The Mezzanine: Living in the Moment
The Mezzanine: Living in the Moment Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine provokes many questions in the minds of its readers. One that particularly resonated with me is whether or not there was a lesson in the book’s content, intentionally placed there by the author for the readers to interpret and learn from. With the anticlimactic nature of this book, you might think that it has no overarching point at all. However, I think that Nicholson Baker is trying to teach us a lesson with his novel. He shows us that there can be great joy and enthusiasm found in living in the moment. T o prove this point, there are a few instances throughout the course of the book I’d like to highlight. First, in several places, Baker uses defamiliarization to be enthusiastic about the mundane. In particular, he says “Perforation! Shout it out!” and goes on to describe how life- changing he finds this invention that most people find insignificant, even claiming that we should celebrate it a...