{"id":119816,"date":"2020-11-18T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=119816"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:14","slug":"why-willem-scholten-likes-bildungsromans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/11\/18\/why-willem-scholten-likes-bildungsromans\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Willem Scholten likes Bildungsromans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Willem Scholten generally keeps the books he has read, except for Hermann Hesse\u2019s Narziss und Goldmund<\/em> (Narcissus and Goldmund). \u201cI have given my own well-thumbed and well-loved copies to three people who were near and dear to me. Each time I would buy a new copy. This is<\/a> my fourth copy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Willem Scholten, 42, loves to read. He reads a lot, and generally has multiple books going at any given time. The Studium Generale Science programme maker keeps track of the titles he has read in a small notebook. So far, in a year shaped largely by the coronavirus pandemic, he has read 42. \u201cThose are all different types of books. Some will be thin, while others will be difficult world literature that requires complete focus. I just finished Thomas Mann\u2019s The Magic Mountain, a masterpiece of about 930 pages. It took me eight months to finish it. I wouldn\u2019t recommend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Scholten feels it is important that he read such heavy stuff a few times per year. \u201cSuch books helped shape our history. They are our heritage. Moreover, it\u2019s true that the more you know, the more you see. For instance, if you are familiar with the stories told in the Bible, you will have a better understanding of the works of art in a museum. Now, I\u2019ve never read the Bible in full, but I did have a Catholic upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Willem Scholten has served as Studium Generale\u2019s Science programme maker for twelve years. Before Scholten started working at Erasmus University, he organised events for TENT<\/a> in Witte de Withstraat, the platform for contemporary art.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Narcissus and Goldmund<\/h2>

While at secondary school, Scholten was introduced to literature full of Eastern mysticism and spiritual worlds. He attended a boarding school in Belgium where he sat school-leaving exams in fourteen subjects. \u201cI disliked my Dutch teacher, until he started talking about mysticism in literature. That got me curious. I wasn\u2019t sure who I was and what I wanted from life and asked that teacher what to read. He recommended Hermann Hesse. In my final year I read Narziss and Goldmund.\u201d The book is about the turbulent friendship between two polar opposites: Narziss, a disciplined scientist, and Goldmund, an artistic soul who scours the world for beauty and love. Scholten identified with both protagonists.<\/p>\n

When Scholten was 18, he chose to follow in the artistically minded Goldmund\u2019s footsteps. \u201cAfter six years at boarding school, I needed some adventure in my life,\u201d he says with a smile. He did some travelling and enrolled in a Cultural Sciences degree. \u201cI was quite attracted to freedom and art. Even as a child, I loved museums, and my uncle and aunt were artists. They would take to me exhibitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

At age thirty, Scholten was once again unsure who he was and what he wanted from life. He reread Narziss und Goldmund, and this time round, he identified more with the intellectual and introverted Narziss. \u201cAt different stages of your life, you will identify with different people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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