Bartleby’s story is one of exhaustion, not metaphysical liberation.
Evidence
This “Story of Wall-Street” is not a tale of de-creation [Ent-Schöpfung], but rather a story of exhaustion [Erschöpfung]. The exclamation that ends the tale is both a lament and an indictment: “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 74
Categorization
- XREF: The exhaustion vs de-creation distinction crystallizes Han’s thesis that the burnout subject’s pathology is biological depletion, not spiritual transcendence.