"
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr.
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr.
Musil - Man Without Qualities - v2
Let me walk with you part- way.
You must explain how it is possible to think as you do.
Which way are you going now?
"
"I must get home," Lindner answered.
'Would your wife mind very much if I walked home with you? When we get back down to town we can take a taxi. I have plenty of
. . time.
"My son will be coming home from school," Lindner said with de- fensive dignity. "Mealtimes are on a strict schedule with us, which is why I must be home on time. My wife died suddenly, some years ago," he added, correcting Agathe's mistaken assumption, and with a glance at his watch he said with netvous impatience: "I must hurry! "
"Then you must explain it to me some other time. It is important to me! " Agathe insisted with feeling. "Ifyou won't come to see us, I shall look you up. "
Lindner caught his breath, but nothing came of it. Finally, he said: "But as a lady you can't come calling on a man! "
"Oh, yes I can! " Agathe assured him. "I shall simply arrive one day, you'll see. Though I can't say when. There is no harm in it! "
With this, she said good-bye and took a path diverging from his.
"You have no willpower! " she said under her breath, trying to imi- tate Lindner, but the word "willpower" tasted fresh and cool in her mouth. It had overtones of pride, toughness, and confidence; her heart beat higher; the man had done her good.
THE GENERAL MEANWHILE TAKES ULRICH AND CLARISSE TO THE MADHOUSE
While Ulrich was alone at home, the War Ministry telephoned to ask whether His Excellency the Chief of the Department for Military, Educational, and Cultural Affairs could see him privately in half an
1056 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
hour, and thirty-five minutes later General Stumm von Bordwehr's official carriage came dashing up the little drive.
"A fine kettle of fish! " the General cried out to his friend, who instantly noticed that this time the orderly with the intellectual bread was absent. The General was in full dress, decorations and all. "A fine mess you've got me into! " he reiterated. "There's a plenary ses- sion at your cousin's this evening. I haven't even had a chance to see my chief about it. And now suddenly the bombshell bursts-we have to be at the madhouse within an hour! "
"But why? " Ulrich asked, not unnaturally. "Usually that sort of thing is arranged ahead of time! "
"Don't ask so many questions! " the General implored him. "Just go and telephone your little friend or cousin or whatever she is, and tell her we're coming to call for her! "
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning. To make the arrangements for Clarisse to visit Moos- brugger, as a favor to Ulrich, Stumm had turned to the Chief of the Medical Corps, who then got in touch with his celebrated colleague the head ofthe University Clinic, where Moosbruggerwas awaiting a top-level opinion on his psychiatric status. However, through a mis- understanding by both these gentlemen, the appointment for the date and time of Clarisse's visit had been made on the spot, as Stumm had been told with many apologies at the last minute, along with the error that he himselfhad been named as one ofthe visiting party that the famous psychiatrist was expecting with great pleasure.
"I feel quite ill! " he declared. This was a time-honored formula for his needing a schnapps. After he had tossed it off, he relaxed a little. "What's a madhouse to me! It's only because of you that I have to go! " he lamented. "Whatever will I say to that idiot professor when he asks me why I came along? "
At this moment a jubilant war whoop sounded at the other end of the line.
"Fine! " the General said fretfully. "But I also must absolutely talk to you about tonight. And I still have to report to my chief about it too. And he leaves the office at four! " He glanced at his watch and out of sheer hopelessness did not budge from his chair.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · z057
"Well, I'm ready," Ulrich said.
"Your lovely sister isn't coming? " Stumm asked in surprise.
"My sister is out. "
"Too bad. " The General sighed. "Your sister is the most remark-
able woman I have ever met. "
"I thought that was Diotima," Ulrich said.
"She's another," Stumm replied. "Diotima is admirable too. But
since she's been going in for sex education I feel like a schoolboy. I'm happy to look up to her-God knows, a soldier's trade is a simple and crude kind ofmanual labor, as I always say, but precisely in the realm ofsex it goes against one's honor as an officer to let oneselfbe treated as a novice! "
By now they were in the carriage and being driven off at a brisk trot.
"Is your young lady pretty, at least? " Stumm inquired suspiciously. "She's quite an original, as you'll see," Ulrich replied.
"Now, as regards tonight"-the General sighed-"something is
brewing. I expect something to happen. "
"That's what you say every time you come to see me," Ulrich pro-
tested, smiling.
"Maybe, but it's true just the same. And tonight you'll be present
at the encounter between your cousin and Frau Professor Drangsal. I hope you haven't forgotten everything I've told you about that. The Drangsal pest-that's what your cousin and I call her between our- selves-has been pestering your cousin for such a long time that she's got what she wanted: she's been haranguing everyone, and to- night will be the showdown between them. We were only waiting for Arnheim, so that he can form an opinion too. "
"Oh? " Ulrich had not seen Arnheim for a long time, and had not known that he was back.
"Of course. Just for a few days," Stumm said. "So we had to set it up-" He broke offsuddenly, bounding up from the swaying uphol- stery toward the driver's box with an agility no one would have ex- pected of him. "Idiot! " he barked into the ear of the orderly disguised as a civilian coachman who was driving the ministerial horses, and he rocked helplessly back and forth with the carriage as he clung to the back of the man he was insulting, shouting: "You're taking the long way round! " The soldier in civvies held his back stiff
1058 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
as a board, numb to the General's extramilitary use of his body to save himself from falling, turned his head exactly ninety degrees, so that he could not see either his general or his horses, and smartly reported to a vertical that ended in the air that the shortest route was blocked offby street repairs, but he would soon be back on it. "There you are--so I was right! " Stumm cried as he fell back, glossing over his futile outburst of impatience, partly for the orderly's benefit and partly for Ulrich's. "So now the fellow has to take a detour, when I'm supposed to report to my chief this very afternoon, and he wants to go home at four o'clock, by which time he should have briefed the Minister himself! . . . His Excellency the Minister has sent word to the Tuzzis to expect him in person tonight," he added in a low voice, just for Ulrich's ear.
"You don't say! " Ulrich showed himself properly impressed by this news.
''I've been telling you for a long time there's something in the air. "
Now Ulrich wanted to know what was in the air. "Come out with it, then," he demanded. "What does the Minister want? "
_"He doesn't know himself," Stumm answered genially. "His Ex- cellency has a feeling that the time has come. Old Leinsdorf also has a feeling that the time has come. The Chief of the General Staff like- wise has a feeling that the time has come. When a lot of people have such a feeling, there may be something in it. "
"But the time for what? " Ulrich persisted.
