The Adventurous Simplicissimus (Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus)
"I was born of fire like Phoenix. I flew through the air, and I wasn't lost. I wandered in the water, I roamed on land, in such wanderings I made known to myself what often saddened me and seldom delighted me; what was that? I have written it in this book here that the reader, like me, remove himself from folly and live in peace.”
-Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1668)
The Adventurous Simplicissimus (Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus) is set against the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany and is often called the first adventure novel in world literature. It follows a young man who moves through a shattered world with a mixture of innocence, bewilderment and stubborn curiosity. Only in old age does he retreat into solitude and write down what life has taught him.
This blog follows a similar spirit.
Life itself is an adventure - rarely linear, often ironic. Things unfold differently than we expect. Experiences shape us, redirect us, unsettle us, and sometimes illuminate what we didn’t know we were searching for.
What remains is the attempt to understand:
to trace the paths we’ve taken.
to make sense of what we’ve seen.
and to find a language for the truths that endure.
-Simplicius Simplicissimus 👋🏻
