TPPM (9): Bartleby and Sloth

[Tim Strzechowski]

[..] "America did it take the next important step in its evolution. Between Franklin's hectic aphorist, Poor Richard, and Melville's doomed scrivener, Bartleby, lies about a century of early America, consolidating itself as a Christian capitalist state, even as acedia was in the last stages of its shift over from a spiritual to a secular condition."


Again, I see a slight problem here with his reference to Bartleby in this context.  Does not Bartleby exercise *choice* in his preference?  Given Pynchon's opening discussion of "writer's block" which most (if not all) writer's hope to avoid, does *choosing* to do "nothing" (in the case of Bartleby) or *choosing* to contemplate action vs. inaction (in the case of Hamlet) necessarily constitute "sloth"?

As to Poor Richard, well ... that's another story.  Hunger is, after all, the best pickle.

Tim

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