The Search for

The Keynote in Robert Musil's „The Man Without Qualities“1

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Intro

Wading through Musil's voluminous, complex manuscripts including his sketches, diaries and other8pt-shorthand coded writings it took me some time to identify the keynote in Robert Musil's „ManWithout Qualities“.

The main topic may be identified by inspecting and combining various sources, often diary-like 1-page long documents in which the author just memorized ideas.

Having found some of the keys the keynote soon became clear to me. Musil is one of the greatauthors who returned back to the androgynous roots of mystical experience.

Several great artists and authors have been inspired by androgyny and concentrated on the ancienttraditions of androgynous symbolism:

• The Jewish Encyclopedia reports the creation of an androgynous being titled Adam Cadmonby Yahweh. In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, the Pharisees taught2 that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynous).

• The most respected medieval Bible interpreter and commentator Rahsi around 1100 CEdescribes the androgynous creation legend in creating a singular being which was both maleand female and which was subsequently divided into two beings – just like Adam Cadmon.His grandson Rashbam repeated Rashi's idea: God included the woman in the man andseparated them later.3

• The Zohar4: the first man Adam has been created androgynous, with faces turning one to the right, the other to the left.

• For Goethe the male/female polarity is the most fundamental of all polarities5.→ Pedagogy and Androgyny in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre6 (J.W. Goethe)

• Various references to androgyny in The Secret Doctrine - by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky7.• The novel Demian (published 1919, by Herman Hesse) refers to androgyny8.• In A Room of One's Own (1929) Virginia Woolf in various ways refers to androgyny9:

• Coleridge: a great mind is androgynous (page 94)• woman must have intercourse with the man in her (94)

It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized (94)• Shakespeare's mind has been androgynous (94)

Androgynous: Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, Coleridge, Proust. (98/99)10

1 This manuscript has been translated from the German documentation “Die Suche Nach Dem Leitmotiv in Robert Musils „Der Mann Ohne Eigenschappen".

2 From the Jewish Encyclopedia: Adam Kadmon ( Er. 18a, Gen. R. viii.) - (quoted in The Hermetic Codex III)

3 quoted in The Hermetic Codex III

4 → Link to the Complete text of the Zohar (Quoted in Selected Footnotes)5 Goethe , Nietzsche, and Wagner: Their Spinozan Epics of …, T. K. Seung - 2006 6 C MacLeod - 1993 7 Quoted in Selected Footnotes8 Reference to Demian (quoted in Auserwählte Fußnoten - German)9 Quoted in Selected Footnotes10 George Eliot not included in Woolf's list of great androgynous writers

• Traces of androgyny over Stephen, Bloom and Molly in James Joyce's Ulysses11 have been identified in Marilyn French's The book as world : James Joyce's Ulysses (1976).

These samples signal the impact of androgyny in art and philosophy, in which Musil's „The ManWithout Qualities“ certainly may be included, which of course remains to be confirmed by someidentifiers...

Sources

For this analysis I investigated the 9 volume Rowohlt German series of „Gesammelte Werke vanRobert Musil”12.

The title of the main book „The Man Without Qualities“ does not really seem to be very helpful asthis title has been given as a denigrating label to the protagonist Ulrich by his friend Walter13.

Additionally I used two other sources:

• Language of Reality – by Dietrich Hochstätter (1972)14, in which the author refers to God asa Being without Qualities, the conjunctivus potentialis and the former use of theprotagonist's names “Anders” and the title “The Salvator”.

• Robert Musil by Robert L. Roseberry (1974)15 in which the author refers to the conjunctivuspotentialis and Clarissa's affinity to androgyny. In the article The concept of thehermaphrodite. Agathe and Ulrich in Musil's novel „Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften“ LeonTitche refers to Ulrich's and Agathe's union in a Hermaphrodite and how this mystic unionof antipodes seems to be the core of the novel. Titche however does not quote any of thenumerous diary entries referring to androgyny, incest, etc.

