If at first you don’t succeed … give up!

Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
Translated from: German (Austria)
Genre: Classic Novel
Rating: between 4 and 8 out of 10; impossible to say!

My first shot at TMWQ was almost twenty years ago. Fifty pages into it I knew it was my kind of book. One hundred pages in and I was losing my way. I put it aside for later. Returning to it a couple of years later, the experience was identical. And the patern continued again and again with the passage of time; each times I abandoned it, but not definitively. I had the feeling it was a book that could please me a lot. Here’s a revealing line from it:

one thing … could safely be said about Ulrich: he loved mathematics because of the kind of people who could not endure it.

Some months ago, in compiling a list of books for different occasions, I selected TMWQ for the honour of one book you’ve been meaning to read. Then it made it to the status of new year resolution.

Sadly, the saga ends here. After 800 pages, I’ve abandoned again. I can’t see myself getting back to it; it’s too big an undertaking.

So how was it? Great, amusing, provocative, ironic and dull by turns. The English, presumably consistently with the original German, is beautiful but not exactly vernacular. I found myself reading passages from it to friends and family and recording a page-full of them here in my blog. But it was too long and frequently too dull or, perhaps, too learned for me and so it’s official: I’m moving on with my life. It has been compared with James Joyce’s Ulysses and it has received the same fate on my bookshelf.

Busy doing nothing

Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
Translated from: German (Austria)
Genre: Classic Novel
Rating: 9/10 utterly delicious … the cynic’s bible

Once again this treasure chest delivers up moments underscoring my direct experience. Today, four of my senior colleagues convened a 45 minute meeting with me to consider how to calculate a weighted average in a report. I tell you no lie!

In his work he found anew day by day the contentment that solid achievement leaves in its wake, and what foreign observers beheld in his countenance was the beaming serenity that comes from operations proceeding in good order. Department One sent a memorandum; Department Two replied; when Department One had been notified of Department One’s reply, it was usually advisable to suggest talking it over in person, and when an agreement had been reached in this fashion, it was decided that nothing could be done about the matter; and so there was always something to do. In addition there were those thousand minor considerations that must not be overlooked. After all, one was always working hand in hand with all the various ministries; one did not want to give offence to the Church; one had to take account of certain persons and social considerations; in short, even on those days when one wasn’t doing anything in particular, there were so many things one had to guard against doing that one had the sense of being kept frantically busy at all times.

Hanging on in quiet desperation …

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.

Blogging: widespread and a great comfort, but …

Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
Translated from: German (Austria)
Genre: Classic Novel
Rating: 9/10 utterly delicious … the cynic’s bible

This delicious book has a quotable passage on every page and I’ll be back with some favourites. However, this one must take pride of place as it speaks to us across time. It’s a long one, but worth it.

In almost no time after he had sent out his statement to the press, His Grace had intimations that all those who have no money harbour inside them an unpleasant crank. This opinionated man-within-the-man goes with him to the office every morning and has absolutely no way to air his protest against the way things are done in the world; so instead he keeps his eyes glued to a lifetime secret point of his own that everyone else refuses to see, although it is obviously the source of all the misery in a world that will not recognise its saviour.

… snip snip …

In the right circumstances, a man can help himself by writing a book about his point, or a pamphlet, or at least a letter to the editor, [or a blog]^*, thereby putting his protest on the historical record, which is marvellously comforting even if nobody ever reads it. Usually, however, it can be counted on to attract the attention of a few readers who assure the author that he is a new Copernicus, whereupon they introduce themselves as unrecognised Newtons. The custom of picking the points out of each other’s fur is widespread and a great comfort, but it is without lasting effect because the participants soon fall to quarrelling and find themselves isolated again.

^*My addition is, I think, not unfair. Many blogs are more in the spirit of letters to the editor trying to sell a world-view than on-line diaries. Musil reminds us there is nothing new under the sun.

The seduction of art

Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
Translated from: German (Austria)
Genre: Classic Novel
Rating: to be provided in a later post

Like a beautiful woman, this book has seduced me for years; but every advance I’ve made has been rebuffed after about a hundred pages. I can’t tell why … I’ve been lead me on, allowed enchanting glimpses of her (?) charms, but each time I’ve lost my nerve and failed to consummate the experience.

So here it is … blogged … my contract with myself that this time I’ll go the whole way!