''Well, we don't need to know that yet," the General instructed him. "These are simply reliable indications! By the way," he asked abstractedly, or perhaps thoughtfully, "how many of us will there be today? "
"How would I know? " Ulrich asked in surprise.
"All I meant," Stumm explained, "is how many of us are going to the madhouse? Excuse me! Funny, isn't it, that kind of misunder- standing? There are days when there's too much coming at one from all sides. So: how many are coming? "
"I don't know who else will be coming-somewhere between three and six people. "
''What I meant," the General said earnestly, "was that if there are more than three of us, we'll have to get another cab-you under- stand, because I'm in uniform. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1059
"Oh, of course," Ulrich reassured him.
"I can't very well drive in a sardine can. "
"Of course not. But tell me, what's this about reliable indica-
tions? "
"But will we be able to get a cab out there? " Stumm worried. "It's
so far out you can hear the animals snoring. "
'W e'll pick one up on the way," Ulrich said firmly. "Now will you
please tell me how you have reliable indications that it's time for something to happen? "
"There's nothing to tell," Stumm replied. "When I say about something that that's the way it is and it can't be otherwise, what I'm really saying is that I can't explain it! At most one might add that this Drangsal is one of those pacifists, probably because Feuermaul, who's her protege, writes poems about 'Man is good. ' Lots of people believe that sort of thing now. ''
Ulrich was not convinced. "Didn't you tell me the opposite just a little while ago? That they're now all in favor of taking action, taking a strong line, and all that? "
"True too," the C'. eneral granted. "And influential circles are back- ing Drangsal; she has a great knack for that sort of thing. They expect the patriotic campaign to come up with a humanitarian action. "
"Really? " Ulrich said.
"You know, you really don't seem to care about anything anymore! The rest of us are worried. Let me remind you, for instance, that the fratricidal Austro-German war of 1866 only happened because all the Germans in the Frankfurt Parliament declared themselves to be brothers. Not,ofcourse,thatI'msuggestingthattheWarMinisteror the Chief of the General Staff might be worrying along those lines; that would be nonsense. But one thing does lead to another. That's how it is! See what I mean? "
It was not clear, but it made sense. And the General went on to make a very wise observation:
"Look, you're always wanting things to be clear and logical," he remonstrated with his seatmate. "And I do admire you for it, but you must for once try to think in historical terms. How can those directly involved in what's happening know beforehand whether it will tum out to be a great event? All they can do is pretend to themselves that it is! Ifl may indulge in a paradox, I'd say that the history ofthe world
1060 · THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
is written before it happens; it always starts off as a kind of gossip. So that people who have the energy to act are faced with a very serious problem. "
"You have a point," Ulrich said appreciatively. "But now tell me all about it. "
Although the General wanted to expand on it, there was so much on his mind in these moments, when the horse's hooves had begun to hit softer ground, that he was suddenly seized by other anxieties.
"Here I am, decked out like a Christmas tree in case the Minister calls for me," he cried, underlining it by pointing to his light-blue tunic and the medals hanging from it. "Don't you think it could lead to awkward incidents if I appear like this, in full dress, in front of loonies? What do I do, for instance, if one of them decides to insult the Emperor's uniform? I can hardly draw my sword, but it would be really dangerous for me not to say anything, either! "
Ulrich calmed him down by pointing out that he would be likely to wear a doctor's white coat over his uniform. But before Stumm had time to declare himselffully satisfied with this solution they met Cla- risse, impatiently coming to meet them in a smart summer dress, es- corted by Siegmund. She told Ulrich that Walter and Meingast had refused to join them. And after they had managed to find a second carriage, the General was pleased to say to Clarisse: "As you were coming down the road toward us, my dear young lady, you looked positively like an angel! "
But by the time he left the carriage at the hospital gate, Stumm von Bordwehr appeared rather flushed and ill at ease.
33
THE LUNATICS GREET CLARISSE
Clarisse was twisting her gloves in her hands, looking up at the win- dows, and fidgeting constantly while Ulrich paid for the cab. Stumm von Bordwehr protested Ulrich's doing this, and the cabbie sat on his box with a flattered smile as the two gentlemen kept each other back. Siegmund brushed specks off his coat with his fingertips, as usual, or stared into space.
In a low voice, the General said to Ulrich: "There's something odd about your lady friend. She lectured me the whole way about what will is. I didn't understand a word! "
"That's the way she is," Ulrich said.
"Pretty, though," the General whispered. "Like a fourteen-year- old ballerina. But why does she say that we came here in order to follow our 'hallucination'? The world is 'too free of hallucinations,' she says. D'you know anything about that? It was so distressing, I simply couldn't think of a word to say. "
The General was obviously holding up the departure of the cab only because he wanted to ask these questions, but before Ulrich could answer he was relieved of the responsibility by an emissary who welcomed the visitors in the name of the director of the clinic, and apologizing to the General for having to keep them waiting be- cause ofsome urgent business, he led the company upstairs to a wait- ing room. Clarisse took in every inch of the staircase and the corridors with her eyes, and even in the little waiting room, with its chairs upholstered in threadbare green velvet so reminiscent of an old-fashioned first-class waiting room in a railway station, her gaze roved about slowly almost the whole time. There the four of them sat, after the emissary had left, and found nothing to say until Ulrich, to break the silence, teased Clarisse by asking her whether the thought of meeting Moosbrugger face-to-face wasn't making her blood run cold.
1061
1062 • THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
"Bah! " Clarisse said. "He's only known ersatz women; it had to come to this. "
The General had come up with a face-saving idea, something hav- ing belatedly occurred to him: "The will is now very up-to-date," he said. 'W e're very much concerned with this problem in our patriotic action too! "
Clarisse gave him a smile and stretched her arms to ease the ten- sion in them. "Having to wait like this, one can feel what's coming in one's arms and legs, as ifone were looking through a telescope," she replied.
Stumm von Bordwehr gave it some thought, careful not to put a foot wrong again. "That's true! " he said. "It may have something to do with the current cult of exercise and bodybuilding. We're con- cerned with that also.
"
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr. Friedenthal, who would take good care of them in his stead.
Dr. Friedenthal was a tall, slender man with a somewhat effemi- nate body and a thick mop of hair, who smiled at them, as he was introduced, like an acrobat climbing a ladder for a death-defying per- formance. When the director had gone, the white lab coats were brought in. 'W e don't want to get the patients excited," Dr. Frieden- thal explained.
