Cottard and the old guy make me irrationally happy

Ok so maybe happy isn't the right word but still. The old guy with no name that Tarrou talks about who spits on cats, though what he is doing is horrible, I like reading about it. Cottard has a lot of problems but that just makes him fun to read about as well. 

Let's start with the old guy. The old guy spits on cats, which is bad, but he did it really meticulously. He would drizzle shredded papers to attract their attention before spitting at them, although once the plague came he was not able to attack the cats anymore. The great attention to detail, adding this completely unnecessary character was something I liked. When he didn't actually appear at the end this really made me sad. Though that is good for the poor cats, it makes me a little sad that such a great useless character has either died or will not appear again as they are an old man who doesn't really go anywhere anyways.

Cottard is just full of problems. I mean, first he tried to kill himself because of an unknown crime, then when things seam to be going well some random men approach him and he runs away and then he randomly starts shooting people and killed a dog. There is no way to really know what he did that makes him so scared when those people approach him but likely it is something involving smuggling? I say that since during the plague he connects people to other people who can get them stuff or help them escape. After running away he pops up after a shooting incident?? This seems completely random but then the police bring in multiple machine guns to subdue him and still nobody dies besides the dog. Then Rieux and Grand ignore him as he gets dragged past. I enjoy this scene so much just because it is ridiculous. At the same time though I can totally see this happening in america and that part makes me sad but still. This is why Cottard and the old guy are my two favorite characters.

I don't think Rambert will leave but...

 I don't think Rambert will leave. After he tried the first time he had to go this whooole round about loop de loop of people and it ultimately failed. While the two "friends" were unable to get him due to outside circumstances, I think that they also were still expressing reservations due to him not paying up front. Gonzales' vouching isn't necessarily enough to have these two people doing illegal stuff trust Rambert. If they got caught it could ruin their (probably only the smugglers') lives. I think that Rambert would get off easier due to him being a foreign journalist who is trying to escape for a completely understandable reason. He might get in trouble but ultimately the two "friends" would be the ones who take the brunt of the punishment, especially as they law enforcement would have no way of knowing how many times they had smuggled people and goods in and out of town so they would get in even more trouble.

Another reason I think Rambert will not leave is that he seems to be getting convinced by the doctors logic (I'm not even going to attempt spelling his name from memory sooooo). Also since Tarrou told Rambert that the doctor Rieux (i think?)  has a wife in the sanatorium 100 miles away, Rambert will put off his love and focus on saving the town. If Rambert really escapes then the plague will most likely spread across Europe once he gets to France and since other than the talk about Paris' vaccines I think the book is trying to be localized so Rambert will stay.

Why are they all drunk??? (I don't like the characters in The Sun Also Rises)

Over half the book is Jake and co. going out to get drinks, or at least it seems that way at least. At a bar Jake sees Brett come in surrounded by a crowd of guys who are identified as homosexuals. This makes Jake feel disgusted, so he leaves and goes to another bar to get yet another drink but then leaves because that drink was not as good and goes back to the original bar to drink more after setting himself against those other men because he is such a big boi macho man. Yes that was a long sentence but it describes Jake pretty well, showing that he is homophobic (majorly so) and that he obviously likes to drink a lot. If these aren't just two of the most endearing traits ever am I right? (This is sarcasm, don't take this the wrong way.)

In the beginning of the second book we meet Bill and Mike and both of them are also heavy drinkers. Also they kinda talk weirdly, I'm not sure how to describe that part but whatever it is it is sort of annoying. The count from earlier in the book is apparently good at finding the best wine, so even though he was sent by Brett mainly to get out of the house he is obviously similar to Bill and Mike (as in a heavy drinker, kinda does whatever, and isn't a major character). Going back to Bill, he spent several days in Vienna (I think?) and  barely remembers any of it since he drank so much. Also he's racist (although maybe he wasn't considered that at the time because of the year? Still that doesn't change the fact).

Pretty much the only character who I don't dislike is Brett because she causes many amusing things to happen so she is a lot of fun. That is true even though she is also no angel (an understatement at best).

Peter Walsch's Unconscious Connection to Septimus

 Besides the obvious connection between Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus, Peter Walsch also has one. Although Peter didn't go to war or come back scarred, he does have his big pocket knife that he uses to push off the feelings of stress and anxiety. Without his Pocket knife Peter would most likely be in a very similar emotional state as Septimus. Peter was rejected by Clarissa and now sees her, in his eyes anyway, wasting her life hosting parties. In addition he found a girl in India who he thought he loved then realized he didn't love even though he came back to London to find a divorce lawyer for her because she is married. It seems he is not doing so well for his life and this would be causing him lots of stress except for his bog knife, which he flips open and closed. In a way the knife is like an old fashioned fidget spinner where, as long as he has something to do with his hands, he won't be stressed out.

Back to the connection with Septimus, when an ambulance passed Peter he felt sad. Septimus was probably in that ambulance as that scene happened soon after Septimus' suicide. Besides that little connection, since we didn't really get to see Peter's reaction to the death of the young man that Sir William Bradshaw was taking care of, we don't really have anything else connecting Peter and Septimus besides their similarities. 

Peter.... (I don't know what to title this)

 Peter said to Clarissa that he was in love with a married woman in India named Daisy. He says he is in love but after leaving Clarissa's house he sees a lady walking along the street and just decides to follow her?! He follows her while watching in a lecherous way. He follows her all the way to her apartment while 'observing' her. If he was really in love, would he stalk innocent women and find where they live? I am not going to get into the later stuff when he actually realizes he might not be in love but just this incident alone says a lot about Peter. 

He always carries a pocket knife because of his insecurities and is constantly flipping it open and closed and playing with it. He may be in London right now, but I am pretty sure that he did this in Bourton as well. The book is constantly in these nice peaceful settings and for the most part everything fits in with that setting. Except for Peter. With his pocket knife and his stalking (I'm assuming this is not the first time) habits, Peter does not fit with the rest of the book. I suppose you could say he is a 'free spirit' but I think this is crossing a line. What will he do next? I think this is why Clarissa really rejected him.

Time in The Mezzanine

 After finishing The Mezzanine I am so confused about the passage of time. Although it is fairly obvious that most of the book is dwelt in memory, with Howie intensely scrutinizing every seemingly insignificant thing and making it matter but at the ending (at least for me) it felt like the entire book was just one loop. Howie starts by going to the escalators and riding them as he remembers all kind of things and ends when he gets to the top of an escalator. Yet the final chapter is only one paragraph, it does not feel like the true ending to the story, more like the Baker version of an epilogue. What feels like the true ending to me is the end of the second to last chapter, where Howie ate his cookie and milk, read the Aurelius book, ending when Howie goes to the escalators. Although this could be part of a “linear” story plot (I use quotes because I don’t know if the plot of The Mezzanine can really be called linear with the amount of tangents Baker goes, it is more like a tree) this passage seems to me like it should belong, in the timeline of the book, right before the beginning of the book, with a little bit of overlap as he already sees the escalators. This ending gives me the feeling of a circle, this could be symbolic given the circle of life, but considering every other part of this book that has no big ideas this circle of life theory is doubtful. I feel that it is more likely of two different options although I do not know which one it is. One, that the drone of a working life, even one of a man so childish as Howie is very monotone, so much so that it seems to repeat. The second possibility is that Baker literally wrote in a circle, with an ending almost at the same time as the beginning with no clear point of when the circle starting going back. This second option seems like something that Baker would do, as this is a book written to defy what people thought a book could be, this would complete The Mezzanine as one of the strangest books I have ever read.