'Bartleby the Scrivener' – Herman Melville (1853)

Precisely. I love to reply "I would prefer not to" when asked a question; never in over 55 years (I read the story when I was 16, in 1964) has anyone realized who I'm quoting.

I have never understood the point of Bartleby the Scrivener. He was a person who didn't want to do any of the things that people do, and eventually that caused him to stop being a person.

I'm all for opting out, appreciating life outside of work, not having to explain yourself, and all that. But Bartleby wasn't really any of that. He was just a non-entity. If there were a moral to the story it would be "If you don't work, you starve to death."

I've never understood what people see in Bartleby -- it's as if they only read (or remember) the first few pages and saw some kind of counterculture hero. That's not what I recall at all. Can you tell me what you saw in it?