More Musil

"The prevailing system was that of reality, and it was just like a bad play. It's not for nothing that we speak of a 'theatre of world events' - the same roles, complications, and plots keep turning up in life. People make love because there is love to be made, and they do it in the prevailing mode; people are proud as the Noble Savage, or as a Spaniard, a virgin, or a lion; in ninety out of a hundred cases even murder is committed only because it is perceived as tragic or grandiose. [...] Seen in this light, history arises out of routine ideas, out of indifference to ideas, so that reality comes primarily of nothing being done for ideas."

Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities p395.

It appears that what is at stake here is one's self-understanding. We are limited in what we do not so much by the fact that an outcome is conceivable or not, but by whether it is comprehensible. The true value of art, literature and avant-garde cinema can only be seen in this light. When one cultivates more subtle or nuanced ways of perceiving oneself, the possibilities for action - that is, our potential - begin to broaden.

The essay

"The accepted translation of 'essay' as 'attempt' contains only vaguely the essential allusion to the literary model, for an essay is not a provisional or incidental expression of a conviction capable of being elevated to a truth under more favourable circumstances or of being exposed as an error (the only ones of that kind are those articles or treatises, chips from the scholar's workbench, with which the learned entertain their special public); an essay is rather the unique and unalterable form assumed by a man's inner life in a decisive thought.
[...]
There have been more than a few such essayists, masters of the inner hovering life, but there would be no point in naming them. Their domain lies between religion and knowledge, between example and doctrine, between amor intellectualis and poetry; they are saints with and without religion, and sometimes they are also simply men on an adventure who have gone astray."

Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities p273.

'Eloge de l'amour': analytic professor finally writes Hollywood remake

A world first: screenplay published exclusively on facebook!

Respected academic: "Perfect!!! Sleepily leaving for airport: "tomorrow, tomorrow, i love ya - tomorrow, you're only a day away"!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Nubile young student: "Did you know that they make Belgian chocolates in Belgium? xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

[...]

Academic: "Great news darling. I'm promoted to improvers spelling. There's a course up in York this weekend and apparently the teacher's a real babe. They also do a basic arithmetic class to help with things like counting letters in names: e.g. bill and mark each have four! I'm almost on my way!!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

Student: "Hope your meeting goes well darling and thanks for calling just now. Have a great meal tonight with Jez and i'll see you as soon as I possibly can!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Academic: "Thanks lovely, it went well, although the usual hot air balloon was working overtime. Do let me know when you know when you'll be heading south. I'm SO looking forward to seeing you!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

Horse trouble

"Apropos of the bicycle: 'Actually one should not deceive oneself about the real purpose of the fashionable new mount, which a poet the other day referred to as the horse of the Apocalypse'"

Walter Benjamin, citing L'Illustration in The Arcades Project p97.

"But just then Ulrich suddenly read somewhere, like a premonitory breath of ripening summer, the expression 'the racehorse of genius.' It stood in the report of a sensational racing success, and the author was probably not aware of the full magnitude of the inspiration his pen owed to the communal spirit. But Ulrich instantly grasped the fateful connection between his entire career and this genius among racehorses. For the horse has, of course, always been sacred to the cavalry, and as a youth Ulrich had hardly ever heard talk in barracks of anything but horses and women. He had fled from this to become a great man, only to find that when, as a result of his varied exertions he perhaps could have felt within reach of his goal, the horse had beaten him to it."

Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities p41-42.