Footnotes! Footnotes! Footnotes!
One of the most notable aspects of The Mezzanine would be its abundance of footnotes. The sight of a page long footnote inspired both feelings of dread and excitement when I read through the book. One phrase Howie uses that I liked was, “the luxuriant incidentalism of the footnotes” (Baker 121). Indeed, Howie’s footnotes seem like ramblings that, while tangentially related to the topic of the paragraph, offer insight to Howie’s view of life that some could consider to be “luxuriant”. I can’t bring myself to hate the footnotes since without them I wouldn’t have known the extent of Howie’s wonder for ice cube trays and detailed observations regarding staplers. Inside this particular footnote on page 121 lies one of my favorite ideas in the entire book. Howie describes how “the outer surface of truth is not smooth, welling and gathering from paragraph to shapely paragraph,” instead it is, “encrusted with a rough protective bark of citations, quotations marks, italics, and foreign languages” (Baker 122). There are so many things I love about this specific quote but I’ll mention only a fraction of them.
Baker’s use of language amazes me like always. I particularly like the phrase,“rough protective bark,”which conjures up images of trees. The words “bark” and “protective” imply that there is something hidden underneath this layer. In addition the phrase itself helps to defamiliarize the reader. I never thought of citations, quotations marks, italics, etc. as a type of bark but Baker is able to help me see a new perspective. Baker reshapes mundane things like footnotes into something unfamiliar and capable of evoking wonder.
The thought that truth is complex and multi-layered fits well into the other ideas of The Mezzanine. Howie portrays simple mundane objects like staplers as multilayered. At first sight, staplers seem pretty one dimensional. They were created for plunging some metal to some pieces of paper to attach them together. Howie, however, views staplers in a different light he sees the “footnotes” of the stapler. Howie sees the nuance and little details about the stapler, such as the design of them. He describes the staplers transformation from “cast-ironic and upright” (Baker 14). to something more streamlined. He compares staplers design changes to the transformation happening in train design— Something I’ve never thought of before but makes an odd amount of sense. From a broad view, these details may seem as trivial but if one zooms in, you can see “the bark” of mundane objects and layers of complexity surrounding them.
While reading this, I was struck by the phrase "I can't bring myself to hate the footnotes". I feel like this perfectly sums up my opinion of The Mezzanine. I found the book to be oftentimes tediously paced and rambling, but Howie's enthusiasm and intensity shine through enough to make me seriously think about trivial mundanities like paper towel dispensers or how shoelaces break. I probably wouldn't recommend this book to somebody, but no, I cannot bring myself to hate it.
ReplyDeleteI can completely relate to those feelings of dread and excitement when encountering those page long footnotes. However, looking back I completely agree with you that the most memorable parts of the book were found in the footnotes. In fact, I think that without the footnotes Howie would become an extremely tedious character as the footnotes are the most intense and gripping parts of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI like this post a lot! seeing the page-long footnotes also greatly intimidated me at the time, but as I look back on the mezzanine, I realize that the footnotes were an essential part of the book. They add more dimension to Howie's ideas and sometimes even go off onto tangents of their own, adding layers to the story and making it a much more interesting read. without the footnotes the mezzanine would surely feel incomplete.
ReplyDeleteThere is a neat effect with the multi-page footnotes, though: after slogging through one of the three-pagers, being amused and entertained but losing the thread of the narrative (and maybe anxious about making "progress" in an assigned reading), you get to cruise at advanced speed through the few lines of "main" text on those footnote-heavy pages--almost like hitting a moving sidewalk (or escalator!) after trudging through a crowd.
ReplyDelete