is sloth lost? (was: "underlying causative process")

[Mark David Tristan Brenchley]

On Thu, 25 Jan 2001, Terrance wrote:

> Dickens right, Little Dorrit comes to mind, Prison, debtor's
> prison, can you imagine you and your family in a Prison for
> the slothful--what we in our PC world might call the
> post-military-industrial complex challenged? Ah Humanity! 
> 
> Bartleby is Melville's first Giant STEP for mankind, of
> course when you are Herman, a baby step is big big big, so
> Bartleby is human by not being so. 
> 
>  Pynchon seems to owe a huge debt to Melville's Bartleby,
> his magazine fiction generally. 
> 
>  Moby-Dick, maybe Mardi is the novel here too, the sloth of
> the writer. 
> 
> But Confidence-Man is the icing on the cake. Yeah, we are
> talking about playing with a word, can you say Charity,
> Confidence. 
> 
> Everyday is christmas eve on OLD east main, days getting
> longer after the birth of Jesus or what, or April's Fools,
> and the gift of tongues, interesting phrase, Paul's letter
> to the C's I, one of them anyway, 12:28, the gift of this,
> of that....Melville, now I love every word the man wrote.
> Bloom says Shakespeare made the human or some such, well
> what does he say about his great (no Quotes) American estate
> Herman Melville? Anxiety, I think P got his influence from
> that fearful Jesuit, but his anxiety is Melville. Ah
> Shakespeare!

	Nice Ulysses refernce. Personally, I find Melvilles short stories
rather dull even if they are important from a history of literature point
of view. Bartleby, I would go so far to say, is one of the worst short
stories I have ever read. The last line almiost matches that of Animal
Farm in its awfulness. As for the Confidence Man, I though that a little
contrived (oddly Dickensian in style as it was), a nice book, but by no
means one of the greats. Herman Melville's bumper book of whales on the
other hand, is easily the best book of the 19th century (that I've read).

Mark