As I was reading it, it came as no surprise to me that Howie was angered at Marcus Aurelius' opinion on the "transient and trivial" nature of life. All 135 pages of The Mezzanine argue the point that the triviality of life is one of the greatest and most meaningful things about it, strange as it may seem to someone who has not read The Mezzanine. Howie seems to not care about the deep or profound ideas proclaimed by Aurelius, he seems content in marveling at the beauty of everyday life and people.
However,while reading this section, something highly ironic occurred to me. Howie decided to buy the novel, Meditations, after reading a single sentence and assuming that the rest of the novel would have the same poetic flow of words. Unfortunately for him, shortly after beginning to read the novel, Howie realized that it was not at all what he was hoping for. Now, I almost feel as though Marcus Aurelius would have the exact same experience with The Mezzanine, if through some bizarre and far-fetched series of circumstances he happened to wander into a Barnes and Noble, pick up a novel by Nicholson Baker, and read a single sentence. While the subjects and the actions in The Mezzanine are rather mundane, they're presented with an elegance that I feel Aurelius would appreciate.
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