Musil's definition of the „keynote“

Musil defines “motivation” as the response to the question “How am I supposed to live?”. Hiskeynote is the ultimate enforcement and the ultimate freedom.

The motivation is suggested to be related to the “motif” in paintings.

Platonic Love

U = Ulrich wished to become a great man16. Instead he became a secretary.

It should be a shared idea, but with whom he was to share ideas?

In his „Man Without Qualities“ Musil obviously chose to design the optimal symbolism in aplatonic love17 in which Ulrich and his almost forgotten "Siamese twin-sister" Agathe were to uniteto an hermaphroditic human being. This union has also has been reported in Musil's diaries18.

11 Quotations to references in The book as world : James Joyce's Ulysses (1976) have been documented in UitverkorenVoetnoten (Dutch versions)

12 Page numbers refer to the publication in German, dated 197813 Volume 1, page 6414 Sprache des Möglichen – von Dietrich Hochstätter (1972) - Untertitel: Stilistischer Perspektivismus in Robert

Musils „Mann ohne Eigenschaften“15 Subtitle: A research report (Ein Forschungsbericht)16 From the chapter: „from torn papers“, volume 5, page 193617 In Symposium Plato documents the creation myth of androgynous first Man18 Robert Musil by Robert L. Roseberry (1974)

"The Siamese twin-sister"

Biologically the development of twin-sister is a rare event, but she is living inside of us as aspiritual utopia, as a manifested idea of ourselves. And this occasion, which for most of us remainsa rare yearning dream, became reality to my protagonist's life. And soon both of us did live a life ofa good old fashioned married couple19.

In fact we may only be able to love our Siamese twin-sisters20. Initially this sibling relationship hadbeen restricted to a spiritual relationship21.

Color codes

In symbolizing the Siamese twin couple Musil also defines complementary colors and the mixturecolor purple22:

We might event cloth ourselves in antipodal colors, Agathe answered in a hilarious way.Yellow for one and blue for the other one, or red opposite to green. And our hair mightbe colored violet or purple23.

The common idea of Quality and Anti-Quality

There is a shadowy copy image of the self in the antipodal character: I am male, you are female; wemight imagine how each person carries a copy image of his qualities, which may have arisen orsuppressed. In any case he yearns for this copy unless he is completely satisfied with himself24.

Sex

We rarely find our antipodal siblings. Ulrich feels lonely25. Initially sex doesn't matter. He doesn'tlike to sleep alone. No sex, but a yearning to the other world26.

Sex does matter in the end27. Union. Just like monads28. Sex. Penetration is to be needed. Flour dustas human beings lying on the floor29.

Anders (“alien”)

Early manuscript versions of Musil's book suggest to consider antipodes as “Anders” (alien), whichis Musil's former name for his protagonist Ulrich. The initial versions are using the shortcut name Afor “Anders” and a book title „The Salvator“.

The active I is another than the normal I. From the I–standpoint we are mentally incompetent30. Theexpression “Anders” obviously refers to the active I.

19 „Was arbeiten Sie? - Gespräch mit Robert Musil [30 April 1936] (volume 7, page 936)20 Volume 5, page 184521 Volume 5, page 184522 This color symbolism of antipodal colors and the synthesis of purple from red & blue had been investigated in The

Hermetic Codex II - Bipolar Monotheism.23 Section 3, Page 904-90524 Section 3, Page 94225 Volume 5, Page 182926 Volume 5, Page 182627 Volume 5, Page 182628 Volume 5, Page 183529 Volume 5, Page 183530 Reference: The early designs (“Die frühen Entwürfe”), Volume 5, page 1945

The Salvator

Man is to be salved; by anti-rationalism and goodness31. Salvation is a kind of ambition. A kind ofgenius, a leader, ...32.

31 Volume 5, Page 181732 Volume 5, Page 1817