Here’s another great moment from The Man Without Qualities. An early take on Roger Water’s lyrics, perhaps? and a timeless message.
Perhaps one could say on his behalf that at a certain age life begins to run away with incredible speed. But the day when one must begin to live out one’s final will, before leaving the rest behind, lies far ahead and cannot be postponed. This had become menacingly clear to him now that almost six months had gone by and nothing had changed. He was waiting: all the time, he was letting himself be pushed this way and that in the insignificant silly activity he had taken on, talking, gladly talking too much, living with the desperate tenacity of a fisherman casting his nets into an empty river, while he was doing nothing that had anything to do with the person he after all signified; deliberately doing nothing; he was waiting. He waited … and his quiet desperation … rose higher every day. He felt himself to be in the worst crisis of his life and despised himself for what he had left undone.
