[  ] ulrich felt a "spiritual vacuity" in which one could lose oneself so completely as to awaken an inclination toward unbridled fancies. he had in his pocket his father's peculiar telegram, which was imprinted on his memory. "take note herewith of my recent demise" was the message conveyed to him on the old man's behalf—or was it not, rather, a direct communication? for such it appeared to be, given the signature underneath: "your father." his excellency the high privy councilor was not given to levity at serious moments. the eccentric construction of the message, therefore, was devilishly logical, for it was he himself who was notifying his son when, in expectation of his end, he wrote or dictated those words, thereby declaring the resulting document valid as of the instant after he had drawn his last breath; indeed there was probably no way to state the facts more correctly, and yet this operation, in which the present sought to dominate a future it would no longer be able to experience, exuded an eerie sepulchral whiff of ragefully moldering willpower.


robert musil,
agathe 



i read the man without qualities a long time ago, before my father died. i'm reading this book which is part of that one, but the salient part concerning the brother and sister story, that musil was writing when he died in the bathtub at 61 with his wife said an ironic smile on his face, and it reminds me of my father, who's personal message by phone to me was, you're talking to a dead man. and yet he was still here, and i had to respond to a dead man with more than my vacuity, with a delicate and reasonably tender laugh. 
i'm not sure, but i think dad would like the connections still occurring in afterlife, if not the book. i'm going to check in with him as i read to see what he thinks, if he gets wistful or laughs in the same places as me.