Trains Are Not Bread Loafs, and White Bread Is Not So Great
While reading the book, there's no way to ignore the many comparisons that Howie makes while on his adventure to his office. I came across this part where he compares a train ride to a moving piece of bread.
"It was one of those good rides, where the motion of the train is soothing and the interior temperature pleasantly warm but not hot. I imagined the subway car as a rapidly moving loaf of bread. The motto 'you can taste it with your eyes' occurred to me. It was a shame, I thought, that white bread had fallen into disfavor, since only white bread looks really good as toast, and only white bread looks good when cut diagonally."
I can agree that train rides are soothing, however only when the train is not crowded because then you might be forced to stand, and even after that the temperature of the train would be too hot and muggy with so many bodies raising the temperature. I do not agree with Howie when he describes his train as a moving load of bread. And more so the motto "You can taste it with your eyes" makes even less sense, on one account because I have never heard that phrase before, and on another account that he says he feels the train ride is soothing and the temperature is warm, none of which can be distinguished by the sense of sight. Also by comparing the environment of the train to bread, and then immediately bringing in the motto, does he mean to say that the train seems like it would taste like a loaf of white bread?
Another thing that I disagree with is his view on white bread being almost a superior bread type to others, and also that being his reasoning for why white bread seemed to have fallen in popularity due to it supposedly looking better than other types of bread under certain conditions. Personally, I do not think that white bread looks better than any other types of bread, and it does not make sense that it being better would lower its favor either. He claims that white bread looks better when cut diagonally, but I think that wheat bread looks better, especially when toasted because the oat pieces on the edges of the bread almost decorate the crust.
There's a lot of things throughout the novel that he says that I disagree with, an example being later on the page when he says that no matter how janky your toaster is white bread comes out perfectly, and apparently my toaster did not get the memo. However I guess that differing viewpoints on life are inevitable when the entire book is Howie's viewpoint on life.
Yeah, comparing a subway car to a loaf of bread does not quite make sense to me either. I think maybe he was saying the pleasantly warm temperature is the same but I don't follow the thought process for this one. I am not sure about looks of white bread especially when cut diagonally but white bread does make the best toast in my opinion. I agree that there are some jumps in logic here that probably make sense only to those who share similar ideas to Howie and Nicholson Baker.
ReplyDeleteThe "warmth" of a subway car does not, for me, evoke the very different kind of warm associated with fresh bread. But you have to admit that there is a visual correspondence between the shape of a subway car and the shape of a loaf of bread, which I for one had not considered before. We can imagine an image of loaves of bread shooting through underground tunnels, warming the inhabitants comfortably. It's definitely an *unusual* way of thinking about a subway, but the best metaphors do stretch our familiar perceptions in new ways.
ReplyDeleteThe way Howie compares bread to a subway car here really doesn't sit with me well. Once again, we find Howie looking at a romanticized version of the subway, and comparing the subway to a fresh baked loaf of bread. Perfectly warm from the oven and puffed up in a rectangular shape. However, in reality, the subway is nothing of the sort. Whenever I step into a subway car I urgently want to get off as fast as possible. The heat, if escaping from cold weather outside, can be pleasant for a few short moments until it becomes uncomfortably hot and muggy. I also find that I become hyper-aware of everything that people are doing on the subway which makes me squeamish for some reason. It also takes only one person with bad hygiene to ruin your commute.
ReplyDeleteI can't get behind the bread and subway car comparison. For me i have never been on a comfortably warm subway, typically they are hot and suffocating because of all of the bodies or not warm at all. Bread on the other hand, is the prime comfort warm it just makes you feel nice and fuzzy. While most of bakers metaphors held some truth for me, this one just did not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else in this comment section who's expressing their dislike for subway cars. Seriously--I think of a warm piece of bread as comforting, and I think of a packed subway car as the complete *opposite* of comforting. I also really, really, really don't want to know what subway cars taste like, and I have a lot of problems with the "you can taste it with your eyes" phrase as applied to this scenario... ugh.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the comparison was just sickening. Like, comparing something that I like to eat and enjoy to a huge polluted stinky metal tube full of smelly people is just disgusting. They're not even remotely similar, why would anyone do anything like this?
ReplyDeleteI find the comparison to be a little weird as well but it also shows his relationship with trains. I think a common issue with discussing novels like the Mezzanine is the fact that we sometimes read into things too literally. In this case, Howie is making connections between the physical aspects of a loaf of bread and the train, but when you read into the lines, you can see that Howie enjoys bread, and in the same sense, he feels a sense of comfortability and calm on trains. In this passage, I think what Baker is trying to express is Howie's feelings towards his experience on trains and not necessarily the connections between the inside of a train and the inside of bread.
ReplyDeleteThat highly confused me as well- and also I find sandwich bread the most aesthetically pleasing bread, the contrast of the soft pale inside to the brown crust is very pretty,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other commentors: the comparison is hard to get behind. But perhaps Nicholson Baker didn't want us to agree with Howie, just to understand how he thinks. Yes, Howie is weird. And his mind works in weird ways. He might be relatable to us in some respects, but we have to remember that he is a unique individual. Just because we don't agree with Howie's comparison doesn't mean that it's incorrect. To Howie, it makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteHowie's comparison to a loaf of bread is quite an interesting way to describe a moving train and I agree it's definitely a little weird. The first thought I had when reading that passage was being inside a loaf of bread that was moving?? I definitely don't think that's what Howie meant in that comparison and I did struggle to figure out how the comparison made sense. Even though I'm still not fully sure, I'm still glad Howie made this contrast because it gave me a new viewpoint that I would have never imagined and now I can think about that as much (or as little) as I'd like.
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