Howie is autistic. (in a good way)

    Howie, the main character and narrator of Nicholson Baker's 1988 novel "The Mezzanine", is on the autism spectrum. I mean that not as a slight at Howie as a character, or Nicholson Baker's writing, in fact, I believe this is more of a compliment to Baker's writing style as well as an observation of one of the most interesting parts of the novel: Howie's mind and how it works. 

    I'll be honest, when I heard the novel we were going to read was about "a man going up an escalator", I wasn't exactly feeling positive about if I'm going to be interested in the novel, and though it wasn't action-packed like the books I've usually read, one thing stood out to me and made me want to continue to read further: Howie's "rants". While quite a lot of his rants were relatable like plastic straws and things being stuck in the vending machine, a few were quite...unique and speaks about things I've never done or even thought about, it wasn't weird or bad, just silly like thinking about the Panasonic three-wheeled vacuum cleaner 45 times a year or whistling in bathroom stalls. As we read further I got more curious about Howie and why is the way he thinks so different from a normal novel character, then during class one evening, it suddenly clicked for me: he has high-functioning autism. 

    High-functioning autism is a type of mild autism recognized in the 1990s (right after The Mezzanine was published, so it makes sense in the time frame why Howie wouldn't be recognized as autistic as only severe autism was recognized back then) and now is part of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Obviously, I didn't write this novel nor am I an expert on this subject, so don't take the info you get here as facts, but I've always been interested in psychology and neuroscience including human consciousness, behavior, and indeed mental disorders. So in my personal opinion and with a little research, I think Howie almost certainly displays multiple symptoms of high-functioning autism, 

    In the novel, one of the most prominent behaviors he displays, a main part of the plot, and a key sign of ASD, is having a fixation on minor subjects. Howie went on and on about a multitude of things from CVS bags to garbage trucks, and though of course, random thoughts are something everyone has, I feel like the extent and details Howie goes to especially within the footnotes are a bit more intense than just normal interests.

    Speaking of footnotes, another symptom that Howie displays is his linguistic oddities, his way of describing objects with random metaphors, extremely long footnotes, and use of long and uncommon words (though the last point might be just differences in time periods) are all quite unique. There are many other not as apparent symptoms I feel like Howie has but am not sure of like social difficulties from when he actively went around the escalator to avoid someone and the office pen stand-off, dislike of change from when he noticed the cigarette dispenser was gone, and unusual physical behavior like when he acted like a wind-up toy in the elevator. 

    I find it very interesting that the examples I brought up are also some of my favorite scenes of the novel and made Howie as a character unique and incredibly likable, these scenes made me laugh, pause, and think about his ideas as they were genuinely something I would've never thought about if he hadn't brought it up.