The Man Without Qualities

What Hacker News says

1. igogq425Jan 2026
   > For example trump voters having their partners deported.

   I think there were similar surprises for some people back then. Social reality is complex, as can be seen, for example, in the case of J.D. Vance's wife. Every ICE officer would surely like to drag her out of her Porsche Cayenne by her hair and press their knee into her neck. Here in Germany, the shift to the right is being driven by Alice Weidel, among others, who is in a same-sex partnership with a dark-skinned woman who was born in Sri Lanka.

   For anti-Semitism in Germany before the Holocaust, I can recommend Robert Musil's novel “The Man Without Qualities.” For me, it was the most insightful look into the social background and conditions that led to the mindset of the time, which later erupted into genocide.

   Incidentally, I realize that we are not yet seeing full-scale genocide in the US. But it already has the character of ethnic cleansing, doesn't it? The beginnings were similar here in Germany back then: armed troops harassing people on the streets or taking them away and imprisoning them. Desensitizing and intimidating the general public in this way creates the basis for further escalation.

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2. mykowebhnJun 2025
   I agree that Dostoyevsky's psychological insights were profound. Maybe it doesn't exhibit the same psychological depths, but morally and philosophically I would also recommend Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities. It is still psychologically profound (although perhaps not at Dostoyevsky's level) and it provides a very detailed picture of society in turn-of-the-century (20th century) Austria. It's one of the greatest novels about ideas I've come across.
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3. agigaoOct 2024
   The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil The Gospel to According Jesus Christ - Jose Saramagu

   etc.

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4. agigaoOct 2024
   - The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

   - The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil

   - The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago

   - Moby Dick - Herman Melville

   - The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa

   - The War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

   etc.

   I can't do "The" xD

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5. cafardFeb 2024
   Odd. I wasn't crazy about The Corrections, but it struck me as straightforward reading. Moby Dick, The Man Without Qualities, and Don Quixote are long, but to my notion very readable in a way that Remembrance of Things Past or The Golden Bowl are not.
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6. koilkeFeb 2022
   ''The Man Without Qualities'' - Robert Musil (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)
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