Who has read this

The Man Without Qualities
Robert Musil

Did you like the book
What did you think about the book
What are the major themes?

>these broadstroke questions
>OP doesn't give his own thoughts
I'm not helping you write an essay for your high school English class.
Also OP did you even read the book?

Veeky Forums doesn't read Musil because too busy reading memes

ONLY AVAILABLE VERSION IS SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS WHY THE FUCK DO PUBLISHERS DO THIS REEEEEEEE

>reading a 1000+ page unfinished novel

You’ve only got one life. Read Törless and draw a line under Musil.

This isn't taught in hs English lol. I'm asking bc several people I respect say it's one of their favorite books and I want some opinions as to why that might be the case.

Then read the fucking book. You're out here just trying to posture for pseud cred.
>is X considered high-brow lit b/c if not I don't want to waste my time
Kys. Read a book and form your own opinion. Then discuss it with others who have read to challenge your own opinion. Don't just do what others fucking tell you.

There should be a new version by New Directions IIRC that's the full volume. Thinking about picking it up.

Yea, disgusting anglo but I can't find it in French either

>this much projection

Törleß isnt that good desu, he wrote it when he was like in his 20s, if you judge Musil after that you are retarded

>Did you like the book
yes
>What did you think about the book
well, I thought Musil created quite an extraordinary web of ideas that is woven throughout the whole novel. Sometimes reads more than a work of philosophy than an acutal novel. Some of the characters are really fun and interesting. I liked the first part more than the second (I think the section he spends with his sis is the weakest part of the book)

>What are the major themes?
holy, I'm not even trying to summarize a 1k+pages book, but the main theme of the book are the problems of modernity, that, I'd argue, are still very much relevant today. It deals with questions like; individual vs. society, identity, moral relativism, the nature of morality in the modern (i.e. secular, "enlightend") world, the nature objective/subjective truth, ideal vs. materialism, the effects of the scientific disenchantment, the effects of burocracy&capitalism, soul vs body, reason vs. emotions, progress and degeneration, the impossibilty to find *new* ideas, even metaphysical questions like the nature of reality itself and many more

>implying books have to be finished to be good.

Plebbistine.

For something that's around 2000 pages long it was a surprisingly engaging read. Felt like a hipster's Magic Mountain, even though it's a thinly veiled philosophical tract.
Also by the time Ulrich starts romancing his own sister, it's almost as if it's a completely different book.

Arnheim best character

>projection
Sorry kiddo, but I've never made a thread on Veeky Forums asking if a book is good, or for someone to explain the book to me without offering my interpretation first.

Musil >>>> Mann

Both men admitted so themselves, lol.

I think funnily enough Moosbrugger was my fav character, even tho, he had probably the least chapters, but you always felt his presence, he was like a prism through which so many ideas were passed / bounced of

sometimes you'll be browsing porn and see a good video that reminds you of a certain actress and so you'll spend the next hour looking for that actress by visiting all the websites and doing all the planetsuzy and indexxx searches you can remember about her based on her vague and limited filmography and along the way you'll see other videos that were hotter than you remember so you click on those too, and a few hours later you finally find her but by that time your balls are so blue and tired that you can't even maintain a chubby for two minutes so you watch the entire video out of obligation to your efforts, then close your browser and go have a 30-second limp-dick fap, don't even bother to clean up the mess and just go straight to sleep.

that was my experience of MWQ--one giant delayed orgasm that in the end killed its own hype in a fizzling mess

Jfc... get out of here.

I enjoyed this

Very big of Musil to admit this

Truth only.

I'm about halfway through.

Good shit, but it's not rlly a philosophical tract like some say. Musil talks shit on philosophy inside it pretty often actually. It's much more essayistic. Like, weaving through ideas without much care for the cohesion of the whole.

It seems a bit of an elegy for the pre-WW1 world. It embodies old middle-europe idealism, whilst simultaneously a satire of it.

Apart from Torless and Man Without Qualities, what Musil can we read in English? I've only read Torless - sublime novel, anyone who feels intimidated by Qualities' size ought to read it.

On the note of 'an elegy for the pre-WW1 world', apparently Musil and Mann both disliked or disregarded Stefan Zweig.

none of those people have actually finished it
the work itself is unfinished (a bunch of random chapters towards the end) and is close to 1800 pages unabridged.
your friends are sad posers.

Did he have the hots for his sister?

Was he a gay?

It’s not gay if it’s at an all-boys boarding school

read closer, I'd say there is a pretty astounding cohesion between all the ''random'' ideas