Musil

Possibly the greatest in the limited but fascinating genre of the novel-as-an-excuse-to.expose-my-philosophical-thesis

My father had me read it when I was 16 and thought that I was hot shit. It was like a revelation

>>9445472
Was it the English translation?

>>9445480
The italian one by Anita Rho, Gabriella Benedetti and Laura Castoldi. I'll bump with more attention whoring since Musil threads are always hard to ignite.
I remember reading the first volume in about four months, and the second in five days. We went skiing with my friends and my girlfriend in the north of the country, and by the second day I had decided to stay indoor all day to read. It was almost like a rapture, I would finish a page, consider that I had understood almost nothing of the ideas exposed and I would get so excited to have found someone so unbelievably intelligent, in my eyes at the time, that I just wanted to read more and more. I remeber one night my friend were discussing some part of Plato we had done in school, and being shocked by the sudden of realization of how banal their discourse was compared to the character's. It made me want to start writing and It made me want to never try to write anything ever, at the same time. When I finished the novel and discovered that it wasn't complete I almost hated Musil. Looking back at it, it's probably the best ending it could have ever got.

Just finished book one a few weeks ago. Musil is fantastic. The depth of observation and introspection he pulls from what amounts to mundane social interactions is what's most striking about the work.

I'm not sure there's another book quite like it. The nearest I can find is possibly The Magic Mountain. It's Ulysses tier stuff. Not in terms of difficulty but depth.

>>9445540
Should substitute Gr in the meme trilogy

>>9445566
>translations
>in the meme trilogy

Musil has only recently been made available to the English language.
He is an author one could add to their collection of "unfinished masterpieces".
Some authors inspire you to read, others; not to.
Some authors quench a thirst, others satiate.
Musil clearly defines the obtuse, the opaque and the vague. He is one of few authors that require the reader to write a response, if only for their own benefit.

>>9445540
I just finished The Magic Mountain two months ago and i loved it. I felt it was one of those very few books that in my opinion deserve the title of masterwork and that's something i've only ever felt while reading Moby Dick, Ulysses, The Brothers Karamazov and maybe War and Peace.

So my question is: what makes you say the nearest i can find is the Magic Mountain?

Also could anyone give me a brief description of the main theme's of the book?

I have a 25 euro gift card from a great book store and i know they have it, so it's either going to be this or Don Quixote.

>>9445618
The magic mountain has a lot of intellectual debate between characters, I guess the similarity anon saw was based mostly around that. I'd say that they also share the same atmosphere of bored stillness. Something that's best summarized by the title of the first 500 pages: The same things return.

>>9445415
i am about halfway through and i think it is great. immense insight in the dialogue. especially nietzsche and dialectics

>>9445618
Haven't actually read it, but I think Hesse's The Glass Bead Game is another highly intellectual novel.

>>9445628
Loads of intellectual debate, similar atmosphere, 'the same things return'.. i'm sold.

I loved how the debate in Magic Mountain was handled, as it's importance and Hans' interest in it waned and in the end showed how useless the lifes of Settembrini and Naptha were and how their entire ay of living is just thrown out the window with the start of you-know-which-4-years

>>9445573
>translations
>english is the only language you can read in

>>9445618
You've already read Don Quixote.
You could pick it up for the first time, read the first sentence, and only be reminded of what it's all about (this goes for everyone).
Musil however will tell you something personal and intimate that you never would have guessed of yourself, in such a clear way that you'll look to see if someone is behind you.

>>9445661
I'd guess over 99% of this board is in English. Would make no sense to have non-English language books in its meme trilogy unless those translations were great works in their own right.

>>9445664
That sounds promising at least.

Can anyone tell me something more about the themes?

>>9445705
Decadence of the austro-hungarian empire.
The problem of human unhapiness
Incest
Metaphysics
That's about it I think.
It's basically early 20th century elitism on steroid. Or what the nausea would have been if sartre had the personality of kant.

>>9445415

This is an amazing book in both english and german.

>>9445573
If the artistic merit of a book isn't enhanced through the translation to English then it was a shit book to begin with

literally every page made me think about something in a new way

fuck it's good

>>9445618
Magic Mountain and Musil cover a lot of the same philosophical ground. Both are books of ideas written around the same time and in the closing years before the Great War.

I read both with a mind towards finding parallels to our own era. Both books gave me a lot of ideas to chew on. Settembrini and Naphtha's arguments framed the many of the current themes between the progressive left and reactionary right.

Likewise, many of those same themes come up between Ulrich and his back/forth with the Viennese high society. The parallel campaign could exist now just as much as in 1913.

File: 02tynecot08.jpg (127KB, 800x600px) Image search: [Google]

127KB, 800x600px

>>9445716
>>9445744
Thanks, i'm looking forward to reading it now.

I loved the way the Magic Mountain handeld the theme of early 20th century elitism/decadence.

Living in area filled with WWI graveyards the last chapter really got to me. I'll be thinking of Hans and the time period he was born in next time i see the rows of white stones in the fields.

I've listened to Der Lindenbaum about 80 times since finishing Magic Mountain, i genuinely hope Musil manages to move me in a similar way.

Pic related is a 15min drive from my house.

Cool -- glad to help. I live about 20 minutes away from the Italian front in northern Italy. Thinking about taking a trip up to Davos to stay a few nights at the sanitorium that served as inspiration.

Check out the film Youth by Sorrentino for a modern take on Mann's work. Part of it was filmed there.

>>9445819
Also check out Sleepwalkers by Herman Broch. It's another novel in the vein of the above. My copy arrived this week and I'm eager to crack the spine.

>>9445819
I saw it, it was nice in it's own right. The part with Paul Dano testing his outfit was great tho.

Masterpiece.

Good, but it also gets boring and dry as fuck in some parts.
>inb4 pleb
Yeah okay I get it

>>9445472
you have a cool Dad

>>9446413
Nah, he also molested me.

>>9446416
even better