As Clarisse slipped into hers she experienced a strange surge of power. She stood there like a little doctor. She felt very much a man, and very white.
The General looked around for a mirror. It was hard to find a lab coat to fit his idiosyncratic proportion of girth to height; when they finally managed to get him into something that covered him com- pletely, he looked like a child in an adult's nightshirt. "Don't you think I should take my spurs off? " he asked Dr. Friedenthal.
"Army doctors wear spurs too," Ulrich pointed out.
Stumm made one last feeble and laborious effort to see what he looked like from behind, where the medical coverall was caught up
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 o63
in heavy folds above his spurs. Then they set out. Dr. Friedenthal enjoined them to keep calm no matter what they might see.
"So far so good! " Stumm whispered to his friend. "But I'm not really interested in any of this. Could use the time much better to talk with you about tonight's meeting. Now look, you said you wanted me to tell you frankly what's going on. It's quite simple: the whole world is arming. The Russians have a brand-new field artillery. Are you listening? The French are using their two-year conscription law to build up an enormous army. The Italians . . . "
They had descended the same old-fashioned princely staircase they had climbed before and, after somehow turning off the main corridor, found themselves in a maze of small rooms and twisting passages with whitewashed beams protruding from the ceiling. These were mostly utility rooms and offices, cramped and dreary be- cause of a shortage of space in the ancient building. Sinister figures, only some of whom wore institutional uniforms, populated them. One door bore the inscription "Reception"; another, "Men. " The General's talk dried up. He had a premonition that things could hap- pen at any moment, requiring by their unprecedented nature great presence of mind. He could not help wondering what he would do if an irresistible need forced him to leave the group and he were to stumble, alone and without an expert guide in a place where all men are equal, upon a madman.
Clarisse, on the other hand, was walking a step ahead of Dr. Frie- denthai. His having said that they had to wear these white coats so as not to alarm the patients buoyed her up like a life vest on the current of her impressions. She was mulling over some of her pet ideas. Nietzsche: "Is there a pessimism ofstrength? An intellectual predis- position to whatever is hard, sinister, evil, problematic in life? A yearning for the terrible as a worthy foe? Perhaps madness is not necessarily a symptom of degeneracy. " She was not thinking this in so many words, but she remembered it as a whole; her thoughts had compressed it all into a tiny packet, admirably fitted to the smallest space, like a burglar's tool. For her this excursion was half philosophy and half adultery.
Dr. Friedenthai stopped in front of an iron door and took a flat key from his pants pocket. When he opened the door they stepped out
1064 • THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
from the shelter of the building and were blinded by the brightness. At the same moment Clarisse heard a frightful shriek such as she had never heard before in her life. For all her pluckiness, she winced.
"Just a horse! " Dr. Friedenthal said, smiling.
And in fact they were on a road that led from the front gate, along the side of the administration building, and around to the kitchen yard of the institution. It was no different from other such roads, with old wheel tracks and homely weeds on which the sun was blaz- ing hotly. And yet all the others too, with the exception of Dr. Frie- denthal, felt oddly disconcerted a n d - i n a startled, confused fashion-almost indignant, to find themselves on a wholesome and ordinary road after having already survived a long, arduous passage. Freedom, at first blush, had something disconcerting about it, even though it was incredibly comforting; it actually took some getting used to again. With Clarisse, who was more vulnerable to the clash of contrasts, the tension shattered in a loud giggle.
Still smiling, Dr. Friedenthal strode ahead across the road and on the other side opened a small but heavy iron door in the high wall of a park. "This is where it begins," he said gently.
And now they really found themselves inside that world to which Clarisse had felt herself inexplicably attracted for weeks, not only with the shudder at something incommensurable and impenetrable, but as though she were fated to experience something there that she could not imagine beforehand. At first there was nothing to differen- tiate this world from any other big old park, with the greensward sloping up in one direction toward groups of tall trees, among which small white villa-like buildings could be seen. The sweep of the sky behind them gave promise of a lovely view, and from one such look- out point Clarisse saw patients with attendants standing and sitting in groups, looking like white angels.
General Stumm took this as the right moment to resume his con- versation with Ulrich. "Now, let me prime you a bit more for this evening," he began. "The Italians, the Russians, the French, and the English too, you lmow, are all arming, and w e - "
"You want your artillery; I lmow that already," Ulrich interrupted.
"Among other things! " the General continued. "But if you don't ever let me finish, we'll soon be among the loonies and won't be able to talk in peace. So, as I was saying, we're in the middle of all this, in
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1065
a very risky position from the military point of view. And in this fix we're being badgered-I'm referring to the Parallel Campaign-to think of nothing but the goodness of man! "
"And your people are against it! I understand. "
"Not at all, on the contrary! " Stumm protested. 'We're not against it! W e take pacifism very seriously! But we must get our artillery bud- get through. And ifwe could do that hand in hand with pacifism, so to speak, it would be the best safeguard against all those imperialistic misunderstandings that are so quick to assert that we're endangering world peace! It's true, ifyou like, that we're in bed with La Drangsal, just a little. But we also have to proceed with caution because her opposition, the nationalist movements, who now have their people inside the Campaign too, are against pacifism and in favor of getting our army up to scratch! "
The General had to cut himself short, with an expression of bitter- ness, for they had almost reached the top of the incline, where Dr. Friedenthal was awaiting his troop. The angels' gathering place turned out to be lightly fenced in; their guide crossed it without pay- ing it much attention, as a mere prelude. "A 'quiet' ward," he ex- plained.
They were all women; their hair hung loose down to their shoul- ders, and their faces were repellent, with fat, blurred, puffy features. One of them came rushing up to the doctor and forced a letter on him. "It's always the same thing," Dr. Friedenthal explained to his visitors and read aloud: " 'Adolf, my love! When are you coming to see me? Have you forgotten me? ' " The woman, about sixty, stood there with an apathetic face and listened. "You'll send it out right away, won't you? '' she begged. "Of course! " Dr. Friedenthal prom- ised, then he tore the letter into pieces in front of her eyes and smiled at the nurse. Clarisse instantly challenged him: "How could you do this? " she asked. "These patients must be taken seriously! "
"Come along," Dr. Friedenthal said. "There's no point in wasting our time here. Ifyou like, I'll show you hundreds ofsuch letters later. You must have noticed that the old woman didn't react at all when I tore it up? "
Clarisse was disconcerted, because what Dr. Friedenthal said was true, but it confused her thoughts. And before she could straighten them out again, they were further disturbed when, on their way out,
1o66 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
another old woman, who had been lying in wait for them, lifted up her skirt and exposed to the passing gentlemen her ugly old-woman's thighs up to her belly, above coarse woolen stockings.
