• House of leaves : Book discussion
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[b]I took a lot of information off of Wikipedia and the forum dedicated to house of leaves, I would write it all out myself but honestly I just want to get the discussions started[/b] [quote]Before you get your knickers in a fluff, read me out. I wanted to start this thread because this book [b]House of leaves[/b] is very strong and a great read for anyone out there who likes big words and small text. The story is great and the plot is orgasmic. The character set up made me feel triumphant and the meanings are really deep. I thought about posting in the book worm megathread long and hard, only to decide that I should start a new thread only dedicated to this book. This book is great.[/quote] [img]http://www.ghostwoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/house-leaves-small.jpg[/img][img]http://leacocks.com/FeaturesBlog/wp-content/upLoads/2010/09/House-of-Leaves-Cover.jpg[/img] [quote][b]House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danelewski is actually two stories in one. It all begins with a man named Johnny Truant, an average man living in California who is woken up at three in the morning by his best friend Lude. Lude takes him to the abandoned apartment of an old man who had recently died and Johnny finds something that changes his life forever... paper. Reams of paper in the form of envelopes, margins of pages from books, even the backs of stamps, and all of it is filled with writings from an old man about a movie he once saw. But as Johnny comes to find out the movie never existed, and if it did the old man couldn't have seen it, he was blind. But the beast had already taken hold and in the midst of Drugs, Sex, Bar Fights, and multiple apartments and hotel rooms the inane writings of the old man begin to take over until it's the only thing Johnny cares about. He becomes obsessed with the writing of a blind man (though different young women who came to read to him) about an award winning photographer named Will Navidson, who never existed. Will Navidson moved his family into the "house on Ash Tree Lane" and a documentary experiment. He had installed cameras in almost every corner of the house to film their day to day life. His plans changed along with the house. The family returned from an outing one day to find a small hallway connecting the master bedroom and the children's bedroom and Navidson's obsession began. He started measuring the house and found something shocking. The inside of the house was larger than the outside by less than an inch. Will called in family and specialist and no one could explain it. Then just as suddenly the extra fraction of an inch disappeared and they thought their problems had ended when they realized there was now a doorway in the living room that hadn't been there before and with the help of his brother and a rather eccentric hunter he begins to explore the enormous hallway, and attached rooms that only exist inside is house. The stories in this novel, however, aren't the only interesting thing about it. As Navidson explores and Johnny falls deeper and deeper into his own obsession the actual text changes, spirals, stretches and scatters on the pages, mirroring what's actually happening in the novel. The word "house" is especially significant in that it is printed in blue every time it is used in the book. This novel is an amazing read that brings both intertwined stories to life and will pull you in and invade your dreams, bringing your nightmares to life and maybe even creates some new ones. As a side note Mr. Danielewski's sister, singer/songwriter POE, released an album ("Haunted") that, mixed with this novel, form an indescribable adventure that will leave you wishing it would never end.[/b][/quote] [u]Characters:[/u] [b]Johnny Truant[/b] Johnny Truant serves a dual role, as primary editor of Zampanò’s academic study of The Navidson Record and protagonist as revealed through footnotes and appendices. In the beginning of the book, Truant appears to be a normal, reasonably attractive young man who happens upon a trunk full of notes left behind by the now deceased Zampanò. As Truant begins to do the editing, however, he begins to lose the tenuous grip he has on reality, and his life begins to erode around him. He stops bathing, rarely eats, stops going to work, and distances himself from essentially everyone, all in pursuit of organizing the book into a finished work that, he hopes, will finally bring him peace. Initially intrigued by Zampanò’s isolative tendencies and surreal sense of reality, Johnny unknowingly sets himself up as a victim to the daunting task that awaits him. As he begins to organize Zampanò’s manuscripts, his personal footnotes detail the deterioration of his own life with analogous references to alienation and insanity: once a trespasser to Zampanò's mad realm, Truant seems to become more comfortable in the environment as the story unfolds. He even has hallucinations that parallel those of Zampanò and members of the house search team when he senses "…something inhuman…" behind him (House of Leaves 26). Spiraling downward into a dark labyrinth of his own, Johnny is therefore aware that his life has become unmanageable: his association with Zampanò’s task seems to have consumed him in his vulnerable state. Aside from simply functioning as an editor and protagonist in the novel, Johnny is also presented as an unreliable narrator. The reader is warned of this unreliability early in the novel by one of Johnny's footnotes in which Johnny responds to the problem of Navidson's broken "water heater." After a long liturgy about the need for warm water, Johnny says, "Is it just coincidence that this cold water predicament of mine also appears in this chapter? