While living in Vienna on the Rasumofskygasse, the Musils were surrounded by little castles, the Rasumofskygasse Palais across from the entrance to their apartment, and the Palais Salm, which Musil could see when he looked down from his study window.
I wish I could visit the house! Loved the way it was described.
Btw, I finished the book last night, and I have so many questions—what happened to Ulrich and Agarthe? To Ultich and Deotima, and what of the General? Was Gen Strumm playing Ulrich to get the parallel campaign to do his bid? And of course—I want to know about Bonadea….and of course, Moosebrugger. As lonnnggg as it was, I didn’t want it to end—at least not yet!
Also, I haven’t read Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain—now I’m curious about these inter-war writers and their obsession with morals and morality! As I write this, I’m realizing Hemingway is also of that period, but his style is not my favorite.
Anyway, I’m so curious with this work—anything you can share about the plot that didn’t make it because, well, because the work isn’t finished. I’ll appreciate:)
Oh, my! So expansive everything you say. See that’s why I’m already waiting for your book to come out. I love how our conversation (or rather what you tell me) feels like I’m continuing the reading of MWQs.
To be clear, yes I read the book with the posthumousl translation by Burton Pike—which, btw, I was thrown off a bit by this very fact because the structure was put in place by someone other than the author—and it was a really strange experience, I must say. It made me think of countless things—like the flexibility of the form, and when the flexibility of creation ceses to exist! You know how when we write and something doesn’t work we simply change it by means of revisions, etc…anyway, I don’t want to get carried on this issue because it’s besides the point—yet, it’s a main feature of this book by its very explorative nature! Anyway, now you see why I’m eager to read yours.
Back to the text: I love that you have a clear idea about the plot development that sits like a ghost limb of possibility beyond what we read. The ideal-state of being you mention of Ulrich (and sister) is already placed on the last chapter—so, this makes sense. War, of course gains momentum (also planted in the text), but too slowly—so I can also see this. If I were Musil, I would split this book a la Don Quixote with things getting worse in the outside world while the fictional inner life of the twins would get more and more ideal and blissful—and through this dichotomy show how realities split by way of choices—as Musil so well depicts external events vs inner existence. Yet, for this he’d need to move away from Ulrich hyper intellectualization and enter the life of the spirit—which he actually starts doing toward the end. Here Agarthe, who attended a religious school could be a driving force. Anyway, now I’m fantasizing, but the book provides a platform for creative daydreaming of potentiality.
Musil was very concerned with building a bridge, somehow, between the ecstatic otherworldly experience of the siblings and the outer world, with the question of how insight from the other condition could inform action in the normal world...his basic question: how to live in this new world of multiplicity and incompleteness....ethically, aesthetically, with a real sense of aliveness and meaning?
So while I like your Don Quixote concept, he was hoping to find a way, not to separate the two realms, but bridge them....?
What you say about the arrangement of the posthumous chapters is very important and has been a contested question ever since the German version of the unpublished material came out. The CD-Rom of Musil's complete writings and remains is strangely more fitting in its non-linearity and inter-textuality, than any bound version of the book.
Right!? Some chapters read like a well structured essay, and I thought these could be independent of the storyline. However as writer, I very much enjoyed his essay-style discussions about the nature of emotions, the emotional landscape which he calls states, and how he elaborates on the proximity of love and it's many sides, dimensions, and qualities. Half of me enjoyed the craft lesson on the cause-effect principles of affect as Ulrich interacted with the world. Indeed, it seemed to me he explores several facets of Eros, and does a great job making painstaking distinction between inclinations, likes, loves, and ecstacy--all shades of the Eros principle played at different levels like musical notes.
Whatever I can say, I feel the volume is supremely rich and expansive, an emotional tapestry as the characters react to their world's ethics and moral values--and these values bounce back to the characters innerscape filtered through their intellect with amazing vocal articulation. It's quite amazing what Musil was able to accomplish. I'll stop here because I'm afraid I can keep going.
Thanks again for your elucidation. Let us know when your book is out:)
When you say you finished, do you mean with the 2 volume Knopf edition including the posthumous papers? Or just the parts that were published during Musil's life? Not knowing this, I can't answer really. You must read the posthumous papers, translated by Burton Pike in the second part of the second Knopf edition. Even then, of course, there are endless questions. There are multiple versions of much of the material and
no one knows for sure exactly how Musil planned to end the book, except that it would end in mobilization for WWI (as Mann's Magic Mountain does), and with a last meeting of the Parallel Campaign....but the posthumous papers suggest that he planned to have Ulrich and Agathe experience the utopia of the other condition, which cannot be maintained, but is nevertheless eternal...it is a sort of "failure" but also not! And yes it seems that General Stumm, perhaps in cahoots with Arnheim, ends up providing the answer to the Parallel Campaign's question, with armaments and the war. There is a scene in the posthumous papers when Ulrich and Diotima sleep together....and there are scenes wherein Ulrich helps Moosbrugger escape, but he likely did not plan to use these Moosbrugger scenes afterall ...As to Bonadea, I don't think she gets too much more play in different scenes aside from the ones in part I.
My book about the book, The World as Metaphor in RMs The Man Without Qualities, goes into some of this, especially as regards Ulrich and Agathe's relationship and the inherent unfinishability of the book....but the most comprehensive analysis of the plot lines and their development is in Walter Fanta's book--in German-- Die Entstehungsgeschichte.... There is a chapter from it (or summary) in English in The Companion to the Works of Robert Musil (Camden House), which might be helpful.
