Occupying History

[alice wellintown]

Coe notes that readers, even professional readers, have either ignored
or misread P's essay because they prefer a secular P.

In Hamlet's language, P has a tongue in his cheek, even if that cheek
is as chopfallen as the skull of the man of infinte jest, and even if
P, who doubts what a piece of work man is, doubts not that dreams
won't come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil.

Once dead we will never dream again, though we may be dreamed of; we
may haunt the dreams of others.

This is, of course what Bartleby Occupies. He occupies Wall Street
though he sleeps with counselors and kings in the Tombs, he continues
to haunt the lawyer narrator who tells us the story of Bartleby, a
Story of Wall Street.