The Mezzanine: A Strange Novel
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| This reminded me of Howie's comment about handrails (page 100). This cartoon even mentions the slippage! |
What makes The Mezzanine interesting? Is it even a novel? These are two questions that came up throughout our discussions of The Mezzanine that I would like to discuss. First of all, let’s address the question of interest. The Mezzanine is set apart from other books by the observant narrator, Howie. Although it looks like he’s just like any other person from the outside, the book lets us see what Howie is like inside, and it shows us all the strange reflections Howie thinks about throughout the day, similar to how a stream of consciousness works (although not quite). This over-analyzation of simple things that most people don’t think twice about seems to be one of the main reasons why people read this book. It inspires them to look closer at things and wonder. In a way, Howie is almost like a child because he constantly asks “How does this work?”. Also, people might read this book because it is relatable. Ultimately, it describes what being a human in the world is like, and even if some parts don’t resonate with a reader, it is interesting to recognize that everyone’s experience in life is so similar and yet so different. We also mentioned in class that The Mezzanine is somewhat like a time machine, and I agree. Even though some things haven’t changed at all, such as escalators, bathrooms, and human interactions, there were many times when I noticed that things were different, such as vending machines, CVS bags, or popcorn containers. These small things don’t seem important, but in the end, they were part of the experience back then that fascinated readers.
The second part of this blog post is whether or not The Mezzanine is a novel. Arguably, it has no plot, so can a novel exist without a plot? To answer this question, it might be useful to look at Virginia Woolf’s essay “Modern Fiction”. According to her, “The mind receives a myriad impressions- trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel” (154), and it is the “task of the author to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little mixture of the alien and external as possible” (154). In a way, this seems to be what Nicholson Baker achieves with his novel since a large part of the text is based on Howie’s internal thoughts. If we are to believe Woolf about her ideas for a novel, then The Mezzanine is definitely a novel. Furthermore, Woolf even implied that a novel can exist without a plot since characters are more important. She said that “if [the author] could base his work upon his own feeling and not upon convention, there would be no plot” (154). Although Baker’s novel is not typical and does not follow the conventions of writing today, it explores what it is like for a character to experience thoughts and feelings. Rather than focusing solely on the story and progression of events, Baker explores all the strange and disorganized ideas bouncing around Howie’s head. Therefore, The Mezzanine is a novel, no matter how unconventional it is.
I would argue that there is a blot- if not one that follows a traditional story arc. I don't think being a stream-of-consciousness novel means that there is no plot. At times there are excursions but a lot of it it follows varyingly his past and his day to day life
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lilian in that there is a plot of some sort, as it technically follows Howie's trip on the escalator leading up to the Mezzanine, just with lots of digressions (which I would agree, as you said in the blog post, is unconventional and distinctive). But I do think that you made a very valid point with Woolf's ideas on how rather than being conventional, the characters and the way the author portrays them are more important.
DeleteYes. I agree with Lillian that the book has a plot. However, I wanted to use Woolf's essay in my post to show that even if you decide that the book doesn't have a plot, The Mezzanine is still a novel. After all, if you look up The Mezzanine, it is often described as plot-less.
DeleteI personally think that The Mezzanine is definitely a novel because it makes you think about life. Although it may be very unconventional, it has a lot of the characteristics that you see in novels, so I'd say it's a new kind of novel (except it isn't new, it's like forty years old).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lorenzo, the Mezzanine is most definitely a novel, it is simply different. If you look at the Mezzanine consecutively, the plot may seem small, however, the footnotes time travel A LOT, so I think cumulatively there is a lot of substantial plot which gets the reader thinking.
ReplyDeleteI think this book is interesting because it puts its status of novel up for question. It makes you question what a novel even is. Technically, this book does have a timeline; however, it isn't linear. I like this concept of non linear story telling because it actually mimics the way our minds react to life. This novel's novel status is still a grey area for me but I like the way that the question is posed to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a novel, it just has a more subtle plot to it, built up of smaller stories of memories accompanying descriptions of items he encountered during the day, which he thinks about as he rides the escalator. I feel like riding the escalator doesn't necessarily have a plot, but by moving back and forth in time, Baker is able to create a plot that moves forward with the escalator.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the Mezzanine has a plot. It just barely has any conflict. Obviously, the plot on its own is uninteresting. However, the plot is not the main focus of this novel. The focus is on Howie and how his mind works. The plot is simply used to showcase Howie and his thoughts about what he experiences. Whereas other novels might use characters as devices to advance an exciting plot with conflict and resolution, the Mezzanine seems to do the opposite by using what little plot there is to further our understanding of Howie's mind works.
ReplyDeleteBaker is, among other things, pushing the boundaries of what we even consider a "plot." In a literal, technical sense, Howie ascending the escalator with his new laces in hand constitutes a plot--a sequence of events that leads to a conclusion and a resolution of conflict (broken laces). It's deliberately NOT the kind of plot people typically write novels about, and some readers might say it's not even a very *good* plot. But it is a plot, in so far as that's it's structural role in the book. But we don't read the book "for the plot"--there's no suspense, and the main aesthetic pleasures are to be found in the "ride" itself, not where it ends up. He deliberately sidelines plot as a point of interest, and it functions mainly as structure.
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