Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Bastard of a Rough Draft

This is my piss poor, bastardized version of a rough draft
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Bartelby worked for a dead letter office before gaining employment with the lawyer on Wall Street. The dead letters were full of written documents, cherished jewelry, and donations to charity that would never reach their intended destination. As the lawyer pointed out in his narration, “…on errands of life, these letters sped to death.” Placing these letters of hope within the fire left Barelby empty. He changed, and in changing he became discouraged with the world and with its people. As a character he was dynamic, changing after his hiring at the law office on Wall Street. He became Byronic as he grew sick of working, ill of speaking to anyone, and his self-starvation led to his death. Bartelby followed existentialism and saw life without meaning, without hope; that even his own life was impassive and unimportant, but he fell off when he decided to do nothing about it. He allowed the numbness that he felt to consume him, and he could not change. This failure to change destroyed him.
While his last effort in changing killed Bartlely, there was no encouragement from his co-workers, nor any motivation from his boss, the lawyer, to take notice of the world. Taken from the lawyer’s point of view this assessment could be refuted, but looking at it from Bartelby’s perspective, as a man who lost faith in humanity, had no desire to live because in the end everything meant nothing, there was no compensation for living. Looking at the people Bartelby worked with, you could take the lawyer, his boss, and notice that yes, the man tried to aid Bartelby, giving him extra wages if he would only leave the office, offering Bartelby shelter at his own home, but because of the man’s unconsciousness of existence, he made no progress with the conundrum that was Bartelby. The lawyer preferred life being as easy as possible, rarely taking any chances, and avoiding serious confrontation. He remained static as a character, never changing because he did not want to change. The fear of change, the taste of something different was too much for him, therefore, only through money, and material compensation did the lawyer have an idea of how to help his ailing employee. Unknown to him, however, Bartelby had given up on all of it long ago; given up on man, possessions, and life. The lawyer never became anything either. He failed to become enlightened by Bartelby until the end, when he realized what Bartelby’s true pain was, but by that time it was too late.
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That's about as rough as it gets. I do not like it, I loathe it...

"DUHHHHHH, ohhh, don't worry, David, it's just a rough draft, duuuhhhhh."

SHUT UP!!!! before I get blind monkies to perform visectomies on you all.

None of this turned out the way I had hoped, there is so much left out, and yes, yes, yes, rough draft, I know, but I don't like it. I will put it away for now, seeing as how it's about to give me a nosebleed, and in turn I will run outside and give other people nosebleeds.

That's part of the journey, really. You never know where your brain will take you, and sometimes your even more frightened after you've been there than before you left.

Now my headache is gone. I'm going to rest, regroup, and tackle it again once I've pounded some fun into my system.

Go away.

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