Howie, narrator of The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, is essentially just a kid playing dress-up in a grown-up's life. Not only does everything excite him, just like it did for all of us when we were little, but he's incredibly observant. When reading this book I was struck time and again at how much I had in common with Howie, and I don't think I'm the only one to experience this weird sensation of reading about what seem to be your own thoughts in someone else's words.
Was anyone else ever fascinated by that conveyor belt at grocery stores that kind of forms a bridge over your groceries and makes the job of scanning the items so amazing awesome by sending them down that black rubber river to fall off at the end neatly into a waiting bag? Howie mentions this phenomenon in one of his extensive rambles (what I liked when I was little, on page 35) and it just completely struck me. I LOVED those belts when I was little. Still do. That seems to be what Howie is talking about in this passage. It is totally hypocritical to say "I loved that when I was a little kid" when you still love it and are in fact simply trying to make yourself seem more mature than you actually are. But then again, why should maturity mean that you are never excited by simple things like blue ice cream and moving grocer's belts?
1 comment:
I love his whole riff on this stuff--"localized systems of transport" like luggage conveyors and grocery-checkouts. The modern world is full of so many little, totally nifty and quite brilliant inventions that tend to get outshined by big deals like iPads and GPS (which people still totally take for granted, and which could sustain Howie-riffs of their own!). I also like the description of Howie as a kid "playing dress-up": think of how he defamiliarizes the rituals of business-guy-getting-dressed-for-work. The suit is still *new* to him, still a "costume" he's excited to put on. Just like a kid playing dress-up. He's more interested in the trappings of his work (staplers, rubber stamps, shoelaces, fitted shirts) than his work itself (what does he do again? what kind of company does he work for?).
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