An Era of Floating Straws
Most novels contain dramatic plots with clear climaxes. The Mezzanine , however, is about a man’s thoughts on mundane things in his workplace. One of the uninteresting topics that Howie discusses is a straw. He recalls when straw manufacturers began making straws using plastic instead of paper, which he marks as the commencement of the uncomfortable era of the floating straw (Baker 5). Howie continues talking about this ridiculously insignificant nuisance as if it were the beginning of a major historical period (Baker 4–5). By dedicating a large amount of attention to this boring topic, Nicholson Baker shows that boring details—things that we take for granted—are uninteresting because we rarely take the time to scrutinize them and potentially appreciate them. Howie’s extensive footnote about straws exemplifies how his attention to detail transforms a mundane object into a complicated, interesting one. He explains that paper straws sank in their liquid containers because they absorbed s...