Bartleby

[Paul Mackin]

Apologies.

P.

Paul Mackin wrote:

> Wonder if Otto's British-style retranslation back to English "I prefer 
> not to DO" would appear to Deleuze any less agrammatical and 
> incomplete than the American author's mere "I prefer not to."
>
> To my American ear the "do" always sounds overdetermined and redundant.
>
> Perhps D. had a completely different thought.
>
> P.
>
>
>
>
> Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Deleuze has written this essay, "Bartleby; or, The Formula",
>> which is included in _Essays Critical and Clinical_. (U of
>> Minnesota Press 1997.) Deleuze sees that the agrammatically
>> incomplete "formula" of "I prefer not to" opens a rip in the
>> fabric of the social, confronting the social with something
>> it does not know how to react to, stymieing [sp?] all speech
>> acts....or something.
>>
>> Am 100% sure that the essay has been translated not only into
>> English but also German and other major European languages, as
>> it exists in Finnish...
>>
>> One could almost swear that Melville was familiar with Gogol.
>>
>>
>>
>> Heikki
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 12 May 2002 KXX4493553 at aol.com wrote:
>>
>>> Just read Melville's "Bartleby" in a German translation about the 
>>> man who
>>> would "prefer not to do". Never laughed so loudly: indeed a 
>>> grotesque, in
>>> spite of the tragic ending. A-and it reminds me on a "real existing"
>>> person:-))))) (but not on the list - I assure you). My question: are 
>>> there
>>> any commentaries or interpretations about this short story available?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> kwp
>>>
>>
>>
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