A Genealogy of Refusal : Walking away from crisis and scarcity narrativesMain MenuCrisis narratives frame our responseBartleby at the WallHow can fiction and popular culture inform the way we promulgate or refuse crisis & scarcity narratives in librarianship?Proud Descendants who "Prefer not to"Some recent gems from Bartleby's lineageA Kinship Diagram of Workplace RefusalSatire is richComedic instances of workplace refusal are especially powerfulDark side of parodyMore SatireWhen Expectations Cross the lineWhy don't librarians "Just say No"?Do we prefer to suffer in silence because its a vocation and not "just a job"Feminized LabourSaying Yes all the TimeSuperhero LibrariansIt’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a librarian!I am not your heroMurderbot: the alternate patron saint for librariansThe invocation of crisis narratives is relentlessNo individual solution to our problemsDebunking myths that hold us back to enable collective ways of moving forwardWhat refusal can we take up?A Cosmic GiftManifest NOBecoming fluent in hearing and saying NoAsset FramingBibliographyWorks cited, featured, mentioned and consulted for Genealogy of Refusal projectGlossary of Key ConceptsMultiple PathsA compendium of paths through the Genealogy of Refusal content: a choose-your-own-adventure approach to this companion piece.Genealogy of Refusal TimelineWe welcome contributionsLearn how to contribute to this projectAbout the AuthorsNatalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22Anna Michelle Martinez-Montavon1459b2fc55591cd9b08a290af468d31b5dfe46a3Mikala Narlockdb843c923469f0dadab98d57ee053b00c88a64b1Kim Stathersb8f352d1ce6eb714d5242702eaa05362c8eae357Multimedia project for the The Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship Special Issue on Refusing Crisis Narratives
Bartleby Compendium Entry
1media/bartlebypettygods_thumb.png2021-03-13T12:29:42-08:00Natalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22339482Bartleby the Scrivener, Petty God of Inactivityplain2021-04-16T15:11:01-07:00LeBlanc Jr., Richard J. 2010. Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition. Old School Role-Playing Community. https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=20649&editionid=23646.Patrick KennedyRichard J. LeBlanc, JrAnna Michelle Martinez-Montavon1459b2fc55591cd9b08a290af468d31b5dfe46a3
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1media/dctermstimeline.png2021-04-12T00:11:25-07:00Natalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22DCTerms Driven TimelineAnna Michelle Martinez-Montavon14timeline2021-04-16T17:29:44-07:00Anna Michelle Martinez-Montavon1459b2fc55591cd9b08a290af468d31b5dfe46a3
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1media/YourwallFriedman1970.jpg2021-04-11T17:00:06-07:00Proud Descendents who "Prefer not to"17Some recent gems from Bartleby's lineageimage_header2021-04-20T10:35:47-07:00So where do we find Bartleby the Scrivener today? Here are a few gems:
Bartleby has a significant entry in the Old School Role-Playing Community's 2010 compendium Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition where he appears as "The Petty God of Inactivity." Bartleby's character responds to any and all requests with "I would prefer not to." Destroying Bartleby is impossible.
Bartleby's famous line appears verbatim in Qualityland,Marc-Uwe Kling's brilliant book published in 2020 about what happens when The Shop, which knows what you want, sends you something you really don't want. How do you say "No"? How do you return something if you have prove the algorithm wrong to get the company that sent it to accept the return? Jacques, a nurse in the story is pressured by the president to turn off her life support "for the good of the country" and responds: "I would prefer not to, Madam President."
Bartleby also makes an appearance in Toronto writer Natalie Zina Walschot's Hench. It's a story about a data analyst with some unusual clients that just about any librarian can relate to! In it, the protagonist, Anna, rubs her throat where a superhero's not so super grip has left welts where his fingers have dug into her skin. Her co-worker Greg urges her to "have someone look at that" and she dismisses his attention by saying verbatim: "No, I'd prefer not to." His response is priceless: "Fine, Bartleby," Greg says. Anna does Bartleby plenty proud in Hench. Here's a promo that's a nice on-ramp to Anna's set-up in Hench.