Well that was dumb.

[synapticjava]

Just finished Bartleby the Scrivener. Boy, that was dumb. No actual conclusion, and just a guy that won't leave? Am I missing something? And dead letters? Mental note: Kick Williams on Tuesday.

Comments

[caviling]

Gasp!

YES YES OH MY GOSH YOU'RE MISSING SO MUCH BEST SHORT STORY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HATING BARTLEBY DOES NOT COMPUTE DOES NOT COMPUTE BRAIN ESSPLODE--*pop*

I certainly hope Williams tells you guys about how and why Melville wrote this. I promise it's not dumb or pointless.

And dead letters are letters that can't get where they're supposed to go. (Wrong address or whatever.) Bartleby's job was destroying thwarted correspondence.
I totally blame Williams for this. Without context, it's a puzzling story. (Sorry; I read it the first time with Wiliams in the American novel class, and then I had it last quarter with American Lit Goddess Lucy Rinehart, and I assure you it's good.)

Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!

</english major>

Your icon makes me giggle, by the way.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Why am I not suprised. lol. That's probably akin to someone telling me that Freud was completely wrong and that Stroop's experiment proved nothing. *cringe*

*puts your brain back together*

I knew what dead letters are (courtesy of Beetlejuice, the cartoon), but I'm missing too much of the puzzle, I think. Maybe I didn't read it correctly?

Maybe I'll go google it or something.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Oh, and glad you like the icon. *g*

[catching-tigers.livejournal.com]

imo, youre not missing anytihng to be found in the story. i thought it was the stupidest thing ever until it was explained because all i could interpret was that it was a piece denouncing the ways of modern, impersonal and capitalistic and industrial society. well great. i could do do the same thing in a lot less words. but when it was actually all ~explained~ to me, it just HIT. *BAM!* and its a story i love, now. i mean, i think its a tad long and repetitive, but the idea behind it?

i dunno. i could try to explain it the way it was explained to me, but id just blunder along like a fool. though if even after explaination, you dont like it, feel free to kick me until you feel better.

[caviling]

Tee hee. I loved Beetlejuice the cartoon.

The thing about "Bartleby" is to not try to figure out exactly what Bartleby means; anyone who says they understand his motivation is a liar.

[moonfire77.livejournal.com]

Yeah I pretty much felt the same way about it. Kick Williams for me while you're at it ok?

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Simply put - an english major, I am not.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Gladly:)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you didn't like it, sweetie. I really love that story. I find it very very humorous. It's interesting if you read it in the context of Emerson and Thoreau. "Bartleby" has some interesting things to say about the concept of community and whether it's necessary for human survival, among other things.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

You know, it's not so much that I didn't like it. I guess it was just too inconclusive for me. I'm so used to novels with climax and endings, I'm not good with this stuff. Plus, it makes me feel dumb because its supposedly a classic, and I don't understand it. *le sigh*

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Not dumb. Bad Brad. *does NOT spank you* ha ha

If you need to get this book to write a paper or for a test or if you just want to, I could write you a para or two on what I think it means/is important in the text. Of course, if you wanna just have done with it, I get that too! LOL :)

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Yes. Please. I don't have to write anything on it, but I want to know what the big deal is.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I don't know what version of the text you're using so our pagination will prob be off. I'm just gonna type in some of the notes I took on it without trying to pretty it up. Anything that is too incomprehensible, ask. *g*

"B" illustrates the possiblity of isolation within a community and its dangers. Thee are mutual levels of responsibility between the individual and the community. "B" illustrates the consequences of allowing thse responsibilities to lapse.

Bartleby disengages (he prefers not to). He denies his obligation to the community. The community also denies its responsibility to Bartleby. The narrator walks away from him.

The narrator is repulsed by Bartleby, a repulsion that's a natural reaction of a community that wants to cut out a "diseased" part. And Bartleby is dangerous; his behavior begins to affect the narrator and the other scriveners he "works" with.

That's about all I can say without typing in long quotes. Hope this helps.

[chocgood84.livejournal.com]

Actually, that does help a lot. Thanks :)