Here, the narrator-himself a boss-recognizes his own "involuntary" way of using the word "prefer," and "tremble to think" of the other ways in which Bartleby might have "already and seriously affected" him. But, sir, as I was saying, if he would but prefer-" "Turkey,” interrupted I, “you will please withdraw." "Oh, certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should." " That’s the word, Turkey," said I-"that’s it." "Oh, prefer? oh yes-queer word. "What word, sir?" "I would prefer to be left alone here," said Bartleby, as if offended at being mobbed in his privacy. "With submission, what word, sir," asked Turkey, respectfully crowding himself into the contracted space behind the screen, and by so doing, making me jostle the scrivener. "With submission, sir," said he, "yesterday I was thinking about Bartleby here, and I think that if he would but prefer to take a quart of good ale every day, it would do much towards mending him, and enabling him to assist in examining his papers." "So you have got the word too," said I, slightly excited. As Nippers, looking very sour and sulky, was departing, Turkey blandly and deferentially approached. And what further and deeper aberration might it not yet produce? This apprehension had not been without efficacy in determining me to summary means. And I trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected me in a mental way. Consider this passage from "Bartleby," in which the narrator recognizes the impact of Bartleby's language on himself and his employees: Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word "prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. MediaBistro reported on a group reading of Melville's story last week at Zuccotti Park, and over at The New Republic, Nina Martyris weighed in on how what she called "America's first slacktivist" might inform a contemporary critique of Wall Street.īut what can be learned from "Bartleby" today, as OWS enters its third month, and as its founding principle of passive resistance is increasingly challenged by violent means, is not simply the importance (and obligation) of an active interrogation of social and political life it's that an inscrutable phrase-"We are the 99%," or "I would prefer not to"-can enter into daily conversation, can itself be replicated, and in this way effect fundamental change. The lesson of the inscrutability of "Bartleby" has in fact already been applied to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Or, to extend this from the literary to the political realm, when presented with a person's resistance-passive or otherwise-it is the obligation of observers-indeed, of all in a democratic society-to think about the possibilities of what that person might stand for, even if we cannot pinpoint a single issue, meaning, or demand. For Franklin, the significance of being "continually asked to guess" who Bartleby is, or what he means, is not only the function of the story, but the obligation of its readers. Bruce Franklin once wrote, "we must first realize that we can never know who or what Bartleby is, but that we are continually asked to guess who or what he might be"-this from Franklin's The Wake of Gods: Melville's Mythology (1963). Does Bartleby's "extraordinary quantity" of mechanical writing suggest a reading of the story as representing the increasing industrialization of nineteenth-century America? Do the avoidant actions of the story's narrator-Bartleby's boss-point to the limits of benevolence and charity? Does Bartleby's former employ, the Dead Letter Office, correspond to Melville's own feelings about the trajectory (and content) of his failing literary career? And most inscrutable of all: why, precisely, does Bartleby so often "prefer not to"? What on earth (or above) could be motivating his willful, but undeniably passive resistance?Īs any reader of "Bartleby" knows, these questions cannot be answered with certitude. Melville's account of how the eponymous scrivener, whose job is to produce multiple copies of legal documents, slowly and deliberately withdraws from everyday life with the sole explanation, "I would prefer not to," has continued to resist interpretation. "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street," composed in 1853, is perhaps Herman Melville's most famous short story.
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