I don't think like Howie does...
To me, the most interesting part of reading The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker is contrasting the way Howie thinks with how I think. Howie is an extremely scientific person, and he spends most of his lunch break and his ride dissecting tiny things in his life that most of us honestly consider being pretty boring and meaningless. He connects them to society, our economic system, etc., and while reading it I almost feel like I’m reading something completely ironic making fun of people who break down everything and treat everything like it is immensely important. But Baker is being completely genuine. He’s taking things that people find trivial and showing that they aren’t trivial to everyone.
I compare this to
how I think, which is generally focusing on the bigger pictures in the world. I
like to think about society as a whole, about politics and how we can organize
the distribution of values and wealth to make it function as well as possible.
I like to think about the universe, about religion, and how these really big
questions relate to people’s daily lives and specifically my daily life. So it
was really interesting to be inside of someone else’s head and experience this
privilege I often don’t get to enjoy when I’m reading novels. While I like to
attack everything from top-down, Howie attacks everything from bottom-up. He
looks at objects and thinks about how their background is connected to large
societal ideals, while I like to think about societal ideals and then look at
how different societal ideals affect the world all around me.
I think embracing
different types of thinking for oneself is pretty optional because I don’t
think any one way is more effective than another. Whatever makes sense to me as
a way society flows is the lens I should view society through in order to
analyze it as efficiently as possible. But it is important to understand all
ways people think about the world. Whether its partners’ whose shoes you want
to stand inside in order to better work with them or adversaries who you want
to empathize with in order to defeat, I had never really considered that other couple
could think about the world deeply but attack it in a different way that I did.
And I’m not sure I’d say I’m necessarily impressed by this way of thinking, or
my mind is blown, but I find it pretty intriguing. I love to think about the
universe when I’m biking, showering, or falling asleep, but I’m definitely not
triggered by a simple sandwich. How do you guys think? Are you closer to me or
Howie?
For me, the way that Howie thinks is generally quite alien--but I find myself persuaded that this stuff *is* interesting and I *should* be more interested in and appreciative of these little flashes of inventive genius that surround us all the time. I find myself being influenced by his perspective, with "Howie glasses" that prompt me to look more closely at *how* things work. I come away from this novel truly believing that industrial designers are unsung heroes and that we should all be more active appreciators of their work.
ReplyDeleteMy pattern of thinking alligns much more closely with yours than it does Howie's. While reading I found it relatively difficult to relate directly to many of the thoughts he was having, however, once they were pointed out by Howie, I could join in the interest with relative ease. I would say Howie represents one very extreme end of the spectrum of thought patterns (he's hyper detail-oriented to say the least). The majority of people would fall more somewhere in the middle with roughly half leaning more towards Howie's perspective. I completely agree that it's fairly important to have the experience of viewing life through a lens different than our own, not because one is inherently superior, but because it enlarges our net understanding of the world.
ReplyDeleteI also initially thought that The Mezzanine was satirical when I began reading it due to how much time Howie spent thinking about things that I would usually never pay any mind to. I'm also the type of person who gets lost in thought thinking about things like how the universe functions, what the distant future will look like, and distribution of wealth, so it was interesting to take a step back and think about the objects I see and the experiences I have in everyday life (or at least everyday life before the pandemic), and ultimately relate to Howie about a lot of these things, despite how differently I think from him.
ReplyDeleteI don't think like he does, it's more of a subconscious thing that I notice, but I don't actually think about it. When he says something I relate to it but I don't actually relate to his stream of thoughts. I just see that I've noticed the same things as him, but subconsciously.
ReplyDeleteSeems like I might be the odd one out in this comment section then -- I actually highly relate to the way Howie thinks. Perhaps I can't articulate my thoughts of my journey up an escalator into a coherent novel, but I do find a similarity between my thought process and Howie's. For some time now, I've realized that I think in terms of connections (as obvious as that might sound). When I see a pencil broken in half, I'm thrown back into a memory of my elementary school days when I would destroy pencils to "test my strength" or when I see peoples' faces, I'm automatically matching them with celebrities or other people I know to see if they look scarily alike with anyone. I would also like to challenge you and all the other people before me to ponder whether all these "ways of thinking" are the same. Maybe we can't all dissect the act of tying shoes and relate it to a childhood memory, but in some sense, every thought we have is a culmination of memories and experiences we have, and if we slow down, perhaps we can realize that we aren't as different from Howie as we might expect.
ReplyDeleteI kind of appreciate his take on the world. While I personally don't wonder about things like the crimps in toilet paper, I feel like I dissect things in the same way for things that are interesting to me. For example, my wondering about the inner workings of a helium powered car doesn't seem so different from his rambling thoughts on the urinal pipes when you think solely about the way he thinks about it. He seems more relatable when you think about the way he thinks about things instead of what he thinks about.
ReplyDeleteI feel like most people don't think the same way Howie does. Or if they do, they find different things or parts of life trivial. Most people will not dissect the act of tying their shoelaces, or making a sandwich. This is what I did as a child, when my life was a lot simpler, and I had less going on and less to worry about. However, we may dissect other areas of our life, like social interactions, or other more complex parts of life that would be more interesting to let our minds get lost in thought about.
ReplyDeleteI think that I have my own manner of thinking. I find myself to be alone and in my own head for long stretches of time (quarantine was no help with this :P). I enjoy writing, and often I like to think about my characters and sometimes those of others. I like to think about hypothetical conversations with them and also often my friends. I often find myself thinking and sometimes even obsessing over what I've done in the past. Many times, like Howie, I like to let my mind wander from subject to subject, creating my own little "footnotes" and ramblings, where often many of them are forever abandoned. So I guess after a bit of reflection, I think my mind is a little more similar to Howie's, except mine is no where near as obsessed with the trivial consumer goods of modern day society. Additionally, I believe that I tend to take things a little more at face value, rather than tackling a subject top-bottom or bottom-up.
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