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

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 ? open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

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

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! open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

"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.

Some Notes on Musil and Rilke open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

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-...

A podcast of me reading Musil's "Susanna's Letter" from Thought Flights. More to come. open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

Summary of the Musil-Mann Relationship: genesegrill.substack.com/p/mann-and-m...

This beautiful book arrived today, thank you very much for this gift of poetry by the incomparable Hannah Arendt... @samantharhill.bsky.social @genesegrill.bsky.social www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/164... www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopre...

Still working on my summary of the Musil-Mann relationship. In the meantime, a little very rough draft excerpt from the bio-in-progress on Mach, Kant, Bahr (and the marvelous Marie Bashkirtseff!). open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

Musil Contra Mann: Just a taster for my longer analysis of the complex relationship between these two men (coming soon): open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

“Through thoughtlessness, we render the world sterile and lifeless, but when we write thoughtfully and beautifully … we make the world thoughtful and beautiful.” Review of @samantharhill.bsky.social & @genesegrill.bsky.social’s book of/on Arendt’s poetry www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/164...

Thought Flights Robert Musil @genesegrill.bsky.social

Musil's Love for Euripides: open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

If you are interested in what happened to the Musil's apartment in Vienna when they fled into exile in Switzerland (and the tragic story of what happened to Martha's sister, Johanna Casper), here you go: open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

I'm Starting A Substack.... Writing Robert Musil's Biography open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...

Hannah Arendt and Martha Musil. Could be cousins. Happy , Healhthy, Inspired New Year to you all. Thanks for being in this crazy world with me. Trying to understand, trying to love, trying to communicate.

The last four months of 2024 have been difficult (illnesses, dread about the world, --violence and floods), but high times too: Sicily, Musil talk at Society Library, restoring Walking Book, Arendt poems, Musil biography work, with your encouragement.

Just in time for holiday reading by the woodstove here — the collected poems of Hannah Arendt, translated and edited and introduced by @samantharhill.bsky.social with @genesegrill.bsky.social . #arendt #poetry #writing #hannaharendt

Post stroke, in the cafe, after the movies (he loved Mae West and Chaplin), Musil had to choose between a Kaffee Hag (decaffeinated) or a regular coffee with a Sedobrol (sedative). There were even cigarettes without nicotine at times.

Most of the works of Iran's most popular translator "are a hodgepodge of source text mixed with his own additions and musings ... In some cases, the author of the book Mansouri was supposedly translating didn’t even exist." yalereview.org/article/amir...

Here is a funny video of @samantharhill.bsky.social and I reading an Arendt poem . I in German, she in English; I in dark brocaded Vermont; she in sunny minimalist west coast. Everything is translation. www.instagram.com/p/DDpjyxQSk0...

"—certainty, that hallmark of bad authority, dictators, and thugs. For Arendt, poetry was a place to know problems [...] Arendt’s poems.. serve as a reminder that poetry and thinking matter because they aren’t safe spaces." Katie Peterson lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-pl...

"Imagine a buffalo, who has grown, in place of his powerful horns...two ridiculously sensitive corns. This creature with the powerful brow that once bore weapons and now bears corns, is the man in exile." Musil in a letter, Jan. 20, 1941.

The Musils' last domicile in Geneva: a tiny house they called a dolls' house, blessedly quiet: the roosters weren't allowed to crow (were operated on so they wouldn't!?). Above the bathtub, where Robert died, was a skylight through which one could see blue sky and white clouds.

Musil, in exile, 1940, feels like "someone who somehow just manages to grasp a support that holds in falling but then loosens immediately afterwards...it's really an ongoing anxiety dream. And obviously one that has very real chances of becoming reality."

4/4

From What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt, out yesterday. Edited by @samantharhill.bsky.social and translated by Samantha and me. Book launch tonight at The Strand in New York City (I won't be there, but Sam will be brilliant as usual!).

Second scam attempt on this site in two weeks. This one, @georgearmstrong1.bsky.social , pretends he is an employment agent for @simonandschuster.bsky.social and says they have lots of work for me. He can't write proper English. Not sure what the trick would be, but he is obviously a fraud.

Happy Publication Day to *What Remains* — the collected poems of Hannah Arendt, translated and introduced by @samantharhill.bsky.social with @genesegrill.bsky.social #poetry #writingcommunity #hannaharendt #arendt

Thought I would repost this for any new followers who are interested in Musil.

Next Wednesday night December 11th at The Strand Bookstore in NYC! Join me and the brilliant Heather Clark to celebrate the publication of What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt! 7pm Come say hi! Tickets here: www.strandbooks.com/what-remains...