Boring but Relatable

The Mezzanine may have been one of the most relatable yet boring books I have read recently. It was very relatable in the sense that the narrator Howie spoke in a natural, laid back tone and discussed simple topics that we experience in everyday life. However, I don't think this trait was enough to make this book worthwhile the read. It's reasonable to argue that having similar views as your audience can create a more engaging relationship in real life scenarios, however, it doesn't cross over as effectively for me when put on paper. Even though Nicholson Baker uses the clever technique of using "you" instead of "I" to involve his reader even further, I still felt the heavy presence of Howie telling me his story rather than him encouraging me to reach back into my own memories of similar moments to his. Hearing the same types of ideas, language, and tone used over and over by one person gets repetitive and boring fast in real life and on paper. I will give Baker the fact that this was still a book like none other I had read before and I could appreciate it for that if nothing else.

Off of this basis, we can see how Virginia Woolf creates an engaging environment for the reader simply through further in-depth character development. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf makes sure to create engaging characters that have us second guessing their thoughts. For example, the question of whether or not Clarissa is happy arose during class. While you could make a valid argument for either side, it would be subjective with no real definitive answer to the question. In The Mezzanine however, Howie's character is so straightforward and outspoken that most of the time you can accurately predict how he feels about anything making Howie a very one dimensional character. The constant switching of point of views in Mrs. Dalloway also plays a crucial role in refreshing the readers mind, giving them a goal to reach toward kind of in the same way a chapter does. Without these benchmarks, the reader's mind often gets tired of reading the same voice repetitively, already adding on to Baker's bland narrator.

In conclusion, while The Mezzanine was an interesting and relatable novel, it lacked substantial plot and complex characters to keep the reader actively reading and we can use Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as a point of contrast to further emphasize this statement.

Comments

  1. Robert NagelSeptember 3, 2018 at 3:00 PM

    I agree with you - just reading how Howie experiences the world was not enough to inspire me to do the same. It took an external factor (the pastiche assignment) to make me experience such a mode of thought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GrantSeptember 4, 2018 at 8:43 AM

    While I agree with your assessment of the differences in how the novel is told play into the characters I think you are ignoring some of the character development we get from Howie because we see the world through his eyes. In Ms. Dalloway the characters don't know we are here, but Howie knows we are here. This makes the Mezzanine more like a conversation, ill be it very one-sided, we learn about his past and his experiences. the whole book is told through Howie's lens and the way he tells it gives us insight into his character and his thoughts and develops him a lot more than you give him credit for.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KevinSeptember 5, 2018 at 6:08 PM

    I would agree that Mrs. Dalloway has more characters, but i'm not sure that it has significantly more character development. There is a lot of character that can be drawn from Howie's narration-- the mere fact that he is so interested in ordinary things, he has social anxieties, thinks a lot about his past, etc. But even these fairly obvious ones don't scratch the surface of what you can draw from his analysis of the escalator ride. You are right that we don't see a lot of people or interactions between characters we are familiar with in the Mezzanine, though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nic RamkumarSeptember 13, 2018 at 12:58 PM

    I agree with your points on Howie being a fairly predictable and boring character and I like how you contrast this with the depiction of Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway. I feel like because there isn't that much to Howie as a character, The Mezzanine has to focus on things as opposed to characters. In Mrs. Dalloway the focus in definitely more on what the people in it are thinking and feeling. In my opinion people are inherently more interesting than things and I think this is a large part of why I liked Mrs. Dalloway so much more than The Mezzanine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dominick LongSeptember 14, 2018 at 3:12 PM

    Yes, The Mezzanine is definitely the least plot-heavy book I have ever read and really only has one character, and this made it slow to read. I think the main problem the book has is a lack of tension. While there is not that much tension in Mrs. Dalloway, a significant amount comes from Septimus and his visions/hallucinations and ultimate suicide.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1000gamesSeptember 14, 2018 at 8:17 PM

    Not going to lie, I very much agree with you about the Mezzanine being a boring book. There is no complex situation that would every happen to someone riding an escalator versus where Mrs. Dalloway is about having a part with a bunch of your old love interest and exes. I feel like Mezzanine is for those who is looking for a book to relax on and just ponder the universe while Dalloways is more excitement and complex.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Massive PeanutbrainSeptember 15, 2018 at 7:50 AM

    I agree that it is not a fun book to read. The lack of plot made it hard to read for me, and I enjoy books because of enticing plots.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Importance of Names

As we noticed early on, the characters in Song of Solomon all had very peculiar names. Whether it be very unusual like First Corinthian or whether it be more of a nickname like Milkman, Morrison has hidden a much broader and deeper meaning behind many of the names she assigns the characters. Perhaps the most important idea Morrison attempted to convey was the idea that the more familiar/popular name is often more descriptive than the more original or recorded name given to places or people. We can see several examples of this throughout the book, starting with Milkman himself. While Milkman's official name is Macon Dead III, that doesn't show much other than his biological relationship to his ancestry. However, his nickname Milkman provides us more than that, giving information on the nature of Milkman's unusual relationship with his mother, being breast fed way past the age one usually stops, which everyone in the town seems to pick up pretty quickly from this nickna...
Read more

I thought I was a cat person

I’ve had a couple of pets during my life, but most of them are dead now as they were fish or birds who were eaten or killed by my cat. Currently, I only own a dog and as mentioned before, a cat. Obviously the whole family cares for both pets, but we each have our preferences; I prefer my cat because I was the one who wanted to get one in the first place. I like dogs too, but only the large kind, so I thought a cat would be a more appropriate house pet, as I had to find one way to convince my mom of allowing it. My dog is some sort of mix of Labrador and Pitbull so he’s fairly large and muscular. When you add in a mix of high energy and stupidity, he can become pretty dangerous and you can begin to see why he wouldn’t be fit to be an indoor dog. Unlike my cat though, he doesn’t mean to be an annoyance or cause harm. As I and my cat have gotten older, he’s started to become more and more of an annoyance and I’ve started to get more and more annoyed. The thing he always does ...
Read more

Septimus's Sexuality

We dedicated a lot of time in class on the topic of Septimus's relationship with Evans and whether or not it's homosexual. I don't completely discard the possibility of Septimus being homosexual as we have already seen an example in Clarissa and Sally, in addition to the similarities Woolf draws between Clarissa and Septimus's suicide near the end of the book. However, I don't think that the stressful situations in the trenches during the war should be used as a primary piece of evidence for this argument of Septimus being gay, perhaps a little side note if used at all. For me, I just can't see it any other way. During rough times like a war, emotions are most likely running rampant, people don't know what to do, people start to panic. It seems clear as day to me that Septimus was in this position and was looking for someone to guide him. It's only natural, we all do it as well. When we have no clue what's going on or don't know what to do, ...
Read more