Let's dispel this fiction once and for all that Robert Musil doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing; He knows exactly what he's doing. He was a meme author, and had no discernible talent. He was shitposting, and is literally genre tier fiction. clearly a juvenile author.
it's true, you know.
Well he didn't know what he was doing with Man w/o since it's unfinished. He didn't know how to finish it. He's not any of those things but I don't think he's particularly good. He doesn't know what he's doing, he's just stringing along random little tidbits of philosophy in an attempt at something grand but failing.
>>7693573
i couldnt get past the first 100 pages. the shit was so fucking boring.
i actually enjoyed mwoq. it's extremely dry, but funny and compelling. i did read it in three separate sessions though, and didn't bother with the scraps at the end.
plus it's titillatingly incestual for much of the second volume.
>>7693635
>cousin love
>titillating incest
plen
I never got why people don't write their endings first. Maybe if you know how it's going to end you won't have to spend years writing a 1700 page thing that goes nowhere slowly to the point where you die before finishing it.
>>7693645
ok obviously you didn't read the fucking thing, he moves in with his sister
>>7693265
hi rubio musil
>>7693265
Musil wrote Young Torless and Five Women, right?
I enjoyed those two a lot. I couldn't give a shit about MWOQ though, dropped it a few pages in.
I really felt bad not enjoying musil. it just seemed like too much exposition. I remember reading about 30 or so pages, then having something pop in my head, then flip through a few pages, then noticed that it was all exposition, flipping through pages at random, all exposition, until one scene, he lays on some grass.. oh wait, no, more talking. I might be a pleb for wanting a bit of fucking action. So be it.
is there anyone who actually did like this book?
>>7693930
me. i liked it. you just have to acclimate to Musil's style -- it's more dry than Kafka's but similar in the way that you always feel like something is going to happen, eventually Musil will make something happen, but nothing really does.
his philosophical tangents are usually pretty slippery too, so that in the process of trying to make sense of Musil's ideas you think of one or two of your own. free ideas!
it is fun, but it takes a little while to break into. the parts with Moosbrugger tend to be the most active plot-wise.
i say give it a go. you know how plebs be on /lit/, they all left this thread to go shit on Joyce in the other
>>7693930
Me.
t. future Musil scholar (if i can finish this dissertation)
>>7694076
I think it's just that I'm not really in the mood for a novel of ideas at this time of my life. I want action, adventure, comedy, excitement, spanish names! god i'm such a pleb.
>>7694113
Try something like the Hundred Years of Solitude. That sounds like what you are looking for.
>>7694146
i meant something more like Don Quixote, but i've already read most of Hundred Years. I'm not sure why I never finished it. Have you ever heard of a Manuscript Found in Saragossa? or Felipe Alfau? Felipe Alfau is one of those forgotten geniuses.
>>7694188
Yeah, I guess it's not for everyone. I thought it was comfy af, read it some years ago though. Need to find it and read it again.
I had heard about the Manuscript Found in Saragossa, is it any good? I'm very interested in these kind of meta-tales and illusionary tales where reality is not taken to be as you except it.
I haven't read anything in quite the same vein as Don Quixote for a while so I cannot help you with that but I have been reading The Magus for the last couple of months, it has a kind of similarity of illusions and you could expect from Don Quixote but in a more modern setting and less light hearted way.
>>7694211
Saragossa starts off so strong, it's really quite good, then it tapers off as the story within a story framework sort of loses its luster. aside from that, it's an amalgam of inspiration, there really is a lot to it, and it's fascinating if for no other reason than its influences. When it comes to Don Quixote, i've pretty much given up on finding anything truly similar. it's pretty much on its own.
>>7694243
Thanks, sounds interesting will check it out.
