Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun

>>9649002
Idk I honestly liked The Wanderer best of his novels. I don't understand the themes of GoTS beyond a fervent anti-psychology

>>9649034
Anti-psychology? Would you mind expanding on that? I'll have to check out The Wanderer, as I already enjoyed GotS quite a bit.

>>9649034
>fervent anti-psychology
Sorry what

Geissler was just a jerk that screwed people with his sneaky real estate dealings.

>>9650224
As I recall, he never screwed over Isak though.

>>9649002
What a great book, I really enjoyed Growth of the Soil. Especially the struggle of Eleseus to find his ways and the simple "he never came back" when he moved to America was briliant.

I don't really understood Geisler's role either, it seems to me that he's supposed to represent the people that respect hard working men, but aren't really all that hard working themselves. He respects Isaac for what he has created but knows that he himself could never achieve such a thing, maybe that's why he's so quick to help him.

>>9650433
I agree wholeheartedly with the end of the Eleseus arc. Everything that happens in the novel feels very "just" in a cosmic sense - the jerks get shafted, the hard workers pull through the tough times... it's probably a big part of why it feels so satisfying to read, acting on a subconscious level.

You're definitely on to something there with Geissler. I always imagined that he could do what Isak did, maybe better, because he's always portrayed as so intelligent and resourceful. Now that you point it out though, I think his intelligence is just what allows him to realize that Isak is really special for the qualities he does have, and lets him excel at what he does.

I wish the book had given a bit more information about how Geissler lost his position in the beginning, because I spent a while wondering if he was a shady character that rightfully lost his job, or whether the town unfairly screwed him over. Every time he would wander onto the farm, my chest would get tight and I'd wonder if this was the end of the line and his manipulations would finally become clear.

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>>9650530
Yea, I always thought that Geissler might turn out to be the "villain" in the book. It occurred to me that Geissler might be a representation/self insert of Knut Hamsun and reflect his views on these hard working men.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the book, as a non native English speaker that read it in English, I really should've looked up what a hare lip is though. I was really confused at the part when the wife killed her daughter until I looked up what a hare lip is and it instantly clicked, haha.

I am planning on reading Hunger next, I think Knut Hamsun is a great author.

It's common in Norwegian literature analysis to view Geissler as Hamsun inserting himself in the novel

>>9650573
>>9650586
What timing. Didn't occur to me to think of Geissler as being a self-insert. It would explain a fair bit, as it's fairly hard to look at the novel apart from Hamsun's strong feelings on the subject.

I'm a native English speaker and loved it, but wish I could know what it's like in the original language. For whatever reason, the translation I have made all the characters speak as though they were Irish, it seemed very much to me, and it bothered me a little bit alongside all the Scandinavian terminology and titles.

>>9650602
All the Ho!s really are kind of funny, but I think it's trying to capture the way people on farms talk. I don't know which translation I read, I just downloaded the book from project Guttenberg.

I do know German and I think the German translation might be very similar to the original one, but I like reading books in English more. I mostly don't mind translations unless they're really horrible.