The one thing that I think that I would love more than The Mezzanine would be The Mezzanine from the perspective of Howie's girlfriend, L. Allow me to start off my explanation with this quote:
"In bed I kissed L. good night while she wrote down the events of her day in a spiral notebook," (110)
This is a very promising quote for a couple of reasons. The first of which being that L. could most certainly write her version of The Mezzanine without much trouble at all. From this quote we already know that she's as meticulous as Howie is with her observations about what is around her, and that she has some knowledge of how to articulate those observations. The second main point that I want to get into about why L. should write her own book has more to do with Howie than with L.
Namely, Howie is a straight, white man and is going about his day noticing the most minute details about everything in his life. Things that are not in his life are therefore unimportant to him at that moment because he is obviously thinking about something else. I am a person who would love the same level of scrutiny that he places on objects such as shoelaces and straws and abstract ideas such as unspoken rules about when to leave a conversation, placed instead on the unspoken rules of being a woman in the workplace- or any place for that matter. That isn't to say that Howie doesn't talk about women, but when he does, they're either just another observation, like the women looking at their respective products in the CVS, or they're too close to him for it to be interesting or necessary for him to speculate on, like L. or even Tina.
We talked in class about the "clean background trick". I propose that the clean background that Howie is holding up observations to is, in fact, himself. As a white man with a girlfriend, but otherwise not many friends, Howie is essentially just a blank slate. This might be why a reader would find him so relatable. And despite his incredible specificity with his observations and hypotheses, he is holding up these observations to a man who has no real, discernible characteristics. He acts seemingly however he wants in and out of the workplace, whether that be nearly missing hitting the parking meters with his arm, or playing with things on a secretary's desk while she's on a call. He is but a ghost in his environment and apparently has no real weight on the situations around him.
L., however, might have the ability to have insights past simply this "blank slate", and could very easily pick up on the nuances of why a woman might want to buy a specific item at a CVS, or at the very least discuss why it would be considered unkempt for a woman to pick up something from a male coworkers desk. L. has a lot of the same qualities as Howie, a trait that certainly suits her to living with him and, in fact, suits her to writing a book with as many of the same trivialities as the original book. However, I think that we as a society can move past just simply the thoughts and observations of a straight, white man and even focus on something a little more complex in nature.
Wow this was super interesting to think about! I think I would be able to relate to L. more than I could to Howie's account of life. I could relate to Howie in really small ways, but his moments in the guys bathroom, etc. were nearly completely unrelatable for me. But is the purpose of the Mezzanine to create a relatable space for readers? Or is it a simple snippet of the significance of human introspection (in general)?
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a book in the style of The Mezzanine from the perspective of someone who isn't a cis-het white guy. I agree that that format with a different narrator would be really interesting, and probably much more insightful. Though I myself could relate to a lot of Howie's thoughts, I personally could not relate to his overall description of the world through the eyes of a non-marginalized person, so I think that if a book like The Mezzanine was written with a different narrator, it could also speak to a larger audience.
ReplyDeleteYes! I would definitely be curious about reading a "female" version of The Mezzanine! It's interesting how Howie's description of an awkward interaction with Tina already seems exhaustive and over-analyzed when read on paper, but, as you said, he's just a straight white male and there would be even more levels of subtext and over-thinking involved for a woman partaking in a "normal" workplace conversation (or anyone who's not a cishet white dude, for that matter.)
ReplyDeleteHowie's description of L. as "writing down the events of her day in a spiral notebook" is also a great example of defamiliarization: we recognize the familiar phenomenon of someone keeping a journal, but he makes it seem fresh and strange (while also indicating that yes, L. could surely write her own version of _The Mezzanine_, and in many ways her sensibilities seem as quirky and idiosyncratic as his).
ReplyDeleteI agree. It would definitely be interesting to hear about this story from a different perspective especially since not only would it let us learn more about L. and what she is like, it would also let us look at Howie from the outside and let us know what it looks like for the people around him to see and interact with Howie as he goes about his day thinking about everything.
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to read something like this from L.'s POV! I'd actually find it really interesting to see a woman's take on social interactions, I think a women's bathroom scene to replace the one in the novel would be amazing (I cringe just remembering it). I also agree that Howie definitely just slid over and never really talked about anything of societal importance (well, what most of society would consider societal importance). I do think there is a sort of charm in that, and it served it's purpose well in this type of novel that wasn't really meant to be deep and complex (in my view, at least), but it did get frustrating sometimes, how obviously privileged his outlook on life was. I could relate to a lot of the things he was saying, but there were occasional parts where I just felt very disconnected from him and his view of the world.
ReplyDeleteYes! I thought about what "The Mezzanine" from L's perspective would be like. I wonder if her perspective on life is the same, or if she observes the seemingly minute details of life the same way Howie does. I would like to read this especially if she was in a business/workplace setting as well. Her thoughts about her every day life would differ from those of Howie simply because she would have different experiences being a woman.
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