The Multiverse of Office Fiction: Bartlebys at Work PDF
Preview The Multiverse of Office Fiction: Bartlebys at Work
The Multiverse of Office Fiction Bartlebys at Work Masaomi Kobayashi The Multiverse of Office Fiction Masaomi Kobayashi The Multiverse of Office Fiction Bartlebys at Work Masaomi Kobayashi University of the Ryukyus Okinawa, Japan ISBN 978-3-031-12687-1 ISBN 978-3-031-12688-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12688-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland I knew, and I suppose I had known for quite some time, that I would never make principal at Priebe, Emond & Farmer. The position would no doubt go to a younger man. And while this was a disappointment to me it was not a great one, for although it is embarrassing I must acknowledge that within me I have always felt the impulse for uproar and disorder. —Ethan Canin, “Accountant” v To Ayako, Sonoka, and Mariko P reface I am writing this preface in my office on campus. The office is located upstairs, like the law office in “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” It looks nothing special—a desk, a computer, a printer, a scanner, a telephone, a table, chairs, bookshelves, and windows. On the wooden desk is a dual-screen monitor, a wireless keyboard, a wireless mouse, a pair of speakers, and a photograph of my family. On the white walls is a round clock, a plain whiteboard, and a doctoral diploma from a university in the U.S. If there is one thing to note about this ordinary workspace, it is that there is a small kitchen with nothing but a sink and a water tap, although it must be added that this arrangement is not made particularly for faculty members. It is simply because our faculty building was originally designed as a stu- dent dormitory. Like many other faculty, I have placed a small (and used) refrigerator and microwave next to the kitchen, and they are among the few personal items in the office. “You could live in this office.” This is what a student in his first year said casually when dropping by my office and looking at these items. It was more than a decade ago, but is still fresh in my memory. How would anyone think of living in the office? This was the first thing that came to my mind. I had often stayed late in my office to get work finished, but never dared to spend a whole night, let alone lead a private life, in this room. In retrospect, I wonder if the student was just trying to say something nice about the office—something that would make me feel like I was working in an ordinary but cozy and homey place. There is no way of knowing what exactly he meant (and it is reasonable to assume that he cannot even remember what he said). Thankfully, though, his words ix x PREFACE allowed me to experience an odd yet new feeling of working in the room that had been intended as a place of life. At the same time, the words inspired me to imagine what it would feel like to be the unnamed lawyer- narrator who tells the story of his office, of its two scriveners, and more than anything else, of his most peculiar employee named Bartleby. Why and how did this employee become obsessed so much with the office space as to spend all his time there? The lawyer must have asked himself this question numerous times, but it has remained practically unanswered and so is still addressed to the reader. While leaving the question intact, the present book seeks to redefine the office as an integral part of the multi- verse inhibited by those akin to Bartleby, namely by Bartlebys. In so doing, it will contribute to an ever-evolving poetics of the office. Bartleby is not so much the so-called office drone as an office dweller, who lives quite a modest life with all of his necessities such as soap, blan- ket, and savings bank. Since it was an age that had yet to conceptualize home office, this work-life integration must have come as an utter surprise to the lawyer. Nay, even in an age accustomed to such an alternative con- cept that combines the personal and professional spheres of life, it will still come as an incredible surprise to some, or many, that he made his home in his workplace—his workspace, to be exact, which becomes recognized as his hermitage—while refusing to perform any work at all. In light of his words and deeds, Bartleby is indeed a strange character; he is arguably among the strangest ones in the world of fiction. What matters more in exploring the world of office fiction is, however, the fact that he is an office worker. The advent of the clerkship was an unusual phenomenon in his time, however small it was, but he is now as much the same as many others in our time. No wonder they can feel his experience as if it were their own, presumably in much the same way as they would feel toward The Office and Office Space—the pop culture hits that demonstrate how frustrating it can be to spend day after day in an office cubicle, whether in the U.K. or in the U.S. Overall, from an office worker perspective, Bartleby was and is an eccentric but everyman character. This timelessness and elusiveness will remain as essential attributes of “Bartleby.” It can then be said that the story is worth reading even when the relevance of the office is called into question, as was so during the coronavirus pandemic. This book was con- ceived just before the worldwide outbreak of the virus, which has since caused many to think of the post-pandemic future of the office. Will Bartleby be still playing a key role in the future of office literature? The PREFACE xi answer is uncertain, but this is certain: there will always be his literary cousins, some of whom will appear, others of whom will reappear, in the discourse of office fiction, and all of whom will alter existing perspectives on this particular genre. The future emerges from an interplay between the past and the present. What follows is an exploratory account of how an ever-expanding kinship emerges between Bartleby and Bartlebys. Okinawa, Japan Masaomi Kobayashi a cknowledgments The first law of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else. This principle is applicable to intertextual relations from which all texts are derived. One step further is interpersonal relations that are inherent in all research processes. Where there are intertextual relations, there are inter- personal relations, such as between authors and readers, between critics and other informed individuals, and between any others. These dual rela- tions constitute an interrelated whole, each illuminating the other. If every book is an exercise in interrelatedness, it cannot be the product of just one person’s travail. This book is certainly no exception to this rule. It would not have been possible without the assistance and guidance from many individuals. Grateful thanks are due to all of them and in particular to those mentioned below: Allie Troyanos, senior editor of Palgrave Macmillan, and Paul Smith Jesudas, production editor, whose wealth of expertise and experience have successfully guided my writing project from start to finish. Working with them has allowed me to embrace the idea that a book is in essence a work of synthesis. The anonymous peer reviewer A, whose constructive comments and criticisms on my manuscript have been the most invaluable of all. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword in the sense that positive words can be more influential and inspirational than negative ones. Naoyuki Ii, Japanese novelist, whose work has seldom been translated into English. His office novels as well as nonfiction works have been and will continue to be inspiring in the literal sense. It is this inspiration that has shaped my project of working on office fiction. xiii
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