TPPM (9): Sex, death, and sloth?

Wed Dec 15 04:45:30 CST 2004

[...] "Bartleby is the first great epic of modern Sloth, presently to be followed by work from the likes of Kafka, Hemingway, Proust, Sartre, Musil and others-take your own favorite list of writers after Melville and you're bound sooner or later to run into a character bearing a sorrow recognizable as peculiarly of our own time."

I have always told my students that all great literature boils down to two things: sex and death.  That's it.

Should I now include sloth in this list?

What are some of your favorite literary celebrations of sloth?  The Catcher in the Rye is mine.

Tim
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