bartleby the great imposter

[Jeff]
>(You did like Bartleby the Scrivner though, right?)

[John]
>> That's the one about a guy who's a total impostor, worming his
>> way into the lives of "normal" people, right? I seem to
>> remember my brother telling me about it, but I don't think I've
>> read it yet. Looks like I've got to get cracking!

I am fairly sure you are thinkng of the somewhat
modern autobiography "Catch Me If You Can" by one
of history's greatest imposters (I forget his name).
A very funny book. He worked as an airline pilot,
for the Florida DA's office as an attorney, as the
director of a hospital, and taught a course in
criminology at BYU (students said his insightss into
the criminal mind were amazing!).

Anyway, Bartleby is a short story that is perhaps the
first story dealing with the bizarreness of the modern
business world. Bartleby works a dull job as a
scrivner (scribe, copyist) and one day he decides to
refuse all work assignments! "I would prefer not to."
he says to every request from his astonished boss. The
boss man is dumbfounded, he has no idea what to do!
Nothing like this has every happened before! Told
with Melville's bizarre sense of humor, this story
is somewhat surreal and it seems everyone who reads
it has a different idea of what it means.

I know, it seems dumb from this description, but
think of what this story meant to someone reading
it in the 19th century during the industrial age.

There was a review of this story in last month's
American Heritage.

- Jeff

[Jeff wrote:]
>>>(You did like Bartleby the Scrivner though, right?)

[I wrote:]
>>That's the one about a guy who's a total impostor, worming his
>>way into the lives of "normal" people, right? I seem to
>>remember my brother telling me about it, but I don't think I've
>>read it yet. Looks like I've got to get cracking!

>I am fairly sure you are thinkng of the somewhat
>modern autobiography "Catch Me If You Can" by one
>of history's greatest imposters (I forget his name).

You're probably right; I'm confusing it, no doubt. Sounds like a fun
story, though!

JdL

--- In metatuning@y..., "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@a...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_42.html#51

> [Jeff wrote:]
> >>>(You did like Bartleby the Scrivner though, right?)
>
> [I wrote:]
> >>That's the one about a guy who's a total impostor, worming his
> >>way into the lives of "normal" people, right? I seem to
> >>remember my brother telling me about it, but I don't think I've
> >>read it yet. Looks like I've got to get cracking!
>
> >I am fairly sure you are thinkng of the somewhat
> >modern autobiography "Catch Me If You Can" by one
> >of history's greatest imposters (I forget his name).
>
> You're probably right; I'm confusing it, no doubt. Sounds like a
fun
> story, though!
>
> JdL

I managed to find time to read "Bartleby the Scrivner" this
evening... I have LOTS of short story books around, since that seems
to be the only thing I can find time to read.

It is a terrific story... well deserving its reputation...

___________ ______ _____
Joseph Pehrson