Diffrences between Mrs. Dalloway and The Mezzanine

In my previous blog, I talked about the major similarities between Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine. But like in every story there is a beginning and an end, there are similarities and differences in two texts as well.  A major difference which can be spotted immediately in reading both the books is the different styles of writing probably due to the different time periods. While Mrs. Dalloway was published in the 1925, The Mezzanine was published in 1988. Logically therefore, there are distinct changes in the manner that both books are written. But also, Virginia Woolf’s writing is a bit more confusing. At several instances, I was confused whether it was some character speaking or Woolf. In the Mezzanine, as it is all told through Howie, we are never in doubt of who is saying what. Also, many times, I thought that in his footnotes Baker was being just descriptive, however, that is not the case in Woolf’s writing. Her passages are always including other things than just material object description such as other character's consciousness, their thoughts and opinions about others, and their life around them.

In addition, The Mezzanine is told in the first person perspective, with Howie giving a sort of autobiography about his past. On the other side of the spectrum, Mrs. Dalloway is told in the third person perspective. In The Mezzanine, we are simply recounted ( I really have no idea how to phrase this) a story in Howie’s perspective while in Mrs.Dalloway, we get the perspective of so many different characters by getting into their head as well as the narrators’.There is also the obvious difference of the time periods: Mrs. Dalloway takes course over a day and The Mezzanine takes course over a much shorter 30 seconds.  

Similarities in Mrs. Dalloway and The Mezzanine

In The Mezzanine, we see Howie's total attention to every spec of detail, pretty much about everything, and from varying time periods as well. When reading Mrs. Dalloway, I imagined that it was going to be about something totally different but that turned out to be wrong.After I started reading Mrs. Dalloway, I immediately started comparing it to The Mezzanine; I found that the two novels are surprisingly similar in their manners of presenting the book.

    Mrs. Dalloway takes place over the course of one day which to most readers is probably an incredibly short period of time for a story to take place: the book is literally about a woman’s entire life in one day (and people relating to her). In the Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker takes this to a whole different level: the story takes place over the course of less than a minute (an escalator ride). In a way, I almost felt as if the author, had he read Mrs. Dalloway, was laughing at Woolf as if it were a competition.  The incredible amount of detail which is portrayed by Nicholson Baker and Virginia Woolf,  in their respective works, making both the Mezzanine and Mrs.Dalloway so unique and interesting. Another similarity is the usage of time in both books. While the duration of the book lasts in one particular set, both books "switch" to diffrent periods of time in the past, specifically in the Mezzanine with Howie talking about his lunch hour, his bathroom trip and more, while in Mrs. Dalloway, expeiriances of charcters in the past and their respective stories like Sally Seden, Septimus' history, amogst a few.

   Although people might think that these two books should be very different, at a closer look, we are able to find some rather perky similarities. Today, I would like to leave you with a question: what would Woolf have thought of Baker’s the Mezzanine? And Baker likewise to Mrs. Dalloway?

First Panel Presentation: Clarissa a trauma victim?

Today, I had an opportunity to attend my first panel presentation. I really enjoyed both that were presented: not only did they influence me more into Mrs. Dallow, Septimus and the thoughts of relativity, I also learnt and understood what to do and what not to do in my own panel presentation (funny cause it's like in October). I really thought of the first panel presentation (From the article "Trauma and recovery in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway" by Karen Demester) as quite intuitive relating Septimus to Mrs. Dalloway, in ways that I had not really thought of before. Septimus is a war veteran, with the war severely affecting him and his perspective of life (mainly suffering from shell shock) such as a disbelief of death, seeing signs and other abstract things which others don't. On page 24, when Woolf takes us into Septimus' head " ...how there is no death ..... But he dared not look. Evans was behind the railings." Evans is dead, he died in front of Septimus, and yet Septimus still sees him. Similarily, it was brought up that Clarissa saw her sister die in front of her with a tree comming down. This brings up an interesting question "Is Clarissa really a trauma victim?" To answer this question correctly, it will be necessary to look at the definition of trauma closer. Trauma is, in general, a deeply disheartening, distressing and disturbing experience. By this definition, Clarissa has been through a serious traumatizing experience  However- unlike Septimus who at first did not react at Evans death considering himself "manly", he later has severe emotional distress and depression, which can also be referred to as shell shock- Clarissa, from what is depicted in the book, went through this moment, and has locked it in a place in her head and moved ahead. Clarissa has become a socially accepted person in society as she has moved on; and so could have Septimus, had he been able to move on. I don't know, what do you guys think?