"The old sow," Stumm von Bordwehr muttered, sufficiently out- raged and disgusted to forget politics for a while.
But Clarisse had discovered a resemblance between the thigh and the face. The thigh probably showed the same stigmata offatty physi- cal degeneration as the face, but this gave Clarisse for the first time an impression of strange correspondences and a world that worked differently from what one could grasp with the usual categories. She also now realized that she had not noticed the transformation of the white angels into these women, and indeed that even while walking through their midst she had not been able to distinguish the patients from the nurses. She turned around and looked back, but because the path had curved behind a building, she could no longer see any- thing and stumbled after the others like a child that turns its head away. From this point on, her impressions no longer formed the transparent flow of events that one accepts life to be, but became a foaming torrent with only occasional smooth patches that stuck in the memory.
"Another quiet ward, this time for men," Dr. Friedenthal an- nounced, gathering his flock at the entrance to a building, and when they paused at the first bed he presented its occupant to them in a considerately lowered voice as a case of "depressive dementia paralytica. "
"An old syphilitic. Delusions ofsin and nihilistic obsessions," Sieg- mund whispered, translating the terms for his sister. Clarisse found herself face-to-face with an old gentleman who, to all appearances, had once belonged to the upper reaches of society. He sat upright in bed, was perhaps in his late fifties, and had a very white skin. His well-cared-for and highly intelligent face was framed in thick white hair and looked as improbably distinguished as the faces one finds described only in the cheapest novels.
"Couldn't one do a portrait ofhim? " Stumm von Bordwehr asked. "The very model ofintellectual beauty! I'd love to give the portrait to your cousin! " he said to Ulrich.
Dr. Friedenthal gave a sad smile and commented: "The noble ex- pression is caused by a slackening of tension in the facial muscles. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · zo67
He demonstrated with a quick movement the unresponsive fixity of the man's pupils, then led them onward. There was not enough time for all the available material. The old gentleman, who had nodded mournfully to everything said at his bedside, was still muttering in a low, troubled voice when the five of them stopped again, several beds farther on, to consider the next case Dr. Friedenthal had cho- sen for them.
This time it was someone who was himself engaged in art, a cheer- ful, fat painter whose bed stood close to a sunny window. He had paper and many pencils on his blanket, and busied himselfwith them all day long. Clarisse was immediately struck by the happy restless- ness of his movements. "That's the way Walter should be painting! " she thought. Friedenthal, seeing her interest, quickly snatched a sheet ofpaper from the fat man and handed it to Clarisse; the painter snickered and behaved like a serving girl who'd just been pinched. But Clarisse was amazed to see a sketch for a large composition, drawn with sure, accomplished strokes, entirely sensible to the point of banality, with many figures woven together in accurate perspec- tive and a large hall, everything executed in meticulous detail, so that the whole effect was of something so salutary and professorial that it could have come from the National Academy. "What amazing crafts- manship! " she cried impulsively.
Dr. Friedenthal responded with a flattered smile.
The artist gleefully made a rude noise at him.
"You see, that gentleman likes it! Show him some more, go on!
Amazing how good it is, he said! Go on, show him! I know you're only laughing at me, but he likes it! " He spoke good-humoredly, holding out the rest of his drawings to the doctor, with whom he seemed to be on easy terms although the doctor didn't appreciate his work.
"We don't have time for you today," Dr. Friedenthal told him and, turning to Clarisse, summed up the case by saying: "He's not schizo- phrenic; sorry he's the only one we have here at the moment. Schizo- phrenics are often fine artists, quite modem. "
"And insane? " Clarisse said dubiously.
"Why not? '' Dr. Friedenthal answered sadly.
Clarisse bit her lip.
Meanwhile Stumm and Ulrich were already on the threshold to
the next ward, and the General was saying: "Looking at this, I'm re-
1068 • THE MAN WITH0 UT QUALITIES
ally sorry I called my orderly an idiot this morning. I'll never do it again! " For the ward they were facing was a room with extreme cases ofidiocy.
Clarisse had not yet seen this and was thinking: "So even academic art, so respectably and widely recognized, has a sister in Bedlam-a sister denied, deprived, and yet so much a twin one can barely tell the difference! " This almost impressed her more than Friedenthal's remark that another time he might be able to show her expressionist artists. She made up her mind to take him up on it. Her head was down, and she was still biting her lip. There was something wrong with all this. It seemed to her clearly wrong to lock up such gifted people; the doctors might know about diseases, she thought, but probably did not understand art and all it stood for. Something would have to be done, she felt. But it was not clear to her what. Yet she did not lose heart, for the fat painter had immediately called her "that gentleman"-it seemed to her a good omen.
Friedenthal scrutinized her with curiosity.
When she felt his gaze she looked up with her thin-lipped smile and moved toward him, but before she could say anything an appall- ing sight made her mind a blank. In this new ward a series ofhorrible apparitions crouched and sat in their beds, everything about their bodies crooked, unclean, twisted, or paralyzed. Decayed teeth. Wag- gling heads. Heads too big, too small, totally misshapen. Slack, drooping jaws from which saliva was dribbling, or brutish grinding motions of the mouth, without food or words. Yard-wide leaden bar- riers seemed to lie between these souls and the world, and after the low chuckling and buzzing in the other room, the silence here, bro- ken only by obscure grunting and muttering sounds, was oppressive. Such wards for severe mental deficiency are among the most horrify- ing sights to be found in the hideousness of a mental institution, and Clarisse felt herself plunged headlong into a ghastly darkness that blotted out all distinctions.
But their guide, Friedenthal, could see even in the dark, and pointing to various beds, he explained: "That's idiocy over there, and over here you have cretinism. "
Stumm von Bordwehr pricked up his ears. "A cretin is not the same as an idiot? " he asked.
"No," the doctor said, "there's a medical distinction. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1069
"Interesting," Stumm said. "In ordinary life one would never think of such a thing. "
Clarisse moved from bed to bed. Her eyes bored into the patients, as she tried with all her might to understand, without succeeding in the least in gleaning anything from these faces that took no cogni- zance of her. All thought in them was extinguished. Dr. Friedenthal followed her softly and explained: "congenital amaurotic idiocy"; "tubercular hypertrophic sclerosis"; "idiotia thymica . . . "
The General, who meanwhile felt that he had seen enough of these "morons" and assumed that Ulrich felt the same way, glanced at his watch and said: "Now, where were we?
