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11
Nov
49 notes

I Would Prefer Not To.

The further we get from the world Melville actually lived in, the more we seem to be living in the world he told us about. American culture tends to embrace a kind of a-historicism that on the one hand is forward-looking and optimistic and many other fine things, but on the other hand costs us dearly in context, heritage and continuity. This is especially true of the Progressive movement, which has fought more or less unceasingly since the nation’s founding to bring America closer to realizing the ideals it claims to hold most dear. And yet every generation of progressives must suffer to be told that we are some kind of developmental aberration in cultural history—that we are naive and our methods disreputable, that the vast majority stands against us; on and on.

This is as total and pernicious an inversion of the truth as I can think of, and one more reason why we come here today, to invoke the long American history of refusal that informs and enlivens Occupy. Many in this movement have a vivid sense of that history, others may be getting involved in politics for the first time in their lives, but in any case it’s healthy to be reminded that the first step toward building a better world is recognizing that the present state of affairs is intolerable and that we cannot in good conscience continue to take part in it.

—From “Introduction to Marathon Reading of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” at 60 Wall Street, November 10, 2011” by Justin Taylor; full text of the introduction after the jump

Almost 160 years after its composition, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street” is undiminished in its ability to astonish, delight and discomfit us. It is a great story to hear and a great one to tell. But despite several crucial points of resonance—most notably the deployment of strategies of occupation, refusal, and passive resistance—if you hope to find in Melville’s story a mirror or an unqualified vindication of what’s happening at Zucotti Park and other Occupy sites around the United States, you will be frustrated.

On the blog for the People’s Library, librarian Michele Hardesty points out that, “ ‘I would prefer not to’ makes a poor slogan, as do most lines plucked from their context. [… ] Bartleby,” she tells us, “is evocative but not a perfect analogy for the present moment.” It is this evocation that we are interested in today. Hannah Gersen, writing for the literary site The Millions,  suggests that “Bartleby is disturbing not because of what he says or doesn’t say, but because he seems to have lost some aspect of his humanity. […] If Occupy Wall Street has any goal, it should be to have the same effect that great literature has — to unsettle.”

The further we get from the world Melville actually lived in, the more we seem to be living in the world he told us about. American culture tends to embrace a kind of a-historicism that on the one hand is forward-looking and optimistic and many other fine things, but on the other hand costs us dearly in context, heritage and continuity. This is especially true of the Progressive movement, which has fought more or less unceasingly since the nation’s founding to bring America closer to realizing the ideals it claims to hold most dear. And yet every generation of progressives must suffer to be told that we are some kind of developmental aberration in cultural history—that we are naive and our methods disreputable, that the vast majority stands against us; on and on.

This is as total and pernicious an inversion of the truth as I can think of, and one more reason why we come here today, to invoke the long American history of refusal that informs and enlivens Occupy. Many in this movement have a vivid sense of that history, others may be getting involved in politics for the first time in their lives, but in any case it’s healthy to be reminded that the first step toward building a better world is recognizing that the present state of affairs is intolerable and that we cannot in good conscience continue to take part in it.

You’ll notice as we read that all the protagonists of “Bartleby”—the title character, his colleagues, and their employer, the self-described “unambitious lawyer” who tells the tale—all work on Wall Street. Bartleby offers what you might call an insider’s critique. He’s an existential whistleblower, and this is one more reason why we have come today to tell this story here.

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