Bartleby

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I hope that more people can read Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Schrivner. It is a great example of autism issues in the workplace. I have not seen it yet but there is a movie out starring Crispin Glover.

I read an academic article a while back that suggested that Bartleby had Asperger's.

So I pulled my Melville books off the shelf and read Bartelby the Scrivener (which I hadn't read before, despite having a complete collection of Melville on my shelf.) It was a moving and thought-provoking story.

So I did more research on the story and uncovered the Crispin Glover (who I LOVE) movie and looked and saw it was available on Netflix.

I rented it, watched it, and I LOVE it. I highly recommend it but I also highly recommend reading the Melville story first. I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie Bartleby anywhere near as much if I hadn't read the short story first so I understood all the things the movie was riffing on.

Do watch it. You will love it. And Glover really plays the part well! I can't think of any actor who would have done the part as much justice as he did.

While watching the Crispin Glover movie, I noticed the character Bartleby did seem to have traits of high-functioning autism. One character suggests that he has ADD, but I still think he has AS (AS is often misdiagnosed as ADD).

I, too, concur.
I liked the movie so much that my wife got it for me as a birthday present. That the portrayal of Bartleby comes across so convincingly, I think, owes much to the fact that Crispin Glover himself has been diagnosed with Asperger's.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

This is the first I'd heard of that.

(Although having followed his work and having read the articles and interviews about and with him over the years, I can't say that it surprises me.)

Hi...I'm back.

I watched the movie and really liked it.

Correcting an earlier post. The character says Bartleby has "Attention Deficent Syndrome", which I think is a clever mish-mash of ADD and AS.