ONT Re: Extension x Comprehension = Information
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Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!
| At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing.
| As if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to
| gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for
| digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by
| sun-light and by candle-light. I should have been
| quite delighted with his application, had he been
| cheerfully industrious. But he wrote on silently,
| palely, mechanically.
|
| It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to
| verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or
| more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination,
| one reading from the copy, the other holding the original. It is a very
| dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily imagine that to
| some sanguine temperaments it would be altogether intolerable. For
| example, I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet Byron would have
| contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document of,
| say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand.
|
| Now and then, in the haste of business, it had been my habit to assist in
| comparing some brief document myself, calling Turkey or Nippers for this
| purpose. One object I had in placing Bartleby so handy to me behind the
| screen, was to avail myself of his services on such trivial occasions.
| It was on the third day, I think, of his being with me, and before any
| necessity had arisen for having his own writing examined, that, being
| much hurried to complete a small affair I had in hand, I abruptly
| called to Bartleby. In my haste and natural expectancy of instant
| compliance, I sat with my head bent over the original on my desk,
| and my right hand sideways, and somewhat nervously extended with
| the copy, so that immediately upon emerging from his retreat,
| Bartleby might snatch it and proceed to business without the
| least delay.
|
| In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him,
| rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do -- namely,
| to examine a small paper with me. Imagine my surprise, nay,
| my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby
| in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, "I would prefer not to."
|
|"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street",
| By Herman Melville, First published Nov-Dec 1853,
| In 'Putnam's Monthly Magazine', 2-11 & 2-12, NY.
| Present text is pp. 19-20, taken from pp. 13-45,
|'The Piazza Tales, and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860',
| Volume Nine of 'The Writings of Herman Melville,
| The Northwestern-Newberry Edition', Editors for Volume 9:
| Harrison Hayford, Alma A. MacDougall, G. Thomas Tanselle,
| Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library,
| Evanston & Chicago, IL, 1987, 1992.
Let us examine a special case of "general denotation" or "plural reference",
one in which we select a sample, perhaps but a single representative object,
to serve as a sign of the entire collection from which it was apothematized.
Here is the Figure:
o-----------------------------o-----------------------------o
| Objective Framework | Interpretive Framework |
o-----------------------------o-----------------------------o
| |
| o |
| o · |
| o · · |
| o · · · |
| o · · · · |
| o = = = = = = = = = = = = = = s |
| o · · · · |
| o · · · |
| o · · |
| o · |
| o |
| |
| |
| General Denotation Or Plural Reference Via A Sample |
o-----------------------------------------------------------o
The very same entity now serves in a double role, hopefully
without too much duplicity, but we all know how that can be.
Polled as member of its own constituency, it functions like
any other object of any other sign. Invested in the office
of a typical representative, it serves its term as any term
might, standing for the body politic from which it was lift.
Every setting of a general denotation or a plural reference,
not just the ones of this exemplary species, is amenable to
having its part in the muddle sorted out along the lines of
at least two different "factorization schemes". These are
easier visualized than verbalized, so here is the Figure:
o-----------------------------o-----------------------------o
| Objective Framework | Interpretive Framework |
o--------------+--------------o--------------+--------------o
| |
| q = Humanity |
| /|\ · |
| / | \ · |
| / | \ · |
| / | \ · |
| ooooooooooo }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} s = Bartelby |
| · · · | |
| · · · | |
| · · · | |
| ··· | |
| · | |
| i = Humanity |
| |
| |
| Factorization Of A Fiber Via Objects And Via Signs |
o-----------------------------------------------------------o
I could explain more today,
but I would prefer not to.
Jon Awbrey
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