Every page is full of ideas on many philosophical subjects and levels of abstraction. The core theme is the exploration of the conflict between thinking and feeling, between rational and irrational, between letting emotions guide us and having strict rational control over our lives. Also this book is very sexy, funny, heartwarming, exciting and relatable. I wish it didn't end so soon. ( )

El hombre sin atributos fue escrita entre 1930 y 1942 y quedó interrumpida por la muerte del autor. Los actores principales de esta tragicomedia monumental son: Ulrich, el hombre sin atributos, el matemático idealista, el sarcástico espectador; Leona y Bonadea, las dos amadas del matemático, desbancadas por Diotima, cerebro dirigente de la «Acción Paralela» y mujer cuya estupidez sólo es comparable a su hermosura; y Arnheim, el hombre con atributos, un millonario prusiano cuya conversación fluctúa entre las modernas técnicas de la inseminación artificial y las tallas medievales búlgaras.

Lo siento, sé que este es uno de esos clásicos de la literatura universal que hay-que-leer, que exige mucho al lector, que no debe tomarse exactamente como una novela y todo eso. Pero a mí sencillamente me ha parecido un ladrillo. Y lo proclamo después de haber leído y disfrutado de Proust, del "Ulises" y de "La montaña mágica". Podría decir que apenas hay trama, que los personajes son estáticos (y además casi incomprensibles), que no hay ambientes, ni siquiera escenarios, y seguramente más de uno (si es que alguien lee estas reseñas) se sonreiría benévolamente: ¡Qué se puede esperar de alguien que lee solo por placer! ¡Gente incapaz de elevarse a las olímpicas alturas de la sabiduría profunda, reservada solo a los elegidos! Pues puede que sí, pero en las casi mil ochocientas páginas (que se dice pronto, creo que es el libro más gordo que me he leído) solo he visto una sucesión de pajas mentales, con frecuencia incoherentes e incomprensibles. Pero es que, cuando he llegado a entender algo, solo he encontrado tonterías. A lo mejor la grandeza de pensamiento está justo en lo que mi mente simple no ha llegado a alcanzar. Pues quédense los de las alturas intelectuales en su Elíseo y a mí que me den cosas al alcance de los seres humanos. Y, en mi fuero interno, seguiré pensando que esto es una gran cagada.

Escribí lo anterior sin poder contenerme después de leer el primer tomo, que contiene una introducción y la primera parte. En el segundo tomo está la segunda parte (inconclusa) y los borradores en mayor o menor estado de elaboración de los capítulos posteriores, sin que se sepamos cómo quería Musil terminar esto. Bueno, pues me reafirmo en lo anterior. En la segunda parte aparece una hermana del protagonista y ambos hermanos inician una relación que, por mucho que se disfrace de intelectualidades, no es más que incestuosa. Aquí hay algunos episodios algo más claros y legibles, sobre todo al principio, pero enseguida volvemos a las divagaciones, a veces dialogadas y a veces no, y a las elucubraciones tan difíciles de seguir como frustrantes cuando se consiguen entender.

En su descargo añadiré que, en medio de tanta palabra, de vez en cuando sí he encontrado imágenes interesantes, como ráfagas de color en medio de un cuadro marrón (estoy pensando en Tàpies, otro que tal) y alguna que otra idea interesante. Pero se quedan como maderos flotando en el mar de pedantería y vacuidad que, afortunadamente, no he tenido que comprar sino que lo he sacado de la biblioteca. Eso sí, le he dedicado prácticamente un mes de lectura. ( )

I finished 2021 annual read for Reading 1001. It took me 11 months though I did finish on December 1st. I found this book difficult to engage and I generally read it at the end of each month if I finished other books more to my liking. This is a lot of philosophy with a bit of a story to it. I would classify it maybe as satire of political systems. It is also unfinished which I really dislike reading unfinished novels, often finished by family members. Its also called a modernist novel. From wiki; the plot often veers into allegorical digressions on a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. It has a particular concern with the values of truth and opinion and how society organizes ideas about life and society, though the book is well over a thousand pages long in its entirety, and so no one single theme dominates."
Here are my highlights;
1. We have gained in terms of reality and lost in terms of the dream
2. mathematics is the source of a wicked intellect that, while making man the lord of the earth, also makes him the slave of the machine.
3. he felt like some noxious little worm that was being attentively scrutinised by a large hen.
4. it could not ward off the realisation that in its main outlines life at such posts remains the life one has brought out from home with the rest of one’s luggage.
5. And as he advances through life, leaving behind him what he has lived through, a wall is formed by what is still to be lived and what has been lived, and in the end his path resembles that of a worm in the wood, which can twist any way it likes, even turning backwards, but always leaves an empty space behind it. And this dreadful feeling of a blind space, a space cut off behind all the fullness, this half that is always still lacking even although everything has become a whole, is what finally causes one to notice what one calls the soul.
6. In youth it is a distinct feeling of uncertainty, in everything one does, as to whether whatever it is is really the right thing. In old age it is amazement at how little one has done of all that one actually intended.
7. how science came to have its present-day aspect (which is in itself important, since after all it dominates us, not even an illiterate being safe from
8. primal Evil, as it might be called, is something they do not lose even in undergoing this trans formation. It is apparently indestructible and eternal, or at least as eternal as everything humanly sublime, since it consists in nothing less, nothing other, than the pleasure of tripping that sublimity up and watching it fall flat on its face.
9. awareness of the greater evil, a readiness to riot, a mistrust of everything one respects. There are people who complain about youth’s lack of ideals, but who, in the moment when they must act, automatically come to the same decision as anyone who, from a very healthy mistrust of ideas, reinforces their gentle power with a blackjack.

There you have it. Wiki sums it up well. This will never be a reread. Too much scrawl, failed to be succinct, failed to complete, some plot, some characters which both are a plus, poor kindle quality, Rating 2.6. ( )

An AMAZING book. This is one of the finest novels, of its time, that I've ever come across. You go into depth into the minds of the characters, their philosophies, feelings, and situations. Musil brings Vienna to life, with all its tribulations, mysteries, and intrigues. Furthermore, he establishes the characters with such a strong base that they are vivid and lifelike. A truly magnificent novel that touches on so much and that I believe is still highly relevant today. This is not one to be missed.

4.5 stars- and FULLY deserved. ( )