Parenting Without A License

Bartleby the Blogger

Posted by Kimberly on September 30th, 2007 — Posted in Uncategorized, Kipple, iVillage

I’m not ashamed to admit that I made it all the way through my American Lit course in university without making it all the way through Moby Dick. It’s not that I’m opposed to long books in principle, or even in practise. And I like seafaring tales–Mutiny on the Bounty and Captains Courageous are two of my favourite books. But I just couldn’t do Moby Dick. Maybe it’s that the story of that white whale is so imbued in the threads of our cultural consciousness that everyone knows about Ishamael, Captain Ahab, and the fruits of obsession that I didn’t feel the need to actually discover the tale for myself. Maybe it’s that I’m terrified of whales. Or maybe, it’s just that it’s a long, boring story filled with the digressions characteristic to the time period. Whatever it was, I never did garner a deep appreciation for that particular classic.

Which is not to say that I don’t like Melville.

I may not have been too impressed by his magnum opus, but I loved his shorter works. Particularly Bartelby the Scrivener, the tale of a clerk who would “prefer not.”

Lately at iVillage, I’ve been feeling a lot like Bartleby. Changes are being made, and I sit on my stool, quill in hand, and think “I would prefer not.” Unlike Bartleby’s employer, who develops a sort of grudging respect and sympathy for Bartleby and his passive resistance to the expectations placed upon him, however, I don’t think iVillage would respond too kindly to my preference; their recent change in format seems to bear out this assumption.

Much though I like and admire Bartleby and his stubborn insistence on sitting quietly on his stool, I’ve realized that I don’t choose to mimic his approach to the odious proposition of doing the work I am contracted to do. Not completely, anyway. For one thing, as previously mentioned, I don’t think my employer would be quite as understanding as the unnamed Narrator in Melville’s story. More importantly, while I’m not particularly keen about writing under the current circumstances, assurances that it’s “a good thing” to the contrary, I do like writing.

All of which is a very roundabout way of saying,Welcome to Parenting Without A License, my very own little corner of the internet. I’ll still turn up at iVillage’s The Daily Mom my requisite three times per week, but from now on, I consider this space my true home, where I most certainly do “prefer to.”

I hope you’ll all prefer it too and visit often.