There's many ways not to read, and the most extreme of them is not opening the book in any way. Any reader, however committed to his hobby, this complete abstinence is a necessity to virtually every book written and in the end, it is our main method of engaging with books. It's important to keep in mind that even the most avid reader has no access to anything more than a tiny percentage of the books available. Therefore If he does not abstain completely from all communication and writing, he'll be forced to write about books that he's not read. In the event that we extend this notion to its extreme, we reach the situation of the complete non-reader who doesn't even open any book but is familiar with the contents and can discuss them with no hesitation. This is the situation with that librarian character in The Man with No Qualities which is a minor character in the novel by Musil and one whose radically conviction and determination to defend the novel make him a crucial part of our argument. The story of the novel by Musil is set at the start of the 20th century in a nation known as Kakania that is a parody on The Austro-Hungarian empire. A nationalist movement, referred to as Parallel Action was established to plan a lavish celebration of the forthcoming anniversary of the reign of the Emperor and is meant to be an example of redemptive that the whole world can follow. The people who lead Parallel Action, whom Musil describes as a myriad of silly marionettes, are seeking an "redemptive idea," which they talk about endlessly, but with a vague meaning, for they don't have the slightest idea of what this idea could be or how it could fulfill its redemptive purpose beyond the borders of their own country. One of the leaders of the movement One of the most absurd are General Stumm (which refers to "mute" in German). Stumm has a goal to find the idea of redemption before other leaders as an offering to his beloved Diotima who is also a prominent figure in Parallel Action: "You remember, don't you," he declared, "that I'd made up my mind to locate the great redemption idea Diotima would like to share and then lay it on her shoulders. It turns out there are many great ideas and only one can be the best--that's just logical so it's just an issue of organizing them.
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