The Mezzanine: What are important thoughts?
What are important thoughts? The theme of the arbitrary way we decide which thoughts are important persists throughout The Mezzanine. Baker let's Howie be an example in order to pose questions about who we respect and listen to and what/whose thoughts we deem to be important. The most obvious example occurs relatively early in the novel when Howie begins calculating the age at which he will have more “adult thoughts” than “child thoughts.” This task is paramount to Howie who follows it to its conclusion and determines an age at which he will have more adult thoughts than child ones. Of course, while Howie clearly defines the end/start point of when he transitioned from a child to an adult, the perceived importance of each thought is randomly attributed. Through some sort of mental law of superposition, this makes sense to us as readers at first glance. As you develop and gain a more enriched view of the world around you, your thoughts become more nuanced and, subsequently, more v...