In conclusion, I'm good. R & I talk about strange encounters and eerie non-encounters. We sit down at Proffa, a student hang-out close to my house. Proffa treats us with Don Henley's velveteen croon and also with a bustling crowd of chess-players. The reading for today included a description of the sensualism of Bonadea, Ulrich's married girlfriend who despises her husband. Contempt is the order of the day. Ulrich despises himself for failing to be a great man and he despises his friend Walter for failing to be a great man. He is a dilettante. Walter dabbles with art, but as of late he is so disencouraged by the futile results of his thrivings that he shuts himself in at home, playing Wagner (whom his wife hates because Wagner epitomizes how Walter has changed). I come to think of the double sense of "dilettante". On the one hand, a person not formally schooled in something may be called a dilettante. But often it is used pejoratively, of persons who dabble with something pretending to do it in earnest, but lacking both talent and persistence. The dilettante is an idle admirer, often a know-it-all who brags about his insights. Dilettantism is Ulrich's worst nightmare, a picture constantly hovering over him. He must find a path on which his talents will be put to use. Ulrich doesn't want to be a superficial. But his worries about being just that makes him superficial, a person never satisfied with himself, others figuring in his life merely as props for his self-esteem. Ulrich is a child of his times. Musil describes the change in how the concept of genius is used. Nowadays, he writes, it is used about sportsmen and racing horses. Genius has become a neutral concept depicting skills that can be used for moral or immoral purposes. That genius is ascribed even to horses makes Ulrich understand something. He starts to be suspicious of mathematics, its concept of reason. Will Ulrich get softhearted? We'll see.
11 January 2009
An orderly update on Musil
.... In my not so orderly life. R & I go for pizza. I have a hangover to cure. A bad one. You don't even want to know (neither do I). I've been acting cartoonish. While Ulrich fails at becoming a great man, I an doing fine in my own pursuits which involve emulating film heroes like Nick Nolte and Mickey Rourke. Here's a picture of me:
In conclusion, I'm good. R & I talk about strange encounters and eerie non-encounters. We sit down at Proffa, a student hang-out close to my house. Proffa treats us with Don Henley's velveteen croon and also with a bustling crowd of chess-players. The reading for today included a description of the sensualism of Bonadea, Ulrich's married girlfriend who despises her husband. Contempt is the order of the day. Ulrich despises himself for failing to be a great man and he despises his friend Walter for failing to be a great man. He is a dilettante. Walter dabbles with art, but as of late he is so disencouraged by the futile results of his thrivings that he shuts himself in at home, playing Wagner (whom his wife hates because Wagner epitomizes how Walter has changed). I come to think of the double sense of "dilettante". On the one hand, a person not formally schooled in something may be called a dilettante. But often it is used pejoratively, of persons who dabble with something pretending to do it in earnest, but lacking both talent and persistence. The dilettante is an idle admirer, often a know-it-all who brags about his insights. Dilettantism is Ulrich's worst nightmare, a picture constantly hovering over him. He must find a path on which his talents will be put to use. Ulrich doesn't want to be a superficial. But his worries about being just that makes him superficial, a person never satisfied with himself, others figuring in his life merely as props for his self-esteem. Ulrich is a child of his times. Musil describes the change in how the concept of genius is used. Nowadays, he writes, it is used about sportsmen and racing horses. Genius has become a neutral concept depicting skills that can be used for moral or immoral purposes. That genius is ascribed even to horses makes Ulrich understand something. He starts to be suspicious of mathematics, its concept of reason. Will Ulrich get softhearted? We'll see.
In conclusion, I'm good. R & I talk about strange encounters and eerie non-encounters. We sit down at Proffa, a student hang-out close to my house. Proffa treats us with Don Henley's velveteen croon and also with a bustling crowd of chess-players. The reading for today included a description of the sensualism of Bonadea, Ulrich's married girlfriend who despises her husband. Contempt is the order of the day. Ulrich despises himself for failing to be a great man and he despises his friend Walter for failing to be a great man. He is a dilettante. Walter dabbles with art, but as of late he is so disencouraged by the futile results of his thrivings that he shuts himself in at home, playing Wagner (whom his wife hates because Wagner epitomizes how Walter has changed). I come to think of the double sense of "dilettante". On the one hand, a person not formally schooled in something may be called a dilettante. But often it is used pejoratively, of persons who dabble with something pretending to do it in earnest, but lacking both talent and persistence. The dilettante is an idle admirer, often a know-it-all who brags about his insights. Dilettantism is Ulrich's worst nightmare, a picture constantly hovering over him. He must find a path on which his talents will be put to use. Ulrich doesn't want to be a superficial. But his worries about being just that makes him superficial, a person never satisfied with himself, others figuring in his life merely as props for his self-esteem. Ulrich is a child of his times. Musil describes the change in how the concept of genius is used. Nowadays, he writes, it is used about sportsmen and racing horses. Genius has become a neutral concept depicting skills that can be used for moral or immoral purposes. That genius is ascribed even to horses makes Ulrich understand something. He starts to be suspicious of mathematics, its concept of reason. Will Ulrich get softhearted? We'll see.
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1 comment:
No, he won´t.
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