I wish I could visit the house! Loved the way it was described.
Btw, I finished the book last night, and I have so many questions—what happened to Ulrich and Agarthe? To Ultich and Deotima, and what of the General? Was Gen Strumm playing Ulrich to get the parallel campaign to do his bid? And of course—I want to know about Bonadea….and of course, Moosebrugger. As lonnnggg as it was, I didn’t want it to end—at least not yet!
Also, I haven’t read Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain—now I’m curious about these inter-war writers and their obsession with morals and morality! As I write this, I’m realizing Hemingway is also of that period, but his style is not my favorite.
Anyway, I’m so curious with this work—anything you can share about the plot that didn’t make it because, well, because the work isn’t finished. I’ll appreciate:)
Oh, my! So expansive everything you say. See that’s why I’m already waiting for your book to come out. I love how our conversation (or rather what you tell me) feels like I’m continuing the reading of MWQs.
To be clear, yes I read the book with the posthumousl translation by Burton Pike—which, btw, I was thrown off a bit by this very fact because the structure was put in place by someone other than the author—and it was a really strange experience, I must say. It made me think of countless things—like the flexibility of the form, and when the flexibility of creation ceses to exist! You know how when we write and something doesn’t work we simply change it by means of revisions, etc…anyway, I don’t want to get carried on this issue because it’s besides the point—yet, it’s a main feature of this book by its very explorative nature! Anyway, now you see why I’m eager to read yours.
Back to the text: I love that you have a clear idea about the plot development that sits like a ghost limb of possibility beyond what we read. The ideal-state of being you mention of Ulrich (and sister) is already placed on the last chapter—so, this makes sense. War, of course gains momentum (also planted in the text), but too slowly—so I can also see this. If I were Musil, I would split this book a la Don Quixote with things getting worse in the outside world while the fictional inner life of the twins would get more and more ideal and blissful—and through this dichotomy show how realities split by way of choices—as Musil so well depicts external events vs inner existence. Yet, for this he’d need to move away from Ulrich hyper intellectualization and enter the life of the spirit—which he actually starts doing toward the end. Here Agarthe, who attended a religious school could be a driving force. Anyway, now I’m fantasizing, but the book provides a platform for creative daydreaming of potentiality.
Again, thanks for such insightful reply!
Thank you for the continuing conversation.
Musil was very concerned with building a bridge, somehow, between the ecstatic otherworldly experience of the siblings and the outer world, with the question of how insight from the other condition could inform action in the normal world...his basic question: how to live in this new world of multiplicity and incompleteness....ethically, aesthetically, with a real sense of aliveness and meaning?
So while I like your Don Quixote concept, he was hoping to find a way, not to separate the two realms, but bridge them....?
What you say about the arrangement of the posthumous chapters is very important and has been a contested question ever since the German version of the unpublished material came out. The CD-Rom of Musil's complete writings and remains is strangely more fitting in its non-linearity and inter-textuality, than any bound version of the book.
Right!? Some chapters read like a well structured essay, and I thought these could be independent of the storyline. However as writer, I very much enjoyed his essay-style discussions about the nature of emotions, the emotional landscape which he calls states, and how he elaborates on the proximity of love and it's many sides, dimensions, and qualities. Half of me enjoyed the craft lesson on the cause-effect principles of affect as Ulrich interacted with the world. Indeed, it seemed to me he explores several facets of Eros, and does a great job making painstaking distinction between inclinations, likes, loves, and ecstacy--all shades of the Eros principle played at different levels like musical notes.
Whatever I can say, I feel the volume is supremely rich and expansive, an emotional tapestry as the characters react to their world's ethics and moral values--and these values bounce back to the characters innerscape filtered through their intellect with amazing vocal articulation. It's quite amazing what Musil was able to accomplish. I'll stop here because I'm afraid I can keep going.
Thanks again for your elucidation. Let us know when your book is out:)
When you say you finished, do you mean with the 2 volume Knopf edition including the posthumous papers? Or just the parts that were published during Musil's life? Not knowing this, I can't answer really. You must read the posthumous papers, translated by Burton Pike in the second part of the second Knopf edition. Even then, of course, there are endless questions. There are multiple versions of much of the material and
no one knows for sure exactly how Musil planned to end the book, except that it would end in mobilization for WWI (as Mann's Magic Mountain does), and with a last meeting of the Parallel Campaign....but the posthumous papers suggest that he planned to have Ulrich and Agathe experience the utopia of the other condition, which cannot be maintained, but is nevertheless eternal...it is a sort of "failure" but also not! And yes it seems that General Stumm, perhaps in cahoots with Arnheim, ends up providing the answer to the Parallel Campaign's question, with armaments and the war. There is a scene in the posthumous papers when Ulrich and Diotima sleep together....and there are scenes wherein Ulrich helps Moosbrugger escape, but he likely did not plan to use these Moosbrugger scenes afterall ...As to Bonadea, I don't think she gets too much more play in different scenes aside from the ones in part I.
My book about the book, The World as Metaphor in RMs The Man Without Qualities, goes into some of this, especially as regards Ulrich and Agathe's relationship and the inherent unfinishability of the book....but the most comprehensive analysis of the plot lines and their development is in Walter Fanta's book--in German-- Die Entstehungsgeschichte.... There is a chapter from it (or summary) in English in The Companion to the Works of Robert Musil (Camden House), which might be helpful.