The Story Within the Footnotes
The Story Within the Footnotes
As we learned while reading it, pretty much every conventional aspect of a novel is warped into Nicolas Baker’s stream of consciousness writing style in the novel The Mezzanine. Not only that, but Baker even challenges literary devices rarely even used in novels, specifically footnotes. The footnotes found in The Mezzanine were tangents on top of tangents that continued for pages and made you read the novel in an unorthodox pattern in which you would read a footnote for multiple pages, flip back to the original page, and then reread the entire paragraph because the footnote completely distracted you from what was happening in the story. Baker even goes so far as to mention how amazing footnotes are… inside a footnote. On page 123 of the novel Howie, the main character thinks, “Footnotes are the finer-suckered surfaces that allow tentacular paragraphs to hold fast to the wider reality of the library.” However, even though in this quote he is saying that footnotes are used to anchor large, complex paragraphs, Baker, in a very Baker-esque manner, ignores the norm and uses footnotes as tentacles upon tentacles. I think Baker's unconventional use of footnotes helps readers learn more about the main character, Howie, through the footnotes than through the main storyline.
While reading The Mezzanine, I honestly found myself more engaged when reading the footnotes than when reading the regular text (although Baker’s writing is anything but regular). Most of what was discussed in the non-footnote text consisted of Howie’s train of thought about shoelaces, Penguin books, and bathrooms. On pages 127 and 128, Howie charts his thoughts into how often he thinks each thought per year. Although family is the second highest on his “thought periodicity chart”, a majority of his thoughts revolve around the most mundane of objects, such as “Bill paying”, “Traffic Frustration”, and “Vending Machines”. Although these thoughts are very much in line with Howie’s personality of finding the fascinating in ordinary, they don’t reveal much about Howie’s upbringing and his past.
In comparison, the footnote talked more about Howie’s past and his nostalgic memories. A perfect example of these background footnotes is the doorknob/necktie footnote on pages 27 and 28, where Howie describes his dad's habit of hanging ties on the glass doorknobs around his house and how he and his dad shared a special connection of wearing the fanciest ties in the family. Howie specifically mentions the swell of pride he gets when he finds one of the ties he gave to his father hanging on a doorknob, fitting in perfectly with the others. These types of footnotes provide the reader with real, tangible, and intimate background about Howie’s life, in a way that the main text rarely does. Although the main text does give away pieces of his life, such as his relationship with L, his girlfriend, I would argue that the sprawling footnotes throughout the novel provide the readers with a level of familiarity with Howie that the main text never does.
While reading The Mezzanine, I honestly found myself more engaged when reading the footnotes than when reading the regular text (although Baker’s writing is anything but regular). Most of what was discussed in the non-footnote text consisted of Howie’s train of thought about shoelaces, Penguin books, and bathrooms. On pages 127 and 128, Howie charts his thoughts into how often he thinks each thought per year. Although family is the second highest on his “thought periodicity chart”, a majority of his thoughts revolve around the most mundane of objects, such as “Bill paying”, “Traffic Frustration”, and “Vending Machines”. Although these thoughts are very much in line with Howie’s personality of finding the fascinating in ordinary, they don’t reveal much about Howie’s upbringing and his past.
In comparison, the footnote talked more about Howie’s past and his nostalgic memories. A perfect example of these background footnotes is the doorknob/necktie footnote on pages 27 and 28, where Howie describes his dad's habit of hanging ties on the glass doorknobs around his house and how he and his dad shared a special connection of wearing the fanciest ties in the family. Howie specifically mentions the swell of pride he gets when he finds one of the ties he gave to his father hanging on a doorknob, fitting in perfectly with the others. These types of footnotes provide the reader with real, tangible, and intimate background about Howie’s life, in a way that the main text rarely does. Although the main text does give away pieces of his life, such as his relationship with L, his girlfriend, I would argue that the sprawling footnotes throughout the novel provide the readers with a level of familiarity with Howie that the main text never does.
I loved how you focused on the footnotes in this blog. Without a doubt they're one of the most key aspects of this book but I feel like you added a lot more depth than I originally noticed. Great blog
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ReplyDeleteHi Evan, I like your point, but I disagree that the footnotes reveal more about Howie than the main storyline because they can sometimes make him harder to understand by sending the reader in too many different directions. Personally, I found myself getting lost in some of the longer footnotes and forgetting the thought entirely. This disruption made me irritable, so do you think the extra details about Howie’s past are worth the distraction the footnotes create?
The "necktie footnote" is maybe the best example of your claim that often the most compelling stuff in this book happens in the "extra" text at the bottom of the page. There's almost a graphic-style effect in some instances, where the especially long footnotes seem to "overtake" the main text on the page--we turn the page to see that it's MOSTLY footnote, and we relax and settle into the digression. In the necktie footnote example, we get almost a complete short story that reflects on Howie's relationship with his father and invokes coming-of-age themes. It's in many ways more "literary" than the chapter of which it is a part--we have storytelling, dialogue, descriptive scenes and settings, a lot of the stuff we conventionally look for and expect when we reach for a novel.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoy Baker's meta-footnote, on how HE prefers to read the footnotes in scholarly texts, and he shares all the weird things he's learned about philosophers' twisted private lives through diligent reading of the footnotes. In his own experience, the most interesting stuff can be found in the notes!
Hi Evan, I agree that I often found the footnotes to be more engaging/more interesting than the main text. I had never thought about how while the main text tends towards more analytical things that he notices throughout his day the footnotes offer a deeper dive into who he is as a person. I also really enjoyed the footnote about Howie and his father because I feel like it gave him a more personal relationship that readers could relate to. Additionally, I thought it was interesting how you pointed out that his girlfriend is only mentioned in the footnotes. It is almost as if the footnotes separate his more private personal life from work.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Evan! The footnotes and text seem to sort of swap places in this book, and yet it also follows the way someone might think, with surface level thoughts as you go about your normal day causing you to stop and think about something from your memory (like the ties), which might take up much of your thoughts before you return to the surface level. The odd style may have been a little annoying, but it does portray train-of-thought story in an interesting way.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that he seems to go on his more interesting tangents in the footnotes. These long-winded explanations let the reader get even deeper into the mind and life of Howie. I totally agree with you that I was more engaged in the footnotes than the actual text. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteHey Evan, very interesting take on the book and I must say that I agree. There are so many footnotes within the book its hard to get a sense of who Howie is without them. The footnotes not only reveal a lot about him but also about the way he thinks and feel about certain things. I really liked how you brought to light the footnote on page 27 because that is one of my favorites. It really does a great job combing the way Howie thinks and revealing who he is and some of his back story. It really is a touching story and takes you away from the main plot of the book. Overall great work Evan keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHi Evan, I agree that while Howie brings up a lot of memories in the main text off of what he sees, the footnotes that stretch through multiple pages definitely give us much further insight into his character, because that is where he truly feels safe to ramble about everything that's on his mind concerning what object he sees and what he garners from its physical appearance and the memories he has of similar objects. It really heightens the extremity of his point of view in the main text.
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