, Carl Jung. They do say she's a small world don't they?

They oughta sell tickets.