"I must get home," Lindner answered.
'Would your wife mind very much if I walked home with you? When we get back down to town we can take a taxi. I have plenty of
. . time.
"My son will be coming home from school," Lindner said with de- fensive dignity. "Mealtimes are on a strict schedule with us, which is why I must be home on time. My wife died suddenly, some years ago," he added, correcting Agathe's mistaken assumption, and with a glance at his watch he said with netvous impatience: "I must hurry! "
"Then you must explain it to me some other time. It is important to me! " Agathe insisted with feeling. "Ifyou won't come to see us, I shall look you up. "
Lindner caught his breath, but nothing came of it. Finally, he said: "But as a lady you can't come calling on a man! "
"Oh, yes I can! " Agathe assured him. "I shall simply arrive one day, you'll see. Though I can't say when. There is no harm in it! "
With this, she said good-bye and took a path diverging from his.
"You have no willpower! " she said under her breath, trying to imi- tate Lindner, but the word "willpower" tasted fresh and cool in her mouth. It had overtones of pride, toughness, and confidence; her heart beat higher; the man had done her good.
THE GENERAL MEANWHILE TAKES ULRICH AND CLARISSE TO THE MADHOUSE
While Ulrich was alone at home, the War Ministry telephoned to ask whether His Excellency the Chief of the Department for Military, Educational, and Cultural Affairs could see him privately in half an
1056 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
hour, and thirty-five minutes later General Stumm von Bordwehr's official carriage came dashing up the little drive.
"A fine kettle of fish! " the General cried out to his friend, who instantly noticed that this time the orderly with the intellectual bread was absent. The General was in full dress, decorations and all. "A fine mess you've got me into! " he reiterated. "There's a plenary ses- sion at your cousin's this evening. I haven't even had a chance to see my chief about it. And now suddenly the bombshell bursts-we have to be at the madhouse within an hour! "
"But why? " Ulrich asked, not unnaturally. "Usually that sort of thing is arranged ahead of time! "
"Don't ask so many questions! " the General implored him. "Just go and telephone your little friend or cousin or whatever she is, and tell her we're coming to call for her! "
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning. To make the arrangements for Clarisse to visit Moos- brugger, as a favor to Ulrich, Stumm had turned to the Chief of the Medical Corps, who then got in touch with his celebrated colleague the head ofthe University Clinic, where Moosbruggerwas awaiting a top-level opinion on his psychiatric status. However, through a mis- understanding by both these gentlemen, the appointment for the date and time of Clarisse's visit had been made on the spot, as Stumm had been told with many apologies at the last minute, along with the error that he himselfhad been named as one ofthe visiting party that the famous psychiatrist was expecting with great pleasure.
"I feel quite ill! " he declared. This was a time-honored formula for his needing a schnapps. After he had tossed it off, he relaxed a little. "What's a madhouse to me! It's only because of you that I have to go! " he lamented. "Whatever will I say to that idiot professor when he asks me why I came along? "
At this moment a jubilant war whoop sounded at the other end of the line.
"Fine! " the General said fretfully. "But I also must absolutely talk to you about tonight. And I still have to report to my chief about it too. And he leaves the office at four! " He glanced at his watch and out of sheer hopelessness did not budge from his chair.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · z057
"Well, I'm ready," Ulrich said.
"Your lovely sister isn't coming? " Stumm asked in surprise.
"My sister is out. "
"Too bad. " The General sighed. "Your sister is the most remark-
able woman I have ever met. "
"I thought that was Diotima," Ulrich said.
"She's another," Stumm replied. "Diotima is admirable too. But
since she's been going in for sex education I feel like a schoolboy. I'm happy to look up to her-God knows, a soldier's trade is a simple and crude kind ofmanual labor, as I always say, but precisely in the realm ofsex it goes against one's honor as an officer to let oneselfbe treated as a novice! "
By now they were in the carriage and being driven off at a brisk trot.
"Is your young lady pretty, at least? " Stumm inquired suspiciously. "She's quite an original, as you'll see," Ulrich replied.
"Now, as regards tonight"-the General sighed-"something is
brewing. I expect something to happen. "
"That's what you say every time you come to see me," Ulrich pro-
tested, smiling.
"Maybe, but it's true just the same. And tonight you'll be present
at the encounter between your cousin and Frau Professor Drangsal. I hope you haven't forgotten everything I've told you about that. The Drangsal pest-that's what your cousin and I call her between our- selves-has been pestering your cousin for such a long time that she's got what she wanted: she's been haranguing everyone, and to- night will be the showdown between them. We were only waiting for Arnheim, so that he can form an opinion too. "
"Oh? " Ulrich had not seen Arnheim for a long time, and had not known that he was back.
"Of course. Just for a few days," Stumm said. "So we had to set it up-" He broke offsuddenly, bounding up from the swaying uphol- stery toward the driver's box with an agility no one would have ex- pected of him. "Idiot! " he barked into the ear of the orderly disguised as a civilian coachman who was driving the ministerial horses, and he rocked helplessly back and forth with the carriage as he clung to the back of the man he was insulting, shouting: "You're taking the long way round! " The soldier in civvies held his back stiff
1058 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
as a board, numb to the General's extramilitary use of his body to save himself from falling, turned his head exactly ninety degrees, so that he could not see either his general or his horses, and smartly reported to a vertical that ended in the air that the shortest route was blocked offby street repairs, but he would soon be back on it. "There you are--so I was right! " Stumm cried as he fell back, glossing over his futile outburst of impatience, partly for the orderly's benefit and partly for Ulrich's. "So now the fellow has to take a detour, when I'm supposed to report to my chief this very afternoon, and he wants to go home at four o'clock, by which time he should have briefed the Minister himself! . . . His Excellency the Minister has sent word to the Tuzzis to expect him in person tonight," he added in a low voice, just for Ulrich's ear.
"You don't say! " Ulrich showed himself properly impressed by this news.
''I've been telling you for a long time there's something in the air. "
Now Ulrich wanted to know what was in the air. "Come out with it, then," he demanded. "What does the Minister want? "
_"He doesn't know himself," Stumm answered genially. "His Ex- cellency has a feeling that the time has come. Old Leinsdorf also has a feeling that the time has come. The Chief of the General Staff like- wise has a feeling that the time has come. When a lot of people have such a feeling, there may be something in it. "
"But the time for what? " Ulrich persisted.
