The Mezzanine and Modern Technology
Nicholas Baker’s The Mezzanine is one of the boldest books I have ever read. While most books rely on characters, action, comedy, and romance, Baker instead confines his entire book to a singular, mundane plot: riding up an escalator. However, Baker's brilliance is in using the escalator as a way to express his thoughts on aspects of life that the protagonist finds interesting. The protagonist, Howie, treats ordinary physical items such as shoelaces, paper straws, perforated paper, and corporate bathroom fixtures not as irrelevant objects, but as marvels of human design and intuition. When examining why both of his shoelaces broke within two days of each other after years of wear, Howie notes, "Apparently my shoe-tying routine was so unvarying and robotic that over those hundreds of mornings I had inflicted identical levels of wear on both laces" (Baker 17). Baker uses extensive footnotes and obsessive details to transform an unremarkable corporate evening into an intricate study of humans' interactions with everyday objects, which makes for an interesting read.
In our current digital landscape, where phones and social media dominate, Baker's fascination with ordinary objects in life offers a necessary counterweight. Modern feeds pull our attention towards fast, short videos that lower our attention span and are designed to keep us endlessly scrolling. In contrast, the mezzanine reflects the exact opposite of this, quite curiosity about the physical world right in front of us. By treating shoelaces and paper straws as serious thought, Baker shows that boredom is simply unapplied attention, and that the tangible details of our life hold far richer value than our phones.
Ultimately, the mezzanine reminds us that attention is an active choice that we should all make. Next time you're walking up the stairs, instead of staring at your phone, we should take the time to wonder how stairs were built, how our shoes grip the stairs, or any other fascinating thing in life. Baker shows us that genuine fascination isn’t living behind the screen, but rather in the world in front of us.
Works Cited:
Baker, Nicholson. The Mezzanine. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
In our current digital landscape, where phones and social media dominate, Baker's fascination with ordinary objects in life offers a necessary counterweight. Modern feeds pull our attention towards fast, short videos that lower our attention span and are designed to keep us endlessly scrolling. In contrast, the mezzanine reflects the exact opposite of this, quite curiosity about the physical world right in front of us. By treating shoelaces and paper straws as serious thought, Baker shows that boredom is simply unapplied attention, and that the tangible details of our life hold far richer value than our phones.
Ultimately, the mezzanine reminds us that attention is an active choice that we should all make. Next time you're walking up the stairs, instead of staring at your phone, we should take the time to wonder how stairs were built, how our shoes grip the stairs, or any other fascinating thing in life. Baker shows us that genuine fascination isn’t living behind the screen, but rather in the world in front of us.
Works Cited:
Baker, Nicholson. The Mezzanine. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Krish I really enjoyed your perspective on The Mezzanine, especially your argument that Baker turns ordinary objects into something worth paying attention to. Your point about the contrast between Howie’s curiosity and today’s social media culture was particularly interesting. While some readers might find Howie’s detailed observations excessive, you make a strong case that the novel encourages us to slow down and notice the world around us instead of constantly looking at our phones. I also liked your idea that “boredom is simply unapplied attention,” since it captures what Baker seems to be trying to show throughout the novel. Not bad kid
ReplyDeleteHi Krish! I thought this job did a great job of expressing one of Baker’s possible messages present in this novel. I liked how you paid attention to the shoelace-breaking incident Howie has because he goes extremely deep into it; I was like “woah” reading about his theories for them breaking. I personally feel more inclined to pay attention to random things now after reading this novel. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Krish. I really like the way you have contrasted Baker's extreme attention to detail with the modern usage of phones and social media. While some interpret Baker's long tangents on ordinary items as boring, I think you correctly pointed out that there is also a level of impressiveness to his appreciation for and attention given to these objects. It's almost a lost art in the sense that, as you mentioned, people make the choice to not to live in their boredom and apply their attention. The Mezzanine isn't just a portal to peer into the technologies of the past, but also a portal to see the way people observed their world before the introduction of phones and other modern distractions. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Krish! I really liked your connection between The Mezzanine and today’s attention-span culture, especially how social media constantly pushes us toward shorter and faster content. I’ve noticed that I sometimes get bored when I’m not constantly being entertained, so I think Baker’s focus on small details is a good reminder to slow down and actually pay attention to what’s around us. Do you think people today would have a harder time appreciating The Mezzanine because we’re so used to having our attention constantly pulled in different directions?
ReplyDeleteIn class I tended to focus more on Howie as an *aesthetic* perceiver and appreciator of the mundane world--his metaphorical and figurative language; his appreciation for the "beauty" in everyday life; the "literary" nature of the writing in this novel--but your quoted excerpt about the persistent question of shoelace strain reminds me that Howie is also appealing as a quasi-scientist. He's always trying to apply scientific rational rigor to all kinds of everyday questions, viewing the "interesting" world as also comprised of mysteries to be solved, underlying processes to be uncovered. Howie is deeply relieved when, late in the novel, he narrates how he's learned that a guy in Poland is hard at work on the question of shoelace strain.
ReplyDeleteHowie seems misplaced in his office job: he should be either a writer, or a scientist, or both.
The thing about social media is that it tends to promote dramatization. The normal and mundane have no place on social media, as they don't get clicks, likes, or views. It's the weird, wacky, and strange that get promoted on social media. However, The Mezzanine is like a reminder that the normal and mundane are worth attention too, and platform those things instead of the unique and new.
ReplyDeleteHi Krish, great blog! I also agree that seemingly mundane objects can easily become interesting once we stop and take the time to notice and scrutinize them. That's what The Mezzanine tries to teach us, and this lesson becomes especially relevant given social media's effect on us. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Krish, I have never thought of the book in this light. I think that it is valuable to notice the lack of attention to detail people have in the modern day, since we now have ways to make ourselvs busy at all times. I also like the examples you use in your blog. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteWow, Krish, you really thought outside the box with this stance. I agree that technology really does steal us away from the ordinary, yet beautiful things about everyday objects. Taking a step away from technology, Howie's life showed a reality without our addictive digital devices, and that even in a mundane culture or environment, just having a complex thought about the little things around you could improve it.
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