The Art of Remembrance
A few days ago, in class, we spent a good amount of time talking about Clarissa and her sentimentality. While listening to the points made, I recalled the ways that memories are portrayed in The Mezzanine . I would like to take this post to discuss the ways nostalgia plays a role in both The Mezzanine and Mrs. Dalloway . This idea that memories negatively shape the way that we process things is apparent in both novels. In Howie’s case, he criticizes nostalgia because it “turned something that I was taking seriously as an adult into something soupier, less precise, more falsely exotic, than it really was” (Baker, 39). In other words, he’s saying that memories distort things, turning them into something overly meaningful or meaningless. He expresses his dislike for that. It’s apparent that Howie takes measures to stop these memories from invading his mind as shown in the quote, “no matter how hard I try to keep sentimental distortions from creeping in, they creep in anyway” (B...