''Well, we don't need to know that yet," the General instructed him. "These are simply reliable indications! By the way," he asked abstractedly, or perhaps thoughtfully, "how many of us will there be today? "
"How would I know? " Ulrich asked in surprise.
"All I meant," Stumm explained, "is how many of us are going to the madhouse? Excuse me! Funny, isn't it, that kind of misunder- standing? There are days when there's too much coming at one from all sides. So: how many are coming? "
"I don't know who else will be coming-somewhere between three and six people. "
''What I meant," the General said earnestly, "was that if there are more than three of us, we'll have to get another cab-you under- stand, because I'm in uniform. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1059
"Oh, of course," Ulrich reassured him.
"I can't very well drive in a sardine can. "
"Of course not. But tell me, what's this about reliable indica-
tions? "
"But will we be able to get a cab out there? " Stumm worried. "It's
so far out you can hear the animals snoring. "
'W e'll pick one up on the way," Ulrich said firmly. "Now will you
please tell me how you have reliable indications that it's time for something to happen? "
"There's nothing to tell," Stumm replied. "When I say about something that that's the way it is and it can't be otherwise, what I'm really saying is that I can't explain it! At most one might add that this Drangsal is one of those pacifists, probably because Feuermaul, who's her protege, writes poems about 'Man is good. ' Lots of people believe that sort of thing now. ''
Ulrich was not convinced. "Didn't you tell me the opposite just a little while ago? That they're now all in favor of taking action, taking a strong line, and all that? "
"True too," the C'. eneral granted. "And influential circles are back- ing Drangsal; she has a great knack for that sort of thing. They expect the patriotic campaign to come up with a humanitarian action. "
"Really? " Ulrich said.
"You know, you really don't seem to care about anything anymore! The rest of us are worried. Let me remind you, for instance, that the fratricidal Austro-German war of 1866 only happened because all the Germans in the Frankfurt Parliament declared themselves to be brothers. Not,ofcourse,thatI'msuggestingthattheWarMinisteror the Chief of the General Staff might be worrying along those lines; that would be nonsense. But one thing does lead to another. That's how it is! See what I mean? "
It was not clear, but it made sense. And the General went on to make a very wise observation:
"Look, you're always wanting things to be clear and logical," he remonstrated with his seatmate. "And I do admire you for it, but you must for once try to think in historical terms. How can those directly involved in what's happening know beforehand whether it will tum out to be a great event? All they can do is pretend to themselves that it is! Ifl may indulge in a paradox, I'd say that the history ofthe world
1060 · THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
is written before it happens; it always starts off as a kind of gossip. So that people who have the energy to act are faced with a very serious problem. "
"You have a point," Ulrich said appreciatively. "But now tell me all about it. "
Although the General wanted to expand on it, there was so much on his mind in these moments, when the horse's hooves had begun to hit softer ground, that he was suddenly seized by other anxieties.
"Here I am, decked out like a Christmas tree in case the Minister calls for me," he cried, underlining it by pointing to his light-blue tunic and the medals hanging from it. "Don't you think it could lead to awkward incidents if I appear like this, in full dress, in front of loonies? What do I do, for instance, if one of them decides to insult the Emperor's uniform? I can hardly draw my sword, but it would be really dangerous for me not to say anything, either! "
Ulrich calmed him down by pointing out that he would be likely to wear a doctor's white coat over his uniform. But before Stumm had time to declare himselffully satisfied with this solution they met Cla- risse, impatiently coming to meet them in a smart summer dress, es- corted by Siegmund. She told Ulrich that Walter and Meingast had refused to join them. And after they had managed to find a second carriage, the General was pleased to say to Clarisse: "As you were coming down the road toward us, my dear young lady, you looked positively like an angel! "
But by the time he left the carriage at the hospital gate, Stumm von Bordwehr appeared rather flushed and ill at ease.
33
THE LUNATICS GREET CLARISSE
Clarisse was twisting her gloves in her hands, looking up at the win- dows, and fidgeting constantly while Ulrich paid for the cab. Stumm von Bordwehr protested Ulrich's doing this, and the cabbie sat on his box with a flattered smile as the two gentlemen kept each other back. Siegmund brushed specks off his coat with his fingertips, as usual, or stared into space.
In a low voice, the General said to Ulrich: "There's something odd about your lady friend. She lectured me the whole way about what will is. I didn't understand a word! "
"That's the way she is," Ulrich said.
"Pretty, though," the General whispered. "Like a fourteen-year- old ballerina. But why does she say that we came here in order to follow our 'hallucination'? The world is 'too free of hallucinations,' she says. D'you know anything about that? It was so distressing, I simply couldn't think of a word to say. "
The General was obviously holding up the departure of the cab only because he wanted to ask these questions, but before Ulrich could answer he was relieved of the responsibility by an emissary who welcomed the visitors in the name of the director of the clinic, and apologizing to the General for having to keep them waiting be- cause ofsome urgent business, he led the company upstairs to a wait- ing room. Clarisse took in every inch of the staircase and the corridors with her eyes, and even in the little waiting room, with its chairs upholstered in threadbare green velvet so reminiscent of an old-fashioned first-class waiting room in a railway station, her gaze roved about slowly almost the whole time. There the four of them sat, after the emissary had left, and found nothing to say until Ulrich, to break the silence, teased Clarisse by asking her whether the thought of meeting Moosbrugger face-to-face wasn't making her blood run cold.
1061
1062 • THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
"Bah! " Clarisse said. "He's only known ersatz women; it had to come to this. "
The General had come up with a face-saving idea, something hav- ing belatedly occurred to him: "The will is now very up-to-date," he said. 'W e're very much concerned with this problem in our patriotic action too! "
Clarisse gave him a smile and stretched her arms to ease the ten- sion in them. "Having to wait like this, one can feel what's coming in one's arms and legs, as ifone were looking through a telescope," she replied.
Stumm von Bordwehr gave it some thought, careful not to put a foot wrong again. "That's true! " he said. "It may have something to do with the current cult of exercise and bodybuilding. We're con- cerned with that also.
"
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr. Friedenthal, who would take good care of them in his stead.
Dr. Friedenthal was a tall, slender man with a somewhat effemi- nate body and a thick mop of hair, who smiled at them, as he was introduced, like an acrobat climbing a ladder for a death-defying per- formance. When the director had gone, the white lab coats were brought in. 'W e don't want to get the patients excited," Dr. Frieden- thal explained.
As Clarisse slipped into hers she experienced a strange surge of power. She stood there like a little doctor. She felt very much a man, and very white.
