Howie on Marcus Aurelius

Howie clearly has a visceral negative reaction to Marcus Aurelius's idea that all of human life is ultimately transient and therefore meaningless. This makes sense for Howie a character who is utterly focused on the minute details of daily life and how they effect and create the experiences which make us who we are. For him the elements of life which Aurelius finds transient and meaningless are highly meaningful and so to have someone tell him to reject these things is galling.

 It is interesting to me that immediately after reading the quote and reacting passionately Howie mentions that it is easy to resist such stoicism when eating cookies on a park bench in a rather pleasant plaza. In his mind he is witness to the evidence which counters Aurelius's claims. He is present to any number of objects which he could think about and determine the ways in which they were designed and the ways in which they effect him to produce his experiences. He sees depth in a life which Aurelius would view unsatisfying and materialistic.

Nicholson Baker Writing Style

The most obvious element of Baker's writing style is the use of footnotes, but since Howie describes in depth his own reasons for using them I will not describe why they are such an effective element of his style here. Baker also makes extensive use of the second person to put us into the stories Howie is telling and to help us relate to the observation Howie makes. Since the focus on the novel is on intense observation of the usually unobserved parts of daily life which make up our life the use of second person helps to make these observations part of our lives rather then just Howie's. Baker also very carefully uses italics and punctuation marks to make Howie's passion and interest for the subject at hand clear. If Howie's enthusiasm for daily minutiae was not clear then the meaning of the novel could quickly change to emphasize the pointlessness of modern materialism or it could simply become boring. However, Baker keeps it interesting and avoids making Howie's enthusiasm seem overblown through careful use of emphatic punctuation.