Genese Grill

Full reading and meeting schedule for our year-long exploration of Musil's The Man Without Qualities.

The Man Without Qualities apropos of upcoming reading group with Samantha Rose Hill

What is this book, The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil? And why might you want to spend a year reading it with me and @samantharhill.bsky.social ?
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Sorry, have not been here for awhile.Every other Monday night at 5 pm EDT but with breaks in January and August, a chat board and some text and videos in between meetings.

There are always different elements that a given translator has to choose from. One can't always do everything at once. One can rarely ever do everything at once. So, I am sure there are very good reasons to favor either one, except that the earlier one lacks the vital Nachlass portions!

Thank you for sharing. That the person said that his or her opinion was a "fact" that could be verified on the internet makes me wonder. Evaluations of different translations can rarely be based on facts. Another thing about the Pike-Wilkins translation: Pike was very focused on tempo and rhythm.

3. They normalize not only his morality but his syntax, making him more traditional than he was.
4. Perhaps this tendency to normalization is why they did not touch the Nachlass: its language is particularly open and experimental, & it contains some scenes of which they would've dissapproved.

I totally forgot mastadon. Sure there are some witty word choices in Kaiser-Wilkins--I've looked at passages of it that are excellent. But 1) they don't include the Nachlass pages (about 600 in the later edition) & 2) they tend to moralize Musil, making word choices that diminish his nuance.
1/2

In English, Pike and Wilkins translation, but I think some people might read along auf Deutsch!

11 AM!? Lunchtime?

11 PM your time, I think? 5 pm EDT, every other Monday, with breaks for holidays, etc.

Grand! Sorry the time will be so late for you, but maybe that works best with your busy schedule!?

Oh, Suat! That would be wonderful, to get to hear your insights and spend time with you regularly!

Telling My Lost Child the Story of His Life - Electric Literature An excerpt from THE ORANGE NOTEBOOKS by Susanna Crossman, recommended by Rachel Cantor

This, by @susannacrossman.bsky.social , is sure to be marvelous!
electricliterature.com/the-orange-n...

Man Without Qualities Reading Group Starting October 13th

I am co-leading a year-long Man Without Qualities Reading Group with @samantharhill.bsky.social , starting on Monday, October 13th. Join us! Details can be found here:
genesegrill.substack.com/p/man-withou...

Aristotle and Plato are One!
Aesthetics and Ethics are One!
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Return to the Beginning Some notes from my first forays into writing Musil's biography

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Unanswer{able}ed Questions? I had a wonderful conversation with the first reader of my biography book draft last night.

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Danke für die schöne Übersetzung!

Happy Bloomsday to you then! As you may know, I think the latter parts of Musil's book, the so-called Nachlass, the most wonderful of all (and so did he).

Danke! I did see it recently, finally! And enjoyed it quite a bit.

Excerpts from Burton Pike's Musil Notes "...looking for a place the individual can fit in in a deadened, shallow world."

"What M[usil] is always about, why he haunts: looking for a place the individual can fit in in a deadened, shallow world. .. cf. Rilke, the goal of art is to produce in reader a moral imperative to change his life."

genesegrill.substack.com/p/excerpts-f...

Yes, such a beautiful, rich, wide-ranging and important essay. Thank you, Gabe.

How it's going Dispatch from the Writing Trenches

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"Susanna's Second Letter (Our Men)" A piece of Musil's small prose from Thought Flights

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Some Notes on Musil and Rilke "This gemlike stillness amid a never-halting movement"

Some Notes on Musil and Rilke
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The New Human Being? Activists, Anarchists, Nihilists, Aesthetes: Musil and post WWI dreams of a New World

Sharing a draft I'm struggling to weave in to the biography narrative on Musil's take on the "new human being" and attempts to create a new world after WWI: activism, anarchism, aesthetic edcucation, ethics, socialism, totalitarianisms.
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

I had the pleasure of interviewing David Lazar about his new book for On the Seawall:
www.ronslate.com/the-natural-...

"Musil's Political Discontent" Listen now | From Klaus Amann's introduction to Literature and Politics

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"Susanna's Letter" Small Prose from Thought Flights

A podcast of me reading Musil's "Susanna's Letter" from Thought Flights. More to come.
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