Talk:The Man Without Qualities

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Kakanien[edit]

Where on earth did anyone get the idea that Kakanien is a fictitious country? Kakanien is a made up name for Austria-Hungary, but obviously the country depicted is Austria-Hungary, and there is, so far as I can recall, no attempt to disguise this fact. The old Emperor is Franz Joseph, the capital city is Vienna, various other real places in Austria-Hungary are mentioned, and so forth. Also, should we use "Kakania," which is the anglicized version of Kakanien which was found, at least, in my translation of the book? john k 03:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note also that in the German wikipedia, Kakanien redirects to Österreich-Ungarn, and the name is explicitly mentioned as an alternative name for the country. Kakanien is not a fictionalized version of Austria-Hungary. It just is Austria-Hungary. john k 03:10, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I can imagine where the idea that Kakanien was fictitious came from, because I read the entire book thinking that Musil chose the name ironically based on the imaginary Cockaigne. I was (wrongly) convinced that Kakanien was a German form of Cockaigne. I still suspect that Musil must have made associations to Cockaigne/Cuccagna/Cocagne, when he coined the name, but without sources, that can of course not go into the article. --Mlewan (talk) 19:22, 22 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It would be helpful to have a comparison of the various translations/editions. I have read a couple of criticisms of the latest english translation. 66.162.131.66 17:35, 13 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The German version of this Wiki entry describes the second volume as the first part of the second book, i.e. the second published volume is not the complete second book of three planned books. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.83.137.157 (talk) 17:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mann mit Eigenschaften—literally "man with qualities"—equivalent to the English-language phrase "self-made man" is bullshit. I'm a native speaker of German, and I have never heard that phrase.

"The story contains approximately twenty characters of bizarre Viennese life." ...What does that sentence even mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.44.133 (talk) 03:48, 5 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is an inconsistency in the part names of the book between the sections "Plot summary" and "The history of the novel" which causes confusion. "Pseudoreality Prevails" and "The Like of It Now Happens" refers to the same part, but there is no information about the fact that these two names emerge from different translations of the German original text. As the text reads now it is just confusing - it seems inconsistent. Suggestion: either 1) add translation information where appropriate to avoid confusion, or 2) structure the text according to which translation is used, or 3) select one prefered translation and go for that throughout the article. --Micke.x (talk) 08:58, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Confusion about the date of the Emperor’s jubilee[edit]

There have been some edits of this page which have incorrectly confused the year that the action of the novel takes place - 1913 - with the year of the Emperor’s jubilee - 1918. This is a fundamental element of the novel - the irony created by a group of people talking about “The Emperor of Peace” on what we know to be the eve of the Great War is a vital element of Musil’s ironic mise-en-scène. It is precisely this that shows us the idiocy and ineffectuality of the Parallel Campaign. Thus it is incorrect to suggest that the Campaign is “frantic” as a previous edit has done. On the contrary, It is positively languorous: the planning horizon is five years - five years in which the very country Musil satirises will have itself disappeared. Higgis (talk) 07:13, 16 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]