Response Topic #1

Bartleby certainly coveys the "blase outlook" that Simmel associates with the "metropolitan" person and social tendencies created by the money economy. Simmel states that "the essence of the blase attitude is an indifference towards the distinctions between things. Not in the sense that they are not percieved, as is the case of mental dullness, but rather that the meaning and the value of the distinctions between things, and therewith of the things themselves, are experienced as meaningless. They appear to the blase person in a homogeneous, flat and grey color with no one of them worthy of being preffered to another." Bartleby manifests this essence by living in his office, he is indifferent to his living space, and by eating ginger snaps instead of substantial meals he percieves these as "meaningless" due to a blase attitude. The fact that the story is set on Wall Street is another window into Simmels viewpoint. According to him the money econoomy alongside the metropolis creates this blase outlook. Simmel also says that "a sign of this external reserve is not only indifference but more frequently than we believe, it is a slight aversion..." This would explain Bartleby's repeated resistance of "I'd rather not."