silver lining

every cloud has a silver lining.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Speaking into the Air

I feel empty these days. No matter how much I throw balls, there's no answer. It's like a message which won't reach. It's useless. I feel empty.

It inspired me a short story. First I thought it was by Kafka, but it wasn't. It was by Herman Melville. Now I remembered I took an American literature class reading "Moby-Dick" by Melville. I used to try to find out what he would like to say in this work... Anyway, the short story is Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener".

I don't want to tell the outline of this story here. I just want to tell that it is a story of man called Bartleby who had been working in the Dead Letter Office. Dead letters! I feel so sad remembering that he refused his work and repeated, "I would prefer not to." And I got wordless when Melville concludes the story saying; "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"

Nothing more hopeless than speaking into the air.


Links (English):
Bartleby the Scrivener - Wikisourse
VOA Listening Library - Bartleby
The Role of the Dead Letter Office in Bartleby the Scrivener

Links (Japanese):
Bibliography of Herman Melville
Hatena Diary Keyword: Bartleby
An Essay regarding Bartleby
A Weblog Article regarding Bartleby
A Translated Essay regarding Melville

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