We haven't seen a lot of action lately, but chapter 40 is, I have to say, decidedly action-packed. Ulrich does not stop ruminating on "qualities" (I doubt he ever will!) - that he is made up of qualities that are not really his own. Ulrich is a character that is revealed in a gradually more and more unsympathetic light. "With a certain passage of time, a certain inclination toward the negative has developed in him, a flexible dialectic of feeling that easily leads him to discover a flaw in something widely approved of or, conversely, to defend the forbidden and to refute responsibilities with a resentment that springs from the desire to create his own responsibilities." But what does all this result in? A conventional life, that some take to be self-indulgence. But Ulrich considers his life project as a struggle against himself - against every inclination, quality - toward Greatness.
After this follows a lengthy exposition on the theme "Geist". "Mind and spirit, in combination with a numinous other something, is the most ubiquitous thing there is." But what is Geist (spirit) anyway? If it is ubiquitous, where is it to be found? Who has it? "What can we do with all this spirit?" Sure, I experience this discussion about Geist as immensly antiquarian. (Or let's say I'm not that big a Hegel reader yet) The "Geist" Ulrich is talking about seems to take the shape of something absolute, but from the perspective of history there is only a seemingly endless multitude of values, goals, etc. "Geist" is here something fleeting and tansient. And maybe that's why Ulrich has become more and more suspicious of "mind", a nauseating, dissecting, ruthless gaze for which nothing is fixed and everything is contingent. "And so the mind or spirit is the great opportunist, itself impossible to pin down, take hold of, anywhere, one is tempted to believe that of all its influence nothing is left but decay." But this is clearly Ulrich's own concept of "mind" and "spirit" and not the one that Leinsdorf, for example, would subscribe to. But I guess, once again, that Musil intends to show that a certain version of "rationalism" and a certain version of "spiritualism" (or whatever one should call it) boils down to one thing: opportunism.
Amidst all this, Ulrich suddenly bursts out: "I simply don't love myself." And a while later, Musil talks about a second, despairing Ulrich; an Ulrich with no words at his disposal; an Ulrich that is still able to feel pain and rage.
Ulrich's experience of the world is that it has dissolved into specialized knowledge and that each of us is hopelessly thrown back to our small guild. "Mind" and "spirit" are everywhere - and nowhere. And the political implication of this is that it does not make much difference whether we are governed by philosopher-kings or selfish politicians. In both cases, there is no room for serious reflection on the part of the "ordinary citizen". The next scene exemplifies Ulrich's "negative tendency". A humble worker has had one drink too many and is now having a small outburst provoked by two gentlemen who are praising the patriotic campaign. A few police officers show up and arrest the worker. With a few dry remarks, Musil makes it clear that it is the sneaky power of the state that transforms a slightly inebriated worker into a political Activist. Ulrich, who cannot resist the temptation of criticizing the conventional, tells the police officers that they should release the man - after all, he's just a weeny bit drunk. The police officers did not appreciate his intervation. And Ulrich, in turn, was apalled by the barking police officers: "Ulrich was unaccustomed to regarding the state as other than a hotel in which one was entitled to polite service..."
Ulrich is dragged off to the police station. In a superb way, Musil disentangles Austro-hungarian bureaucratic monstrosities. Ulrich, for his part, may be alienated for himself, but the State does not care: he has to give them his name, adress and his occupation. A statistical demystification of his person. Ulrich is a good catch. Who would have the authority to announce his innocence, anyway? But one thing miraculously saves Ulrich. The police commissioner himself has heard about Ulrich from Leinsdorf, and as it happens, Ulrich's case reach the ears of the commissioner. Ulrich can hardly be locked up, as Leinsdorf has decided to appoint Ulrich the secretary of the Parallel campaign!
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