This May Day I prefer not to....

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I agree with you, Mark, that it IS about Wall Street.  If Bartleby just worked at a small village apothecary shop, the story wouldn't be so profound.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: May 2, 2012 10:35 AM
>To: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>, P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: This May Day I prefer not to....
>
>The earliest gatherers, called out so quietly by a notice in Adbusters may not have had Bartleby in mind. 
>So, no direct inspiration at the very start, maybe.
>
>But, early in the Occupation, there was at least one major scheduled group reading aloud of Bartleby.
>
>And, i must defend the enigmatic genius of Melville...he seems to have both invented and reflected and,
>from lots of other work---not least Moby Dick and its madman-driven Ship of State---he could see at
>deep resonant levels the economic and social situations of America.    
>
>It IS Wall Street in that story. Bartleby resists in a way only genius could create in fiction then. 
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Cc: 
>Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 10:04 AM
>Subject: Re: This May Day I prefer not to....
>
>I somehow doubt theAtlantic writer's  premise that occupiers owe a debt of inspiration from this work. There are a limited range of forms of resistance and they can be found throughout history and literature.  That Bartleby represents something real I don't dispute, but whether Melville invented or reflected is impossible to say.  
>On May 1, 2012, at 9:54 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>> The Atlantic‏ @TheAtlantic
>> #OccupyWallStreet owes a lot fo Herman Melville's 'Bartleby, the Scrivener'