These three essays orbit Melville’s "Bartleby, the Scrivener" from successive distances. The first attacks the narrator, the second attacks the attack, the third removes the hope of a clean vantage point. Each piece eats the previous one. Together they ask whether any act of understanding can avoid being an act of consumption. Part I: The … Continue reading The Bartleby Triptych: On Vampires, Critics, and Hunger
Category: writing
No Exit: James Joyce’s Ulysses and the Limits of Seeing
I. The Ship of Theseus and the Limits of Clarity A ship departs from Athens. Over decades of voyaging, every plank is gradually replaced—the hull, the mast, the rudder, every timber and rope. When the vessel finally returns to port, it bears none of its original matter. The question: Is it the same ship? This … Continue reading No Exit: James Joyce’s Ulysses and the Limits of Seeing
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