Siddartha, by Herman Hesse, is the story of a life that chooses to question all ideology. The story is set in India at some point in its past and tells the story of a man’s life. Siddartha is a privileged, brahmin youth who is raised to become a priest and leader of his community, but then rejects this responsibility in order to find truth. Along the way he encounters numerous purveyors of truthiness: flagellant mystics, the Buddha, high-class prostitutes, capitalist merchants, and finally a boatman.

Throughout his journey the only truth he finds is that there is no such thing. All ideology is suspect to him. His companions and teachers gladly embrace self-denial, meditation, lust, familial love and pleasure in the pursuit of a virtuous life. Siddartha becomes fully involved with all of these actions, yet some small part of him maintains a restless search for something more.

In the end (spoiler!), he finds himself back at the river where he started, this time as a student of the ultimate teacher — the river. Like the movement of river to sea to rain to river, truth is found in the flows of existence. Truth is round. It is a narrative cycle, not the specifics of content or the final sentence.

Circle of Literary Judgement (COLJ) activities are generally competitive, reflecting the divinely-granted free market of ideas, skills and labour that underpins Canadian society. This is natural and healthy, at least so we are taught. Taking a lesson from our literary companion Mr Hesse, this book club both questioned and affirmed that impulse: a small amount of food (bodily-denial) was followed by meditation (a struggle with the ideologies of the self), a sharing of religious experiences (collaborative community-building) and finally a hilarious re-telling of the narrative through interpretative dance and acting (competitively marked by all viewers for the trophy).

The ‘winner’ of the trophy was our very own Australian walkabout, Natasha Moore.