Final Thoughts of The Mezzanine

One question posed as we were reading the Virginia Woolf essays is, "What would she have thought of The Mezzanine?"

On the one hand, she makes a number of statements that would suggest that she would be a fan of Baker. In Modern Fiction, she says "Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind, in the order in which they fall, let us trace the pattern, however disconnected and incoherent in appearance, which each sight of incident scores upon the conciousness. Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small" (155). This last sentence in particular seems to summarize perfectly the approach that Baker takes to fiction.

She even offers a prophetic rebuttal to the argument that the focus of The Mezzanine isn't worth writing about: "'The proper stuff of fiction' does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought; every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon; no perception comes amiss" (158). However, on the other hand, she also says that one of the shortcomings of contemporary popular fiction is that the writers "write on unimportant things; that they spend immense industry making the trivial and the transitory appear the true and endearing" (153).

Huh. In Modern Fiction, we get no further explication as to what might be "trivial and the transitory," which is somewhat concerning, because the object of The Mezzanine is the glorification of the trivial and the transitory. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown offers a further hint as to what Woolf might consider to be fluff masquerading as fiction, in her critique of Arnold Bennett's Hilda Lessways. She says that instead of showing us the character, Bennett uses minute detail to describe the environment, in hopes that we can't help but believe in the person living in such a realistic environment: "he is trying to hypnotize us into the belief that, because he has made a house, there must be a person living there" (19).

The Mezzanine also uses minute detail as a method of characterization, but for a much different purpose that Woolf would have liked more. All of Baker's minute examination of objects gives us more insight into Howie himself than into his environment (although a nice side effect is that we get a lovely little piece of 1980s everyday life). Furthermore, the expose familiar objects and human dynamics in a new light, rather than simply helping us imagine whatever is in the author's mind.

But a crucial piece of the puzzle is that we know what Howie is talking about. The Mezzanine is such an entertaining read because we identify with his experiences and can compare his thoughts about the world around him to our own. His stream of consciousness is dictated by his environment; an environment that isn't radically different from the one we live in today. At various instances, our identification with his world is interrupted by vintage, though, such as the discussion of records, or the milkman. And these instances tend to be less interesting to read, because it doesn't feel as personal.

I wonder how The Mezzanine would read if it was set in the Mongol Empire. The huge cultural/time different would probably inhibit its enjoyment by a 21st century, American reader. Or, for a less extreme example, early 20th century London. I wonder, will Woolf be able to Clarissa Dalloway's daily life and thoughts ring as many bells as Howie's did?