ABC Book Club Premiere

The theme of the first session is work, and we’ll read two historically detached, but topically connected novellas.

The first is Herman Melville’s classic Bartleby, the Scrivener. The piece depicts an episode at a bureau of Wall Street lawyers in the 1850s following the hiring of a new assistant clerk, Bartleby. The new hire turns out to have a particular quirk: he refuses to do his delegated work, often with his catchphrase ”I would prefer not to”. This proves deeply upsetting, operationally and emotionally, to the small office. 

The complementary modern piece is Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women. The narrative is set on the other American coast, in Oakland, and tracks the protagonist’s work as a cleaner of wealthier neighbours’ homes. Between chores and bus changes her story is interspersed with practical advice on how to keep making this living drawn from her own experience and field knowledge (rearraange the tootbrushes to show ’them’ that you are thorough; avoid psychatrists; make friends with the dogs, etc.).  While largely unread during her lifetime, this novella, as part of a larger volume of republished short stories, brought her fame in 2015 and reviews describing her as ”an acute talent that deserves to be celebrated”.

• robin [dot] porsfelt [at] fek [dot] lu [dot] se (subject: ABC%20Book%20Club%20Session%201) (Sign up to event at robin[dot]porsfelt[at]fek[dot]lu[dot]se)

About

The Centre for Aesthetics and Business Creativity (ABC) is a centre that loves its periphery-pulling forces. It wants to extend the research-basis for understanding and practicing organizational creativity in pursuit of values that enhance our quality of life, as citizens and consumers.

ABC aims to push the boundaries by engaging across diverse disciplines, such as art history, performance research, literary composition and cultural studies. By becoming a dynamic hub that blends ethics, aesthethics and business creativity, it will continue to inspire new ways of thinking and doing.