Table Of ContentThe 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
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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