The General looked around for a mirror. It was hard to find a lab coat to fit his idiosyncratic proportion of girth to height; when they finally managed to get him into something that covered him com- pletely, he looked like a child in an adult's nightshirt. "Don't you think I should take my spurs off? " he asked Dr. Friedenthal.
"Army doctors wear spurs too," Ulrich pointed out.
Stumm made one last feeble and laborious effort to see what he looked like from behind, where the medical coverall was caught up
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 o63
in heavy folds above his spurs. Then they set out. Dr. Friedenthal enjoined them to keep calm no matter what they might see.
"So far so good! " Stumm whispered to his friend. "But I'm not really interested in any of this. Could use the time much better to talk with you about tonight's meeting. Now look, you said you wanted me to tell you frankly what's going on. It's quite simple: the whole world is arming. The Russians have a brand-new field artillery. Are you listening? The French are using their two-year conscription law to build up an enormous army. The Italians . . . "
They had descended the same old-fashioned princely staircase they had climbed before and, after somehow turning off the main corridor, found themselves in a maze of small rooms and twisting passages with whitewashed beams protruding from the ceiling. These were mostly utility rooms and offices, cramped and dreary be- cause of a shortage of space in the ancient building. Sinister figures, only some of whom wore institutional uniforms, populated them. One door bore the inscription "Reception"; another, "Men. " The General's talk dried up. He had a premonition that things could hap- pen at any moment, requiring by their unprecedented nature great presence of mind. He could not help wondering what he would do if an irresistible need forced him to leave the group and he were to stumble, alone and without an expert guide in a place where all men are equal, upon a madman.
Clarisse, on the other hand, was walking a step ahead of Dr. Frie- denthai. His having said that they had to wear these white coats so as not to alarm the patients buoyed her up like a life vest on the current of her impressions. She was mulling over some of her pet ideas. Nietzsche: "Is there a pessimism ofstrength? An intellectual predis- position to whatever is hard, sinister, evil, problematic in life? A yearning for the terrible as a worthy foe? Perhaps madness is not necessarily a symptom of degeneracy. " She was not thinking this in so many words, but she remembered it as a whole; her thoughts had compressed it all into a tiny packet, admirably fitted to the smallest space, like a burglar's tool. For her this excursion was half philosophy and half adultery.
Dr. Friedenthai stopped in front of an iron door and took a flat key from his pants pocket. When he opened the door they stepped out
1064 • THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
from the shelter of the building and were blinded by the brightness. At the same moment Clarisse heard a frightful shriek such as she had never heard before in her life. For all her pluckiness, she winced.
"Just a horse! " Dr. Friedenthal said, smiling.
And in fact they were on a road that led from the front gate, along the side of the administration building, and around to the kitchen yard of the institution. It was no different from other such roads, with old wheel tracks and homely weeds on which the sun was blaz- ing hotly. And yet all the others too, with the exception of Dr. Frie- denthal, felt oddly disconcerted a n d - i n a startled, confused fashion-almost indignant, to find themselves on a wholesome and ordinary road after having already survived a long, arduous passage. Freedom, at first blush, had something disconcerting about it, even though it was incredibly comforting; it actually took some getting used to again. With Clarisse, who was more vulnerable to the clash of contrasts, the tension shattered in a loud giggle.
Still smiling, Dr. Friedenthal strode ahead across the road and on the other side opened a small but heavy iron door in the high wall of a park. "This is where it begins," he said gently.
And now they really found themselves inside that world to which Clarisse had felt herself inexplicably attracted for weeks, not only with the shudder at something incommensurable and impenetrable, but as though she were fated to experience something there that she could not imagine beforehand. At first there was nothing to differen- tiate this world from any other big old park, with the greensward sloping up in one direction toward groups of tall trees, among which small white villa-like buildings could be seen. The sweep of the sky behind them gave promise of a lovely view, and from one such look- out point Clarisse saw patients with attendants standing and sitting in groups, looking like white angels.
General Stumm took this as the right moment to resume his con- versation with Ulrich. "Now, let me prime you a bit more for this evening," he began. "The Italians, the Russians, the French, and the English too, you lmow, are all arming, and w e - "
"You want your artillery; I lmow that already," Ulrich interrupted.
"Among other things! " the General continued. "But if you don't ever let me finish, we'll soon be among the loonies and won't be able to talk in peace. So, as I was saying, we're in the middle of all this, in
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1065
a very risky position from the military point of view. And in this fix we're being badgered-I'm referring to the Parallel Campaign-to think of nothing but the goodness of man! "
"And your people are against it! I understand. "
"Not at all, on the contrary! " Stumm protested. 'We're not against it! W e take pacifism very seriously! But we must get our artillery bud- get through. And ifwe could do that hand in hand with pacifism, so to speak, it would be the best safeguard against all those imperialistic misunderstandings that are so quick to assert that we're endangering world peace! It's true, ifyou like, that we're in bed with La Drangsal, just a little. But we also have to proceed with caution because her opposition, the nationalist movements, who now have their people inside the Campaign too, are against pacifism and in favor of getting our army up to scratch! "
The General had to cut himself short, with an expression of bitter- ness, for they had almost reached the top of the incline, where Dr. Friedenthal was awaiting his troop. The angels' gathering place turned out to be lightly fenced in; their guide crossed it without pay- ing it much attention, as a mere prelude. "A 'quiet' ward," he ex- plained.
They were all women; their hair hung loose down to their shoul- ders, and their faces were repellent, with fat, blurred, puffy features. One of them came rushing up to the doctor and forced a letter on him. "It's always the same thing," Dr. Friedenthal explained to his visitors and read aloud: " 'Adolf, my love! When are you coming to see me? Have you forgotten me? ' " The woman, about sixty, stood there with an apathetic face and listened. "You'll send it out right away, won't you? '' she begged. "Of course! " Dr. Friedenthal prom- ised, then he tore the letter into pieces in front of her eyes and smiled at the nurse. Clarisse instantly challenged him: "How could you do this? " she asked. "These patients must be taken seriously! "
"Come along," Dr. Friedenthal said. "There's no point in wasting our time here. Ifyou like, I'll show you hundreds ofsuch letters later. You must have noticed that the old woman didn't react at all when I tore it up? "
Clarisse was disconcerted, because what Dr. Friedenthal said was true, but it confused her thoughts. And before she could straighten them out again, they were further disturbed when, on their way out,
1o66 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
another old woman, who had been lying in wait for them, lifted up her skirt and exposed to the passing gentlemen her ugly old-woman's thighs up to her belly, above coarse woolen stockings.
