HAROLD, well done, totally fabulous heartfelt reaction to the book & also totally weird mashup of Musil's mechanically engineered text with the multiple apostrophes of Sterne. It's almost as if Sterne was hanging around in the novel, taking notes (I imagine on a tablet, and also I imagine handwritten, with optional OCR and lots of it all-caps and multiply underlined—something for a future post?).
My own engagement with Musil is different. I'm fascinated in particular by two things.
(1) The fact that it's unfinished, and under this heading especially the moment when Musil may have known that it always would be, or more accurately, the moment the text begins to announce it. If you hadn't known it was unfinished, when would you have sensed it? When would you have started to think about it in every chapter? And — a separate aspect of this question — what does it mean that there are, I think, 11,000 pages in the Nachlass (the notes)? If I'm remembering right, there are only a few texts that address that material in detail. When does incipient form give way to hopeless formlessness? Wittgenstein's Nachlass, which is all online, is something like 16,000 pages (again I'm guessing, from memory): it can be searched, but what would the cumulative effect be, on a reader, of experiencing such enormous wastelands of fragments and repetitions?
(2) I also think of Musil as the exemplar of the "novel-essay." This is a kind of novel that began in the late 19th century. Its hallmark is that the plot is intermittently put on pause while the author has the principal narrator exposit some point — in love, politics, mathematics, hydrology, etc. The principal scholar on this subject is Stefano Ercolino; he has two books on the subject. I'm fascinated by the "novel-essay" as an ongoing problem in the novel. Consider Proust as a contemporaneous example; the narrator permits himself long languorous pauses in the already stilled narrative to explore all sorts of issues. The growth of essays within novels could, in theory, wither the idea of plot in the name of writing that comes from, and basically remains in, nonfiction. Or fast forward to postmodernism: Pynchon is full of "essays," and so is Gaddis, and so is Barth. Gass's essays are like "The Tunnel," and it's like a conglomeration of his essays. I think about this a lot in my writing, and I try to be extreme about it when I do, in order to dramatize the difference between the modes, and not pretend they can be mixed to a uniform gray, which is how I think of Richard Powers.
Of course you're exactly right to think about love and incest, and there's also the despairing criticism of Austrian politics. These are just my own interests.
There is also a Nachlass of Musil included in the (searchable) Klagenfurter Ausgabe which does what you suggest, allows one to read the book non-linearly. I think that Musil really did think he would finish the book, but it was a sort of self-delusion, or one that did not take normal time and space into consideration. However, the parameters of the experimental project, which resisted final solutions and choices of one word, scenario, scene over another, made it really impossible to finish (even if exile, poverty, ill-health and early death had not stopped him in his tracks).
Well, about 600 pages of it have been translated into English by Burton Pike (in the Knopf, now Vintage, edition). I have read much more of it , mostly in the Klagenfurter Ausgabe….There is also a Musil Online, if you read German, that has all of it: https://musilonline.at/
Thanks. I do read German -- I was wondering what your reading experience has been. Does it seem unencompasable? Repetitive (as I find some of the Wittgenstein Nachlass)? Are the variations interesting? Is there a reading strategy you might recommend?
Well, Pike’s translations are curated, by themes, so that is one place to start. There are, indeed, some that consist of minor variations, but the Klagenfurter Ausgabe, if you can get a hold of it (many university libraries have the CD-ROM) has helpful annotations and direction about what the various versions might contain. However, for a full exegesis of the Nachlass you can go to Walter Fanta’s book: Die Entstehungsgeschichte des Mannes Ohne Eigenschaften. Fanta knows the Nachlass like no other. Personally, I read large chunks of it in German first, in the Frise edited Rowohlt’s, that are arranged quite differently from the Pike (can’t quite remember how now, but there are intense controversies over which is more correct). For me, the Nachlass material is some of the most wonderful writing ever (not only of Musil, but ever). The Musil-Online is edited by Fanta, so the annotations there should help you, even if you don’t get his book. Hope this very vague and non-linear answer helps. Enjoy!
Preemptively liking this based on the first two sections because I'm going to read TMWQ imminently and don't want to spoil what I'm sure will be a delicious experience, but if this doesn't make one want to read Musil, I don't know what will.
I did not read the entire piece because I don't want to know too much about the book before I read it, but I read enough to make me very excited to do so immediately. I had just finished Confessions of Zeno and started reading Bouvard and Pécuchet last night before going to sleep, but you have convinced me that it is finally Musil time. I'll return to your piece once I've taken a good bite out of the book.
A really riotous and righteous romp, Harold, filled with truly illuminating connections, close-readings and cultural and biographical echoes and interpretations, and, most splendidly, the joy, humor, and humanism of the book! Thanks so much for writing and sharing. I will share with our reading group, too.
Excellent. I listened to the podcast with you and Sean talking about this, and it was quite uplifting to hear you say “there’s so much going on in this book!” I listened to some old British folks talking about this book and they kept saying “nothing happens.” That’s such a misleading statement. I mean, sure, there’s no grand scene of Ulrich fighting a dragon, but I’d say that a LOT happens. Maybe it’s happening in characters’ thoughts or dialogue, but it’s still happening. I’m in the middle of my first re-read of it, and it truly is great. Really appreciate your essay.
