21/08/2026
Where does Herman Hesse meet Monkey Magic? Well, I’m glad you asked!
Please share with Eastern shore friends!
Your initial answer may be of course that they don’t!
This would be because Herman Hesse is the famous author of ‘Journey to the East’ about a group of of artists and legends on a pilgrimage to the East who were searching for truth and enlightenment and…
…Monkey magic is an interpretation of the famous story ‘Journey to the West! This story follows the pilgrimage of Tripitaka, a Buddhist monk who travels West to collect sacred scrolls and have adventures along the way. According to author Wu Cheng’en the nature of Monkey was Irrepressible!
Anyone who grew up in the eighties will know about Monkey Magic because it was a famous B grade TV show and only literature buffs and Germans will know Herman Hesse because, well, he didn’t have a B grade TV show.
So if Hesse were travelling East and Monkey travelling West they were going in opposite directions… and would never meet!
Except… (now the ‘Aha’ moment… ) Hesse is German and Monkey magic is in China so actually they were heading towards the same place!
But…. now you are thinking 🤔 If Hesse went East and Monkey West then they would meet in the middle unless Hesse was written in 1930 and Monkey set in the 16th century which they were so they could never meet…
Unless… Monkey was immortal! Which he was! Multiple times over by eating divine peaches 🍑 of immortality and and consuming pills of longevity. So he could, at least in theory have lived long enough to meet the characters in Hesse’s novel.
But now I know what you are thinking! Monkey and Tripitaka, after completing their 81 trials and collecting the sacred scrolls traveled back to China - also to the East! So they would never meet!
But then, you could finally correctly conclude they were both in search of enlightenment and perhaps in some way they could meet at this common destination!
Either way you will be glad to know that because the freshest free range eggs are laid at Steve’s farm on the Eastern shore, Snug Butcher+ makes a similar journey every Sunday morning first to collect the eggs and, like Monkey did, a return journey to the West to bring them home.
And that’s when we deliver to the Eastern shore south of the bridge*! So order today and share with your Eastern shore friends for delivery tomorrow!
snugbutcher.com.au
*Warrane, Mornington, Bellerive, Lauderdale, Seven Mile Beach, Roches Beach, Sandford, Rosny, Oakdowns, Claredenvale, Rokeby, Howrah, Tranmere
