References
Literature
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginnings to 1865, edited by Robert S. Levine and Sandra M. Gustafson, Shorter 10th ed., W. W. Norton, 2023, pp. 830-79.
James, Henry. Daisy Miller: A Study. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: 1865-1914, edited by Michael A. Elliott, 9th ed. vol. C, W. W. Norton, 2017, pp. 410-49.
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Beginnings to 1865, edited by Robert S. Levine and Sandra M. Gustafson, Shorter 10th ed., W. W. Norton, 2023, pp. 1132-57.
Liberty Greens Trust Hospitality Asset Optimisation Initiative
This document was written with the help of ChatGPT (GPT-5.3). The point of this document was to satirise a certain style of English instead of provide original content, which I found ChatGPT useful for. It mocks overblown, technical jargon from the consulting industry. After providing ChatGPT with an overview of my game, I gave it a detailed prompt, then revised sections of the generated text myself.
“Write the gameplay copy for 3.1 Project brief” Prompt. ChatGPT, GPT-5.3, OpenAI, May 2026. https://chatgpt.com/
(Specific date is not available on the ChatGPT interface)
US Postal Service
“General Post Office, Washington, DC.” U.S. General Services Administration, https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/explore-historic-buildings/find-a-historic-federal-building/general-post-office-washington-dc. Accessed 10 May 2026.
“Immigration from Asia and the Pacific, 1870s to 1950s.” National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/research/aapi/immigration. Accessed 10 May 2026.
“Postal Women in the Late 19th Century.” Smithsonian Postal Museum,
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-american-dead-letter-offices-180964133/. Accessed 10 May 2026.
United States, Postal Service. The United States Postal Service: An American History. 250th Anniversary Edition, 2025.
The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Washington D.C.
Kimpton Hotel Monaco DC. Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, https://www.monaco-dc.com/, Accessed 10 May 2026.
Occupy Wall Street news clippings
Fessenden, Ford, and Alan Mclean. “Where the 1 Percent Fit in the Hierarchy of Income.” The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2011, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/30/nyregion/where-the-one-percent-fit-in-the-hierarchy-of-income.html. Accessed 10 May 2026.
Havrilesky, Heather. “Steve Jobs: Vampire. Bill Gates: Zombie.” The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2011,https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/magazine/steve-jobs-vampire-bill-gates-zombie.html. Accessed 10 May 2026.
NPR Staff and Wires. “Occupy Wall Street Inspires Worldwide Protests.” NPR, 15. Oct 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/10/15/141382468/occupy-wall-street-inspires-worldwide-protests. Accessed 10 May 2026.
Abolition pamphlet
Douglass, Frederick. Abolition fanaticism in New York : speech of a runaway slave from Baltimore, at an abolition meeting in New York, held May 11,1847. 1847. Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore. Maryland Center for History and Culture,
https://www.mdhistory.org/resources/abolition-fanaticism-in-new-york-speech-of-a-runaway-slave-from-baltimore-at-an-abolition-meeting-in-new-york-held-may-11-1847/. Accessed 10 May 2026.
Chinese miners news clipping
Harper’s Weekly, Mining life in California--Chinese miners.1857. Library of Congress, Washington D.C. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2001700332/. Accessed 10 May 2026.
Correspondence between a writer and her editor
The letter is inspired by research on Sui Sin Far’s letters to her editor Charles Lummis by Martha J. Cutter. The text itself was written by the creator of this project and is not a historical document.
Cutter, Martha J. “Sui Sin Far’s Letters to Charles Lummis: Contextualizing Publication Practices for the Asian American Subject at the Turn of the Century.” American Literary Realism, vol. 38, no. 3, 2006, pp. 259–75.
Image of Herman Melville
Herman Melville, American author. Reproduction of photograph, frontispiece to Journal Up the Straits. 1861. Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville#/media/File:Herman_Melville_1860.jpg. Accessed 10 May 2026.
is a final project for the Spring/Summer 2026 19th Century American Literature course at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University.
This project is primarily inspired by Herman Melville’s 1853 short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” along with other figures, facts, and fictions from 19th century America, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Sui Sin Far’s correspondence with her editor Charles Lummis, Chinese miners during the California Gold Rush, the history of the US postal service and its general office in Washington D.C., and Henry James’ Daisy Miller: A Study. Some 21st century inspirations include Occupy Wall Street, 2010s iMac interfaces, TV shows The Office and Severance, and management consultants. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Washington D.C. is a real establishment, though Liberty Greens Trust is not.
Some liberty has been taken with chronology so that Bartleby’s archive can include texts, events, and documents spanning much of 19th century American literature, including materials from after the publication of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in 1853.
This project is a work of fiction, except where it seems uncannily close to reality.
