bartleby was the one story by melville that i got into. maybe
it was all the windows that opened onto brick walls. i
remember an overwhelming sense of confinement. i don't think
the lawyer was intended to be sympathetic. his inaction was
not so different from bartleby's. the dissatisfaction with
modernity makes it the most noirish (if you will) of the
melville's i read in college. if anyone wants to read some
melville, here's a link to a bunch of online public domain
stuff, including bartleby, which i think i'll reread this
weekend to see if it sucks like mike says, cause, after all,
i read it in college when i too "preferred not to..."
http://books.mirror.org/gb.melville.html
--- Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I read these two stories by Melville on the
long
> flight out to Seattle last week. Aside from
Moby
> Dick, that's the only Melville I've read. Three
out
> of three for doomed characters. I had heard
that
> his
> short works were better than Moby Dick, but
that
> wasn't my experience. Aside from the boring
whaling
> essays which I eventually took to skimming
(very
> rare
> for me. I normally read every word.), Moby Dick
was
> a
> grand Romance of man against God and
nature.
> Obviously, man doesn't fare to well.
>
> Billy Budd didn't have much to offer. The
noble
> savage defeated by devious civilization, with a
page
> after page of editorial comment to go with
every
> action. I found Bartleby to be horrible. I had
no
> sympathy for the lawyer. He should have
kicked
> Bartleby's ass to the curb a long time ago.
And
> moving out because he couldn't handle it
was
> gutless.
>
> I think I'll read a couple of the South Seas
tales
> and
> call it quits on Melville.
>
> Oh! I read a short one called The End of the
Road
> by
> John Barthes on the trip back. I'll comment on
it
> later.
>
> miker
>
>
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