"The old sow," Stumm von Bordwehr muttered, sufficiently out- raged and disgusted to forget politics for a while.
But Clarisse had discovered a resemblance between the thigh and the face. The thigh probably showed the same stigmata offatty physi- cal degeneration as the face, but this gave Clarisse for the first time an impression of strange correspondences and a world that worked differently from what one could grasp with the usual categories. She also now realized that she had not noticed the transformation of the white angels into these women, and indeed that even while walking through their midst she had not been able to distinguish the patients from the nurses. She turned around and looked back, but because the path had curved behind a building, she could no longer see any- thing and stumbled after the others like a child that turns its head away. From this point on, her impressions no longer formed the transparent flow of events that one accepts life to be, but became a foaming torrent with only occasional smooth patches that stuck in the memory.
"Another quiet ward, this time for men," Dr. Friedenthal an- nounced, gathering his flock at the entrance to a building, and when they paused at the first bed he presented its occupant to them in a considerately lowered voice as a case of "depressive dementia paralytica. "
"An old syphilitic. Delusions ofsin and nihilistic obsessions," Sieg- mund whispered, translating the terms for his sister. Clarisse found herself face-to-face with an old gentleman who, to all appearances, had once belonged to the upper reaches of society. He sat upright in bed, was perhaps in his late fifties, and had a very white skin. His well-cared-for and highly intelligent face was framed in thick white hair and looked as improbably distinguished as the faces one finds described only in the cheapest novels.
"Couldn't one do a portrait ofhim? " Stumm von Bordwehr asked. "The very model ofintellectual beauty! I'd love to give the portrait to your cousin! " he said to Ulrich.
Dr. Friedenthal gave a sad smile and commented: "The noble ex- pression is caused by a slackening of tension in the facial muscles. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · zo67
He demonstrated with a quick movement the unresponsive fixity of the man's pupils, then led them onward. There was not enough time for all the available material. The old gentleman, who had nodded mournfully to everything said at his bedside, was still muttering in a low, troubled voice when the five of them stopped again, several beds farther on, to consider the next case Dr. Friedenthal had cho- sen for them.
This time it was someone who was himself engaged in art, a cheer- ful, fat painter whose bed stood close to a sunny window. He had paper and many pencils on his blanket, and busied himselfwith them all day long. Clarisse was immediately struck by the happy restless- ness of his movements. "That's the way Walter should be painting! " she thought. Friedenthal, seeing her interest, quickly snatched a sheet ofpaper from the fat man and handed it to Clarisse; the painter snickered and behaved like a serving girl who'd just been pinched. But Clarisse was amazed to see a sketch for a large composition, drawn with sure, accomplished strokes, entirely sensible to the point of banality, with many figures woven together in accurate perspec- tive and a large hall, everything executed in meticulous detail, so that the whole effect was of something so salutary and professorial that it could have come from the National Academy. "What amazing crafts- manship! " she cried impulsively.
Dr. Friedenthal responded with a flattered smile.
The artist gleefully made a rude noise at him.
"You see, that gentleman likes it! Show him some more, go on!
Amazing how good it is, he said! Go on, show him! I know you're only laughing at me, but he likes it! " He spoke good-humoredly, holding out the rest of his drawings to the doctor, with whom he seemed to be on easy terms although the doctor didn't appreciate his work.
"We don't have time for you today," Dr. Friedenthal told him and, turning to Clarisse, summed up the case by saying: "He's not schizo- phrenic; sorry he's the only one we have here at the moment. Schizo- phrenics are often fine artists, quite modem. "
"And insane? " Clarisse said dubiously.
"Why not? '' Dr. Friedenthal answered sadly.
Clarisse bit her lip.
Meanwhile Stumm and Ulrich were already on the threshold to
the next ward, and the General was saying: "Looking at this, I'm re-
1068 • THE MAN WITH0 UT QUALITIES
ally sorry I called my orderly an idiot this morning. I'll never do it again! " For the ward they were facing was a room with extreme cases ofidiocy.
Clarisse had not yet seen this and was thinking: "So even academic art, so respectably and widely recognized, has a sister in Bedlam-a sister denied, deprived, and yet so much a twin one can barely tell the difference! " This almost impressed her more than Friedenthal's remark that another time he might be able to show her expressionist artists. She made up her mind to take him up on it. Her head was down, and she was still biting her lip. There was something wrong with all this. It seemed to her clearly wrong to lock up such gifted people; the doctors might know about diseases, she thought, but probably did not understand art and all it stood for. Something would have to be done, she felt. But it was not clear to her what. Yet she did not lose heart, for the fat painter had immediately called her "that gentleman"-it seemed to her a good omen.
Friedenthal scrutinized her with curiosity.
When she felt his gaze she looked up with her thin-lipped smile and moved toward him, but before she could say anything an appall- ing sight made her mind a blank. In this new ward a series ofhorrible apparitions crouched and sat in their beds, everything about their bodies crooked, unclean, twisted, or paralyzed. Decayed teeth. Wag- gling heads. Heads too big, too small, totally misshapen. Slack, drooping jaws from which saliva was dribbling, or brutish grinding motions of the mouth, without food or words. Yard-wide leaden bar- riers seemed to lie between these souls and the world, and after the low chuckling and buzzing in the other room, the silence here, bro- ken only by obscure grunting and muttering sounds, was oppressive. Such wards for severe mental deficiency are among the most horrify- ing sights to be found in the hideousness of a mental institution, and Clarisse felt herself plunged headlong into a ghastly darkness that blotted out all distinctions.
But their guide, Friedenthal, could see even in the dark, and pointing to various beds, he explained: "That's idiocy over there, and over here you have cretinism. "
Stumm von Bordwehr pricked up his ears. "A cretin is not the same as an idiot? " he asked.
"No," the doctor said, "there's a medical distinction. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1069
"Interesting," Stumm said. "In ordinary life one would never think of such a thing. "
Clarisse moved from bed to bed. Her eyes bored into the patients, as she tried with all her might to understand, without succeeding in the least in gleaning anything from these faces that took no cogni- zance of her. All thought in them was extinguished. Dr. Friedenthal followed her softly and explained: "congenital amaurotic idiocy"; "tubercular hypertrophic sclerosis"; "idiotia thymica . . . "
The General, who meanwhile felt that he had seen enough of these "morons" and assumed that Ulrich felt the same way, glanced at his watch and said: "Now, where were we?
