A movie version of H. Melville's short story, Bartleby the Scrivener, will appear this weekend. The story appears online at http://www.bartleby.com/129/ and other places.
The story involves an employee who refuses to work and who refuses to be fired. His employer is not entirely sure what to do about this situation. Although the movie apparently plays up the comic aspects of this situation, the Melville short story, as is typical for things written by Melville, has many layers(as does Shrek--inside comment for those with children): tragic, comic, and absurd at many different levels. The amazing thing about this story is that it was written in the 1850s as capitalism was started to spread rapidly in the US. Most readers in the 1850s would have shared with Melville a concern with the spreading capital-labor relationship. Perhaps it's a good sign that now in 2002 movie-makers think that such a short-story would be of interest to the public today. For what it is worth, over the past few years my students have become increasingly discontent with the world of work they will face (if they are lucky!) after graduation. Melville is, of course, the greatest American writer. Eric Eric Nilsson Economics CSUSB
