Genese Grill
banner
genesegrill.bsky.social
Genese Grill
@genesegrill.bsky.social
Essayist, Translator, Bibliophile, Working on the First English-Language Biography of Robert Musil for Yale University Press.
https://genesegrill.wixsite.com/website
https://www.thisissplice.co.uk/essays/portals/
Full reading and meeting schedule for our year-long exploration of Musil's The Man Without Qualities.
September 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
What is this book, The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil? And why might you want to spend a year reading it with me and @samantharhill.bsky.social ?
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
The Man Without Qualities
apropos of upcoming reading group with Samantha Rose Hill
open.substack.com
September 15, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I am co-leading a year-long Man Without Qualities Reading Group with @samantharhill.bsky.social , starting on Monday, October 13th. Join us! Details can be found here:
genesegrill.substack.com/p/man-withou...
Man Without Qualities Reading Group
Starting October 13th
genesegrill.substack.com
September 1, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Aristotle and Plato are One!
Aesthetics and Ethics are One!
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
open.substack.com
July 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
"What M[usil] is always about, why he haunts: looking for a place the individual can fit in in a deadened, shallow world. .. cf. Rilke, the goal of art is to produce in reader a moral imperative to change his life."

genesegrill.substack.com/p/excerpts-f...
Excerpts from Burton Pike's Musil Notes
"...looking for a place the individual can fit in in a deadened, shallow world."
genesegrill.substack.com
June 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Yes, such a beautiful, rich, wide-ranging and important essay. Thank you, Gabe.
April 30, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Some Notes on Musil and Rilke
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
Some Notes on Musil and Rilke
"This gemlike stillness amid a never-halting movement"
open.substack.com
April 3, 2025 at 11:50 AM
March 21, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Sharing a draft I'm struggling to weave in to the biography narrative on Musil's take on the "new human being" and attempts to create a new world after WWI: activism, anarchism, aesthetic edcucation, ethics, socialism, totalitarianisms.
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
The New Human Being?
Activists, Anarchists, Nihilists, Aesthetes: Musil and post WWI dreams of a New World
open.substack.com
March 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I had the pleasure of interviewing David Lazar about his new book for On the Seawall:
www.ronslate.com/the-natural-...
“The natural warmth of detritus”: David Lazar in Conversation on Stories of the Streets – On the Seawall
www.ronslate.com
March 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
A podcast of me reading Musil's "Susanna's Letter" from Thought Flights. More to come.
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
"Susanna's Letter"
Small Prose from Thought Flights
open.substack.com
March 3, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Summary of the Musil-Mann Relationship:
genesegrill.substack.com/p/mann-and-m...
Mann and Musil, Continued
The Great Man of Letters and his Worthy Rival
genesegrill.substack.com
February 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Genese Grill
This beautiful book arrived today, thank you very much for this gift of poetry by the incomparable Hannah Arendt...
@samantharhill.bsky.social
@genesegrill.bsky.social

www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/164...

www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopre...
For the Love of the Word
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
www.poetryfoundation.org
February 19, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Still working on my summary of the Musil-Mann relationship. In the meantime, a little very rough draft excerpt from the bio-in-progress on Mach, Kant, Bahr (and the marvelous Marie Bashkirtseff!). open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
Kant, Mach, Bahr and the "Unsalvagable I"
A very rough draft excerpt from the biography
open.substack.com
February 14, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Musil Contra Mann: Just a taster for my longer analysis of the complex relationship between these two men (coming soon):
open.substack.com/pub/genesegr...
Musil contra Mann
A particularly nasty dig from Musil's notebooks
open.substack.com
February 7, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Genese Grill
“Through thoughtlessness, we render the world sterile and lifeless, but when we write thoughtfully and beautifully … we make the world thoughtful and beautiful.” Review of @samantharhill.bsky.social & @genesegrill.bsky.social’s book of/on Arendt’s poetry www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/164...
For the Love of the Word
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
www.poetryfoundation.org
January 30, 2025 at 1:22 AM