Some things we know before we know them

Kate Chopin, The Awakening
I knew one thing about this story before beginning it: the wife walks into the ocean to kill herself at the end. No surprises possible there. The rest is impeccably constructed and evocative. That is to say, the ending is shocking because she decides to kill herself, but the noose was discovered and had been tightening for awhile. A world in which men deny her her agency in favor of the opinions and respect of other men, what other options are there?

There's an interesting point of comparison with A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche, for her many faults, understands how the game with men works and, damaged as she is at the beginning, nearly succeeds in pulling it off. The futility there is the futility of agency, of almost achieving freedom. But it's never an option in The Awakening, and so the whole thing is doomed. Once she realized she was trapped that was it. But there's never a suggestion she would be better off having not realized it.

Joseph Roth, Radetzsky March
I had the dubious fortune of having a close family member enter final decline on January 20 and die on the 21st. Everything about it was difficult, but the tiniest of silver linings was a complete mental and emotional incapacity to attend to what was happening in the world, and for a few months. I could not take on new information nor would I have been able to process it. When we emerged, I took a quick look at the world and said to my wife: "it's over". Whatever America once was it is not anymore and will never be again. (Not to say it will never be better.)

It was accordingly strange to read a book that moves the decline of an empire from subtext to text about halfway through. It becomes clear enough that many of them directly say it: whatever Austria was it is not anymore, but not everyone has realized that yet. It is a spent force, it cannot continue to exist as it did, the world is different now, we are just waiting for the final blow. I toy with whether that is my feeling about the world I live in, but it seems less farfetched and dramatic than it might have otherwise.