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 valuable. However the humor in this scene is derived in part from the fact that Howie’s thoughts as a child are in large part indifferentiable from his thoughts as an adult, and Howie’s own definition of adulthood begins when he comes to the dubious conclusion that he is no longer developing as a person. Through the comedy present in the scene, Howie is portrayed as ridiculous for implying such a difference to the reader.

I believe Howie wants us, the readers, to feel that his thoughts are valid. Howie is, for all intents and purposes, all of The Mezzanine. His being and experiences make up the content of the book. If we cannot respect Howie, how are we to respect The Mezzanine? This is further conveyed near the end of the novel with Howie asking “Can you take seriously a person’s theory of language when you know that he was delighted by the woodenness and tedium of cowboy movies?” (pg. 121). The question behind the question being, can we derive anything meaningful from Howie (and The Mezzanine as a whole) knowing that he cares about things so seemingly useless as shoelaces and plastic straws? Perhaps there is something profound being discussed by our narrator in certain sections of the novel. Maybe his sermon (on page 101) on whether or not to walk when riding the escalator was some allegory to Sisyphus, to participate in the futility of the effort of trotting up the escalator even if you will be blocked by Annette and Bruce who by sitting still have discouraged everyone from trying. Maybe that is a reach, it is hard to say, and even harder to say when it is sandwiched between discussions about the songs whistled while in the bathroom and popcorn.

I think the answer is found in what is arguably the “thesis” of the novel. Howie’s surprising and abrupt revulsion towards a passage in Meditations is so out of the ordinary with the pattern of the book and Howie’s passiveness that it almost seems like it is coming from Nicholas Baker himself. It is the author’s declaration (in the only blatant passage covering philosophy in the novel) that life has inherent value and is more than just the time between when one is sperm and when one is ash. It is near the end of the book where Howie begins pushing this notion in numerous ways. He shows respect to the fast brown cashier lady at CVS who pays attention to the little things and the stapling of bags to ensure checkout is faster. And of course, the final footnote of The Mezzanine is dedicated to Mr. Czapliki, a man who Howie assumes must have noticed the same useless shoelaces he did and devoted his life to answering questions about it. Howie chooses to validate Czapliki’s thoughts and respect him as a person regardless of how unimportant his interests are (of course these are his own interests as well, but nonetheless). I think what is so unique about the protagonist is that what Nicholas Baker succeeds with in The Mezzanine is the overall positive tone of Howie. It is his unwavering optimism and insistence on the importance of life which is associated with his appreciation of every thought and footnote that makes the book worth reading. The Mezzanine reminds us to appreciate the mundane. Through Howie, Baker manages to highlight the importance of the insignificant and the triumph of the trivial.