“I would prefer not to”
Limonov“I would prefer not to” is the reply associated with Bartleby in Melville’s story, where he gives it no matter what he is asked. The narrator names Bartleby as a hero of the literary circle he joined after publishing several books: a compact expression of its preference for reserve and withdrawal over display.
Meaning and Use
The phrase works through refusal without becoming an emphatic declaration. Its repeated use by Bartleby makes it a distinctive response to every question; in the narrator’s account, that refusal becomes part of the character’s appeal. The expression is presented not as a political slogan but as a literary model for a way of standing apart.
Literary Context
The narrator places Bartleby beside Flaubert and Robert Walser among the heroes of a group of authors published by P.O.L or Les Editions de Minuit. The group valued an aesthetic posture rather than a political one, and saw itself as solitary and withdrawn. Its reserve, associated with Bartleby’s answer, contrasts with the narrator’s impression of the writers around L’Idiot as loud and conspicuous. The two circles scarcely regarded one another at all, so the phrase signifies a chosen distance as much as a refusal.
