In a famous passage toward the beginning of Robert Musil’s great novel The Man Without Qualities, there is a moment of what we might call negative awakening. The novel’s protagonist—a bright, unanchored young man named Ulrich—began life determined to distinguish himself in some conspicuous way. That all changed the day he happened to see a racehorse described as “a racehorse of genius.” If a racehorse can be a “genius,” what notice could Ulrich hope to achieve for his own efforts? The triumph of trivialization, he decided, had rendered his ambitions ridiculous.

We have often had occasion to reflect on Ulrich and that racehorse. Doubtless he was wrong to abandon culture because culture abandoned him. On strong characters, such depredations act as a spur, not a sedative. But if we must regret Ulrich’s lack of resolution we may still sympathize with the feelings that lay behind it. What if ...

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