"Observe, in short, how transient and trivial is all mortal life; yesterday a drop of semen, tomorrow a handful of spice and ashes"
This is the passage that Nicholas Baker so vehemently refuses through Howie. I think Howie is so radically against this theory because, as we learn over the course of the book, Howie pretty much just loves life. The Mezzanine, as a whole is basically combating Aurelius' philosophy on life because Baker's book portrays even the most basic details as meaningful and Howie celebrates the most commonplace, overlooked minutia of life. Baker is pretty successful too... He made the random details of Howie's ordinary life interesting enough to keep a bunch of teenagers reading for 135 pages. So, I guess that's a win. I know he made me (and I'm sure a few others) smile or laugh at an everyday object/situation that I did not appreciate nearly as much as Howie. Even if the book was not interesting to you in particular, it does make you reconsider some of the particulars in life and realize that they effect the way you act more than it seems at first glance. Overall, it makes every part of life seem like it has meaning and takes the triviality out of every detail. I think it is easy to see why Baker is so opposed to the Aurelius quote given his outlook on life.
1 comment:
"Celebrates" is definitely a good word for what Baker's narrative does with its material, and perhaps this could be seen to "refute" Aurelius (especially in the sense that "trivial" suggests unimportant or uninteresting--Howie celebrates trivia as nontrivial?). Aurelius seeks to remind his reader that life is fleeting, presumably to give the reader a sense of urgency and importance, while Baker seeks to slow us down, to make something as mundane as a lunch hour not go by so fast.
(And yay! The comments feature works when you set it as a pop-up!)
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