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Burns 22 January 1994
Response to
Baker’s The Mezzanine
At what level does the narrator interact with others? Cite two or three instances and briefly
discuss.
Howie’s interaction with others is fundamentally overstudied and paranoid. He is ashamed to
pass Bob Leary on the escalator, so he turns tail simply to escape perceived conflict. His fears of
what others think of him tighten his bladder muscles until he can’t perform natural functions
without thinking of humiliating the man next to him. He builds formulas for every
conversation, every incident, and when events are unformulaic, or real, he panics or over
rationalizes.
How are footnotes operating here? Why might Baker have used them?
Footnotes serve several purposes in The Mezzanine. First, they add another level to whatever the
narrator describes. If, for example, the narrator is describing shirts, he might add a footnote on
shirt boards. The footnotes also contribute significantly to the character development of Howie
(just as Lecky brought to life Spinoza with the spider and fly anecdote) (122). It is there we learn
the developmental side of his curious attention to detail, the personal nature of his obsessive
thoughts. Also, the footnotes are a convenient method of breaking up the time line. The bulk of
the narrative is flashback, and footnotes allow for a flashback within a flashback. Finally, the
extended footnotes are an original and effective gimmick for the commercial Baker.
Look at his lists and discuss their oddities. (viz. p 127 & 16).
Howie’s lists are not limited to clear itemizations such as a description of the eight great
developments in his life or the products in CVS. The entire narrative is a list — a list of what he
calls “automated subroutines” (51). There is little or no plot in the book. The story, such as it is,
is a retelling of mundane events in extreme detail. It is an expanded “todo” list. The oddity of
his lists is only that they appear in a novel. Nearly everyone who reads the novel has made
similar lists or observations, but considered them so trivial (as Aurelius did) that they were
forgotten or left unpreserved. Perhaps Howie believes his life in the beauracratic machine is so
trivial, so cyclical, that he feels deadened or unreal. Every list, every memory, is a means of
reifying his life. His list of thought periodicity (127) may be an attempt to add significance to an
otherwise insignificant mind. It also is a glorification of the everyday, in which great and heroic
individuals take a back seat to the commonplace. Tongue brushing exceeds Kant by three
hundred times.