NOT snobbery

i recently had a great conversation with a fellow english major who expressed a great point about our "useless" degrees. he said that while it's nice that many of our peers graduated with more technical or pertinent education and landed high paying jobs right out of college, he really loves the social relevance of an english degree.

seriously. we know so much random crap! crap that probably a large percentage (i don't do math or statistics, i'm an english major) of NON-liberal arts majors would have no reason ever to learn. and this stuff pops up all over the place. for instance: one of my new favorite adult cartoons, archer, on fx. if you haven't seen it, go get yourself a hulu account and watch all of the first season right stinking now, it's freaking hilarious, you won't regret it.

creepy-bad-accent mob dude asking super-suave-spy archer (under cover as sailorman dude who runs the chocolate fountain on the yacht) to bring lots of chocolate to mob dude's rendezvous with sexy-counterpart-girl-spy (also undercover). the exchange goes thusly:

mob guy: "not as much as i love chocolate. and you! bring plenty of it!"
archer: "i would prefer not to..?" 
*flamboyant storm troopers cock their firearms* 
archer continues: "... bartleby the scrivener? anybody? not a big melville crowd here, huh?"

as if the show's vulgarity and super speedy wit and non-sequitur humor weren't enough to make me fall in love, they throw in a PERFECT literary reference. i laughed so STINKING hard. the point is, i felt a little sad that a lot of viewers perhaps did not get the reference. and so, i shall share, so next time you're in a sticky situation, you can say 'i would prefer not to' and feel super cool and smirk because you totally get it, man, you totally know some knowledge.

bartleby is a short story by herman melville (you know, this guy). i'm glossing over the obvious humor that archer quotes melville, who is most famous for moby dick, in the setting of a stinking BOAT in the stinking OCEAN. standing next to a dude the size of a whale.. i won't spoil the episode. anyway.

bartleby is a scrivener (back before computers, people had to hire people to make handwritten copies of things they wrote once already!), or law-copyist, on wall street in 18somethingsomething (story was published in the 1850s). benevolent dude hires bartleby to .. scrive. but eventually bartleby gets a bit complacent and starts responding to all his coworkers' requests with 'i would prefer not' or 'i would prefer not to.' even when confronted with 'you will not?' he gives the same response that he would just prefer not, but that he's not picky. slacker!

***SPOILER ALERT***
the reference is as exciting as it's going to get (except for the stretch i make a little later that the comment on "the absurd" relates to how stinking absurd archer, the show, is...), but as long as i'm enlightening you (oh, THERE'S the stereotypical snobbery), i might as well delve into something a little deeper than cartoons. i am totally anti-spoiler, but the story is really short and you should read it if you haven't, but i know you won't anyway so here's the thing...

he keeps preferring not to do any and everything, including leave the building upon being fired, and eat when he's finally thrown in prison, and... he eventually dies. poor narrator bossman.. bartleby was the only one who was good at his job and didn't complain about personal stuff!

dude. got. depressed. so depressed, in fact, that he finally had no motivation left at all to even stay alive. and his super nice boss tried so hard to understand him and offer help and try to find what would make him happy!

hey depressopants, that's pretty irrational.. oh wait, what do i love? existentialism? postmodern problems? THE ABSURD?!

absurdism - The belief that nothing can explain or rationalize human existence. 

thank you, existential primer, you haven't failed me yet. the final exclamation in the story is the poor narrator (nice boss guy) lamenting his weirdo friend's demise: "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" read: dammit, bartleby, there is no REASON in your behavior! nor in any of humanity's behavior, for that matter! dude doesn't get it. because there is no explanation.

to come full circle... if you have, by now, ventured to watch at least a snippet of archer, you will understand how ridiculous and crazy the show is, thus making the reference to bartleby's irrationality and lack of preference (i would prefer not to, but i'm not particular, i.e., i have no preference except NOT) doubly amusing to those of us snobs who actually got the reference. and now you're one too. so watch it with your friends, and laugh really heartily at that line, then pause if they don't laugh, then show them this blog entry. they won't be your friends anymore, but you'll feel pretty cool, won't you?

good day, sir.