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This month we celebrate the birthday of Herman Melville. He’s best known for his epic Moby Dick, but Melville’s short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” about a strangely resistant office worker, is a favorite of ours. Though academics have long argued about Bartleby’s meaning, and we could outline our own point of view…we would…prefer…not to.
We hope you enjoy our adaptation and performance, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC.
Click on the triangle above to listen.
The first passive aggressive main character in history…
Exactly. He’s really such a unique creation.
But after working on this story for a while, I’ve come to realize that the story is not really about Bartleby, but rather about his nameless employer who has to come to terms with what he’s experienced dealing with Bartleby.
But, even when Melville was an active narrator in his works, most of his action involved others instead of himself… My theory is that he got a third of the way into Moby Dick and said to himself, “I’m NOT that interesting after all” and spent the rest of the book talking about everyone but himself…
great work/ BTW my first job was at Wall Street Camera, at 120 Wall Street…
Thanks.
That’s a funny coincidence–because WBAI used to have its studios there as well, so I put that address in as an inside joke.