The Glass Bead Game

I am over 120 pages into Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game and I'm starting to wonder if he ever includes female characters. To be fair, the only other Hesse novel I've read is The Journey to the East, which was a brief but enjoyable metaphor for life. Perhaps it's also fair to acknowledge that this was published and 1943. And it's always helpful to remember that feminist readings of classics will do little to ease the anger and hopelessness that most feminist lenses render, and simultaneously ruin quality literature. Still, it's hard for me to push aside these criticisms. It is with these thoughts that I read the following passage:

"They came from the town itself, this sample of the profane world with its business and commerce, its dogs and children, its smell of stores and handicrafts, it bearded citizens and fat wives behind the shop doors, the children playing and clamoring, the girls throwing mocking looks." (88)

He does not write "bearded men and fat wives" but bearded citizens. The children play and clamor, but only the girls throw mocking looks. This obvious casting of women as other may be deliberate, but I doubt it. The very few times women have been mentioned at all they are deemed negative, a distraction from the good, noble, intellectual. At this point, I almost hope there will not be a female character. If so, I fear she will only be a love interest. And now it's not surprising how to observe what a malicious and unnecessary endeavor that would be:

"The danger of wasting himself on women or on losing himself in sports is also minimal. As far as women are concerned, the Castalian student is not subject to the temptations and dangers of marriage, nor is he oppressed by the prudery of a good many past eras which imposed continence on students or else made them turn to more or less venal and sluttish women. Since there is no marriage for the Castalians, love is not governed by a morality directed toward marriage. Since the Castalian has no money and virtually no property, he also cannot purchase love." (112)

Perhaps it is unnecessary to note that women do not appear to be permitted to into the elite schools, let alone become members of the Order. Hesse's narrator has not said this, but made it quite obvious that this is a path open only to worthy boys. I should accept that and read on, grasping only the insight that Hesse intends. But I find it difficult now that I've made these observations. More difficult still when women are not simply absent, but antagonistic.

But of course I will read on, and do my best to push these observations to the side. I'd like very much to get out of this novel everything that it's many readers admire, enjoy, and continue to ponder.