Bartleby, the Scrivener by Melville

Yeah, I mean, as a first time reader of this tale, I have lots of questions.

You know, you kind of know about Melville culturally from like Moby Dick, et cetera, but to actually read this text, I also didn't look anything up about the story before I read it.

So I'm like working through it.

I'm like, okay, this is much more mundane than I was expecting.

You know, there's no giant whale in this story.

Also, my imagination was completely been ruined by Flannery O'Connor because we just read her a few weeks ago.

So halfway through the story, there's all these people with these strong personalities and et cetera.

So I'm just waiting that, you know, some terrible act has to happen at some point, some giant.

zenith of the story, some violence or something that comes in and shows you what this was actually about.

And it ends in a very kind of subtle way.

So I'm very intrigued by it.

Any other preliminary thoughts before we jump into the story itself?

I guess the main thing that comes to mind is just like...

We'll talk about this as we go through, but it just seems like...

Bartleby's motives are like inscrutable, especially to the narrator, but I think also to the reader, like why does he just seem to drop out? Why does he go from copying and refusing to do anything else than copying to then eventually not even copying and then just kind of like wasting away? Like what kind of person would do that? Especially because he doesn't seem to be the kind of vagrant who's just taking advantage of people because near the end, as you know, like the narrator invites him to come live with him.

So if you're just trying to, if you're a leech extracting money from a good weak-willed man or something like that, then he would take advantage of that.

So Bartleby is not motivated, I think, by something like that.

So that's maybe the most mysterious thing in the story.

And later on, if you want, I mean, I think there are some quotes from Moby Dick that might have a bearing on it that like, That could help explain his sort of like existential angst or something like that.

But maybe that's getting ahead of ourselves.

One thing I kind of just want to draw some attention to, too, in reference to that biography, would be that in Moby Dick, you see all the time monotony or what seems like monotony really can be romanticized to Melville.

So I think about the painting in the inn towards the beginning.

It's like a very bland painting, and then he writes three pages on it.

Or the squeezing of the hands, that chapter in Moby Dick.

It's pretty monotonous work, but he writes about it in this high romantic way.

Yeah, I mean, as a first time reader of this tale, I have lots of questions.

You know, you kind of know about Melville culturally from like Moby Dick, et cetera, but to actually read this text, I also didn't look anything up about the story before I read it.

So I'm like working through it.

I'm like, okay, this is much more mundane than I was expecting.

You know, there's no giant whale in this story.

Also, my imagination was completely been ruined by Flannery O'Connor because we just read her a few weeks ago.

So halfway through the story, there's all these people with these strong personalities and et cetera.

So I'm just waiting that, you know, some terrible act has to happen at some point, some giant.

zenith of the story, some violence or something that comes in and shows you what this was actually about.

And it ends in a very kind of subtle way.

So I'm very intrigued by it.

Any other preliminary thoughts before we jump into the story itself?

I guess the main thing that comes to mind is just like...

We'll talk about this as we go through, but it just seems like...

Bartleby's motives are like inscrutable, especially to the narrator, but I think also to the reader, like why does he just seem to drop out? Why does he go from copying and refusing to do anything else than copying to then eventually not even copying and then just kind of like wasting away? Like what kind of person would do that? Especially because he doesn't seem to be the kind of vagrant who's just taking advantage of people because near the end, as you know, like the narrator invites him to come live with him.

So if you're just trying to, if you're a leech extracting money from a good weak-willed man or something like that, then he would take advantage of that.

So Bartleby is not motivated, I think, by something like that.

So that's maybe the most mysterious thing in the story.

And later on, if you want, I mean, I think there are some quotes from Moby Dick that might have a bearing on it that like, That could help explain his sort of like existential angst or something like that.

But maybe that's getting ahead of ourselves.

One thing I kind of just want to draw some attention to, too, in reference to that biography, would be that in Moby Dick, you see all the time monotony or what seems like monotony really can be romanticized to Melville.

So I think about the painting in the inn towards the beginning.

It's like a very bland painting, and then he writes three pages on it.

Or the squeezing of the hands, that chapter in Moby Dick.

It's pretty monotonous work, but he writes about it in this high romantic way.