HAROLD, well done, totally fabulous heartfelt reaction to the book & also totally weird mashup of Musil's mechanically engineered text with the multiple apostrophes of Sterne. It's almost as if Sterne was hanging around in the novel, taking notes (I imagine on a tablet, and also I imagine handwritten, with optional OCR and lots of it all-caps and multiply underlined—something for a future post?).
My own engagement with Musil is different. I'm fascinated in particular by two things.
(1) The fact that it's unfinished, and under this heading especially the moment when Musil may have known that it always would be, or more accurately, the moment the text begins to announce it. If you hadn't known it was unfinished, when would you have sensed it? When would you have started to think about it in every chapter? And — a separate aspect of this question — what does it mean that there are, I think, 11,000 pages in the Nachlass (the notes)? If I'm remembering right, there are only a few texts that address that material in detail. When does incipient form give way to hopeless formlessness? Wittgenstein's Nachlass, which is all online, is something like 16,000 pages (again I'm guessing, from memory): it can be searched, but what would the cumulative effect be, on a reader, of experiencing such enormous wastelands of fragments and repetitions?
(2) I also think of Musil as the exemplar of the "novel-essay." This is a kind of novel that began in the late 19th century. Its hallmark is that the plot is intermittently put on pause while the author has the principal narrator exposit some point — in love, politics, mathematics, hydrology, etc. The principal scholar on this subject is Stefano Ercolino; he has two books on the subject. I'm fascinated by the "novel-essay" as an ongoing problem in the novel. Consider Proust as a contemporaneous example; the narrator permits himself long languorous pauses in the already stilled narrative to explore all sorts of issues. The growth of essays within novels could, in theory, wither the idea of plot in the name of writing that comes from, and basically remains in, nonfiction. Or fast forward to postmodernism: Pynchon is full of "essays," and so is Gaddis, and so is Barth. Gass's essays are like "The Tunnel," and it's like a conglomeration of his essays. I think about this a lot in my writing, and I try to be extreme about it when I do, in order to dramatize the difference between the modes, and not pretend they can be mixed to a uniform gray, which is how I think of Richard Powers.
Of course you're exactly right to think about love and incest, and there's also the despairing criticism of Austrian politics. These are just my own interests.
There is also a Nachlass of Musil included in the (searchable) Klagenfurter Ausgabe which does what you suggest, allows one to read the book non-linearly. I think that Musil really did think he would finish the book, but it was a sort of self-delusion, or one that did not take normal time and space into consideration. However, the parameters of the experimental project, which resisted final solutions and choices of one word, scenario, scene over another, made it really impossible to finish (even if exile, poverty, ill-health and early death had not stopped him in his tracks).
How much (or just how) have you read the Nachlass?
Well, about 600 pages of it have been translated into English by Burton Pike (in the Knopf, now Vintage, edition). I have read much more of it , mostly in the Klagenfurter Ausgabe….There is also a Musil Online, if you read German, that has all of it: https://musilonline.at/
Thanks. I do read German -- I was wondering what your reading experience has been. Does it seem unencompasable? Repetitive (as I find some of the Wittgenstein Nachlass)? Are the variations interesting? Is there a reading strategy you might recommend?
Well, Pike’s translations are curated, by themes, so that is one place to start. There are, indeed, some that consist of minor variations, but the Klagenfurter Ausgabe, if you can get a hold of it (many university libraries have the CD-ROM) has helpful annotations and direction about what the various versions might contain. However, for a full exegesis of the Nachlass you can go to Walter Fanta’s book: Die Entstehungsgeschichte des Mannes Ohne Eigenschaften. Fanta knows the Nachlass like no other. Personally, I read large chunks of it in German first, in the Frise edited Rowohlt’s, that are arranged quite differently from the Pike (can’t quite remember how now, but there are intense controversies over which is more correct). For me, the Nachlass material is some of the most wonderful writing ever (not only of Musil, but ever). The Musil-Online is edited by Fanta, so the annotations there should help you, even if you don’t get his book. Hope this very vague and non-linear answer helps. Enjoy!
Thanks so much, that is tremendously helpful! I may be in touch in future with more questions.
Omg the twin Pierrot outfits
Preemptively liking this based on the first two sections because I'm going to read TMWQ imminently and don't want to spoil what I'm sure will be a delicious experience, but if this doesn't make one want to read Musil, I don't know what will.
I did not read the entire piece because I don't want to know too much about the book before I read it, but I read enough to make me very excited to do so immediately. I had just finished Confessions of Zeno and started reading Bouvard and Pécuchet last night before going to sleep, but you have convinced me that it is finally Musil time. I'll return to your piece once I've taken a good bite out of the book.
A really riotous and righteous romp, Harold, filled with truly illuminating connections, close-readings and cultural and biographical echoes and interpretations, and, most splendidly, the joy, humor, and humanism of the book! Thanks so much for writing and sharing. I will share with our reading group, too.
Probably your best post H-bomb!
Excellent. I listened to the podcast with you and Sean talking about this, and it was quite uplifting to hear you say “there’s so much going on in this book!” I listened to some old British folks talking about this book and they kept saying “nothing happens.” That’s such a misleading statement. I mean, sure, there’s no grand scene of Ulrich fighting a dragon, but I’d say that a LOT happens. Maybe it’s happening in characters’ thoughts or dialogue, but it’s still happening. I’m in the middle of my first re-read of it, and it truly is great. Really appreciate your essay.
Thanks for reading, Harold! I hate the “nothing happens” mode of criticism! Why are there so many pages then?! SOMETHING must be going on!!