The Bottom of My Ladder
I’ll think about something for an average of half a second, make some strange connection, blink, and then moment’s gone. Usually, I don’t even notice it happened. Reading The Mezzanine, though, I started noticing how much of life is made up of exactly those kinds of thoughts. Baker takes one thought, follows it somewhere completely unexpected, and then follows that thought somewhere else. I wrote in my notebook, who would ever think to write all of this down? At one point in the novel, Howie purchases a book and wonders something like, “Who bought this kind of book?” and I was sitting there thinking the exact same thing. Like genuinely, why the hell did I buy this book? If it wasn’t for my high school English class, would I ever pick up a book with this plot?
I was trying to explain this to my coworker one night while I was on a ladder facing shelves at work, and I swear I sounded crazy. He asks me how my day at school was and tell him that we're reading The Mezzanine.
"what's it about"
"well, it's kinda like...I don't know...well...there's this escalator...and this guy and...oh! There's the integral sign and..."
Before we know it, there’s shoelaces and milk cartons and the ethical and practical nuances of paper vs plastic straws. I imagine all of these words in Baker’s novel, falling from the page and down to the bottom of my ladder in a scramble, like it does in Winnie the Pooh. (Peak cinema, would recommend. The 2011 version to be specific.) Anyways, I was trying to explain how The Mezzanine is somehow worth reading when the entire thing is basically just this guy going on and on about his lunch break. And the more I tried to explain what was so interesting about it, the more I realized I was struck by his digressive messaging. I just kept going. I went on for what felt like the length of a novel.
That’s probably the funniest thing about this book to me. Baker managed to stretch a lunch break into an entire novel, and then I somehow managed to take these letters at the bottom of my ladder and scramble them into my own long string of nonsense. It’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it. The book is full of these thoughts that would normally just come and go, and somehow, he made them worth noting. As I was reading, my initial instinct was to think the book was boring because basically nothing happens, and then I spent half my night talking about why nothing happening was actually the interesting part.
And as I’m sitting here, in an attempt to summarize my thoughts on this un-summarizable book, preparing to put it on my shelf, (where it will undoubtedly be forgotten) I can’t help but think about the same cycle of confusion, word scrambling, and realization that I’ll probably go through when I find it again. Maybe I’ll pick it up years from now and wonder, once again, why the hell I ever bought a book about a guy’s lunch break.
My sister studies creative writing, so one of my first thoughts when we began this book was that I had to share it with her. I remember pretty early on, I told her that I was gonna give her this book when I was done with it, and she had to read it and tell me what she thought. When she asked me what it was about, I was like, “um… I don't really know, but it’s interesting, I think. Just read it.” I think your term "un-summarizable" book suits “The Mezzanine” really well. Of course, we could say it's about a guy who goes on his lunch break and traces his thoughts through the book, but again, the lunch break, the escalator, all the stuff in real-time is only the very basic skeleton of the story. Reading this book felt like a weird experience that Mr. Mitchell weasled into my life, a strange blip in time and an outlier on my bookshelf. I’m still pondering whether I like this book or not (I do like your blog though!). But if I ever get it back from my sister, I too will probably ask why the hell I even have this thing. Maybe that curiosity will lead me to Howie’s eternal lunch break again.
ReplyDeleteI feel similarly, as when I read the Mezzanine, i noticed I began to try and notice smaller details. I have forgotten all of them now, but when I read the book, it inspired something in me to consider everyday things I hadn't before. I think part of what makes the book so interesting is that there are very few others like it. It manages to be memorable by being something completely different from what we are used to, but not by being particularly amazing as a book. For me at least, the enjoyment didn't come from the plot or details, but instead from how it inspired me to take a closer look at things I had passed by before.
ReplyDeleteHi Alana! The way you describe the EXPERIENCE of reading the mezzanine really resonated with me. However, I had a slightly different range of emotions, when reading. I was either incredibly bored by Howie's explanation of shirt cardboards or deeply invested in the history he gives of milk cartons. It either felt like I was wading through mud up to my waist, impossibly slow and tedious, or like the blink of an eye and pow I was done with the reading and wanted to go past the designated amount I was supposed to read. I think this wide range of emotions I had while reading highlighted what little details in my life are important to me which was fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Alana! I agree with many of your sentiments about this book. I didn't know how to explain it either or how to interpret it. I had a good time but I have never read anything like it before. For me, the excitement came from relating to the things he was saying in such incredible detail. The parts I thought were just my own weirdly specific "original experiences," that I never think twice about, were reflected right back at me here, which made me feel seen in a way I never expected. For example, the thing about air dryers, when you need a towel to blow your nose or wipe something off and there just isn't one. I have thought that exact thought so many times and never once considered writing it down, and Baker is making whole pages about it!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your own work setting might make a good area of focus for a pastiche of Baker's narrative style. I agree with your suggestion that we all have the capacity to THINK as this book thinks, only we rarely write this kind of thing down. The pastiche will give you a chance to try to write some of these things down, and perhaps you'll find that the act of writing itself gives a kind of substance or "interest" or significance to these fleeting thoughts and observations.
ReplyDeleteHi Alana! I agree that this is a un-summarizable book. Sometimes I'll be talking to other people taking this class and we're talking about the stupid stuff that Howie's saying and complaining how he just goes on and on. One thing I realized is though the plot isn't the engaging or exciting, as readers we still have something to talk about. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteAlana! I really agree with what you said about the Mezzanine being an un-summarizable book. It fits the book perfectly. When I tell my parents or my friends about they book. I love to just say "yeah it is a book about a guy going up and esculator and having a lunch break." The book being "un-summarizable" is so funny and also very real at the same time. I think that is the point with this book. With that all said, you did an amazing job with your blog post.
ReplyDeleteHi Alana! I thought your post was really relatable. When I was reading it and trying to summarize to my friends and family, the first thing I said was that we were talkling about shoelaces one second, and straws the next. It was all over the place, but I think that was Baker's point. He wanted it to be all the weird thoughts that someone has but doesn't often share, which I think is kind of cool but at the same time makes for a bit of a confusing read. Great job!
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