Close Reading: Transcendatalist focus in the Work Place: Nature in the office of Nicholson Baker

The lofty adjectives of Nicholson Baker’s precise and seamlessly flowing language conveys an enjoyable office where nature and man collide in a harmonious medley. The narrator relates common, inanimate objects around him, such as his “small white CVS bag” and the escalators that are rising “toward the mezzanine,” to set an everyday type, routine mood. He brings nature into the picture with a general description, “sunny days like this one,” but then delves into the results it has on the workplace. The sunlight dances through the windows, its omnipresence shining “against the brushed-steel side panels” emphasizing the handrails with “long glossy highlights.” Baker weaves the environment and workplace together into an atmosphere of peaceful focus.