3 EGO-DEATH

How have the Selfless literary practices been changing the cognition of human essence?

3.1 PRINCIPLES

The Man Without Qualities [a] plainly observes life within his absolute principles [b], he experiences rather the factual matters of external circumstances than a decisive generalization [c]. He perceives anything individually instead of the collision of things and affairs [d] since reality is just a trivial rhythm for him. [e]

[a]

Main character of the book The Man Without Qualities vol I. Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails written by Robert Musil in 1930. [11]

[b]

We are confronted with the enigma of who we are, but The No Q Man seems to have an answer to all sorts of subjects due to his Egolessness, he redefines the certain realness, improving, thus enriching it with his orderly perception.

[c]

He allows the society to shape his Self and through that he comments its nature. Musil does not just pursue the quality of The no Q Man’s Persona, moreover, the influence of human qualities constituting certain subjective environments.

[d]

Therefore his actions means something else to others, he is portrayed as a spectator without any specific intention.

[e]

As if the fluid recording evokes our nothingness, assuming it’s the reason we are unable to feel the harmony of the Self versus society.

3.2 ACCEPTANCE

As life is just passing by, Meursault [f], passes together within it, in his essence an assertive calm man, a nihilistic spectator [g]. His directness seems frustrating because of his inability to feel emotions let alone portray them to others [h], consequently his radicality puts him in questionable situations that are not socially acceptable [i].

[f]

Main character of the book The Stranger written by Albert Camus in 1942. [12]

[g]

His approach to Selflessness essentially differs from The No Q Man, life affairs occur unintentionally but do not obtain any principles.

[h]

The worthlessness of life symbolizes the fullness of its exhaustion, by reaching the totality through plain being, Camus interprets an existential Pleroma.

[i]

Meursault persists as a dry commentary of society, the simplicity of his conviction stops him from evolution, so he will never be able to accept any cognition. Significant is that he does not want to.

3.3 AUTOMATIZATION

Well known Gregor Samsa [j] went through metamorphic-like transformation into an insect [k], supplementary his visual change grows into deprivation of the ability to act as a human [l]. His metamorphosis appears as a simulation in order to come back to the natural order of life, that’s why his reaction seems immediate, understated, and surprisingly rational [m]. Finally by accepting the futility of his Self, he rather dies. [n].

[j]

Main character of the book Metamorphosis written by Franz Kafka’s in 1915. [13]

[k]

The animal does not decide whether to change or not. It is not acting of its own free will. It’s an instinct. And there is a big difference, with human metamorphosis which is more likely caused by mental state of one’s Psyche.

[l]

Gregor loses his identity not because he is an insect, but because he loses ability to fulfil his social role.

[m]

The metamorphoses of animals are mechanical, automated, conditioned by physiological and developmental process.

[n]

Truthfully Selfless character, wanting to be just accepted by his family, after change it’s impossible to achieve their appreciation, Gregor’s Self loses its meaning.

3.4 TOGETHER

“IF one wants to pass through open doors easily, one must bear mind that they have a solid frame: this principle, according to which the old professor had always lived, is simply a requirement of the sense of reality. But if there is such a thing as a sense of reality—and no one will doubt that it has its raison d’être—then there must also be something that one can call a sense of possibility.”…”So the sense of possibility might be defined outright as the capacity to think how everything could ‘just as easily’ be, and to attach no more importance to what is than to what is not.”…“It is the reality that awakens possibilities, but who will first give the new possibilities their meaning and their destiny.” [11]

“Then he asked me if I wasn’t interested in a change of life. I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all. He looked upset and told me that I never gave him a straight answer, that I had no ambition, and that that was disastrous in business”[12]

“However, Gregor had become much calmer. All right, people did not understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than previously, perhaps because had gotten used to them” [13]