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A review by blueyorkie
O Homem Sem Qualidades by Robert Musil
3.0
Often classified among the major works of the 20th century, I have sometimes been tired of it. But of what, then? How can such a book (and let's say "volume 1"), which by far condenses the questions and the potentialities, the contradictions and the fears of the beginning of the 20th century, be boring? And indeed, after almost 1000 pages of intellectual dithering, we are flushed. We talk about progress, feelings, Ideas, the meaning of life or the sense of humanity, to mention only that.
The writing of the Man without Quality was perhaps the way for Robert Musil to put on paper, by making it unalterable, the result of his reflections, to try to understand in what state of mind this part of Europe on the eve of the catastrophe we know: the First World War.
Even if the geopolitical situation had not deepened in the book, we understand the stakes of this "Parallel action" for the "Austrian patriots" unable to define their own identity in this Austro-Hungarian empire stuck between the German Empire and the Slavic countries of south-eastern Europe.
The main character, who so far enjoyed modest success in his career, is at the centre of the action of the work. This man without quality had not so deprived of it, but he does not know how to define himself. The author uses this vagueness to embody his thoughts and communicate his questions to us. Conversely, Dr Harneim seems to represent a man who has all the qualities, a man who does not stay on the "average" and has the answer to everything. We get the impression that this man knows everything. But in the end, he recognizes that we cannot know everything to know everything; the truth is specific to everyone, according to their values, culture, and their history.
And it is the fight, intellectual, of the main character to make this fact, that all that we do, all that we believe, depends on our mechanisms of thought, that it does not there is no single truth. So, finally, it could apply this well-known maxim of Socrates: "All I know is that I know nothing".
The writing of the Man without Quality was perhaps the way for Robert Musil to put on paper, by making it unalterable, the result of his reflections, to try to understand in what state of mind this part of Europe on the eve of the catastrophe we know: the First World War.
Even if the geopolitical situation had not deepened in the book, we understand the stakes of this "Parallel action" for the "Austrian patriots" unable to define their own identity in this Austro-Hungarian empire stuck between the German Empire and the Slavic countries of south-eastern Europe.
The main character, who so far enjoyed modest success in his career, is at the centre of the action of the work. This man without quality had not so deprived of it, but he does not know how to define himself. The author uses this vagueness to embody his thoughts and communicate his questions to us. Conversely, Dr Harneim seems to represent a man who has all the qualities, a man who does not stay on the "average" and has the answer to everything. We get the impression that this man knows everything. But in the end, he recognizes that we cannot know everything to know everything; the truth is specific to everyone, according to their values, culture, and their history.
And it is the fight, intellectual, of the main character to make this fact, that all that we do, all that we believe, depends on our mechanisms of thought, that it does not there is no single truth. So, finally, it could apply this well-known maxim of Socrates: "All I know is that I know nothing".