The Mezzanine and Minor Parts of Life
The Mezzanine essentially takes place over one lunch break for the main character Howie, although there are flashbacks to many other points in his life. Unlike most books where a footnote is a short reference for a source or a short clarification of a topic, The Mezzanine footnotes are long rambling tangents that are arguably equally important or even more important than the formal text of the book. Especially in the footnotes, The Mezzanine puts a spotlight on the intricacies of our actions and certain common objects. I found the footnotes particularly interesting.
“An unpretentious technical invention—the straw, the sugar packet, the windshield wiper—has been ornamented by a mute folklore of behavioral inventions, unregistered, unpatented, adopted and fine-tuned without comment or thought “(Baker 95).
This quote is a glimpse of a large part of The Mezzanine as a whole. The fixation on small parts of our life is almost a summary of what The Mezzanine means to me, with all of its tangents and details. This book is a hyperfocus on the small parts of life giving them the spotlight that they deserve. The Mezzanine is like a magnifying glass, highlighting the details of day-to-day objects. As a whole there are no great revelations or exposure to new information, but the reader is taken by surprise none the less. The surprise is an “Oh yeah” type of surprise. We just haven’t been thinking about these everyday objects in this much detail.
It is not just a mention of ordinary objects or small parts of life but the hyperfocus on the details that makes The Mezzanine so unique. The footnotes are really where the most interesting observations are made. Earlier in the same footnote as quoted above there is a good example of the hyperfocus on the details of a seemingly mundane object.
“Similarly, there are often unexpected pluses to some minor new development. What sugar-packet manufacturer could have known that people would take to flapping the packet back and forth to centrifuge its contents to the bottom, so that they could handily tear off the top? The nakedness of a simple novelty and pre-portioned packaging has been surrounded and softened and made sense of by gesticulative adaptation (possibly inspired by extinguishing oscillation of a match after the lighting of a cigarette); convenience has given rise to ballet; and the sound of those flapping sugar packets in the early morning, fluttering over from nearby booths, is not one I would willingly forgo, even though I take my coffee unsweetened. Nobody could have predicted that maintenance men would polish escalator handrails standing still, or that students would discover that you can flip pats of pre-portioned butter so they stick to the wall, or that tradesman would discover that they could conveniently store pencils behind their ears, or later that they would gradually stop storing pencils behind their ears, or that windshield wipers could serve as handy places to leave advertising flyers”(Baker 95).
This is an example of what the first quote is meaning, “without comment or thought.” The shaking of the sugar packets is an almost ubiquitous muscle memory, especially for those who use them. Although The Mezzanine doesn’t touch on the topic, these actions go beyond our society. These actions occur similarly in other countries and other cultures. These observations were present when The Mezzanine was written in 1988, and I could go out and still observe these things today. These actions were observed thirty-six years ago when the book was published but they were not new at that time nor are they obsolete now. As long as the sugar packet continues to be manufactured with the same design, this action will be observable far into the future. The Mezzanine at first appears to be a glimpse into a snippet of time, one lunch hour, but in actuality it reflects actions that have been going on for decades and into the future still.
Although this topic is never mentioned in the book, the idea of actions crossing time and countries, makes me think of “The Bag of Bags.” I have a bag of bags, my grandma in Chicago has a bag of bags, and even my grandma in Lithuania has a bag of bags. I can almost guarantee that everyone reading this blog has a bag of bags somewhere in their house. Howie mentioned bags in The Mezzanine and although he never mentioned a bag of bags, I bet he would have had a bag of bags too. Like the sugar packets or the straws, I could see a footnote in The Mezzanine describing a cabinet or drawer where Howie kept his bag of bags. Maybe he would detail where the individual bags came from or how they were stored (neatly or chaotic), or even what his future uses of the bags might be.
The Mezzanine is about a day. It was likely a typical mundane day in the life of Howie. It is the tangents and observations of the ordinary that make The Mezzanine so enjoyable. The book is about shoelaces, and straws, and sugar packets but it is also about keen observations and putting thought into our day to day activities.
I really liked your addition about the bag of bags at the end of your post. I had never thought of every household having a bag of bags but it's an interesting idea. It reminds me of the way every household has a sort of junk drawer, with a unique set of objects inside. This feels kind of like the Mezzanine itself; everyone has their own thoughts and a unique set of thoughts too.
ReplyDeleteHi David, the way you draw attention to the hyperfocus on ordinary objects and actions through the use of extensive footnotes, reflects how Baker turns the mundane into something worthy of contemplation. By using universal actions, like shaking a sugar packet, The Mezzanine displays the global nature of these small behaviors. I feel the minor parts of life showcases the shared experiences that connect us all.
ReplyDeleteI like the description of _The Mezzanine_ as a kind of "magnifying glass," zooming in on often-overlooked details: Baker himself uses the term "microscopy" to describe aspects of his technique, and this has the same implications--narrative language has the capacity to "slow down" and "zoom in" on everyday life, which can alter our familiar impressions. And as you say, it's very much Howie's conviction that these small details "deserve" closer attention--one thesis in this novel is that the everyday world is a lot more "interesting" than we might assume. Howie seems to work at a job that many of us would find "boring"--he's so bored by it, he never bothers to mention what his company even DOES, or what his role is within the corporate structure. But in this novel, it seems like a gift--Howie is NEVER bored, he is IMMUNE to boredom, because the corporate office space is as endlessly fascinating as any other human-shaped public space. Among other things, this novel challenges us to be less *bored* with the world we inhabit.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, David! I loved the highlight of the footnote about the sugar packet because before this blog, that footnote had not stood out to me at all, but rereading it in this context is making me really appreciate it. I think Howie's description of the shaking of the sugar packet and the way it fits into your argument about Howie focusing on lots of subconscious things is really interesting. I would argue Howie's attention to the shaking of sugar packets is even more interesting and niche than that of the tying of shoelaces, which gets much more page space in the novel, because its something that everybody does, but literally no one is taught to do it.
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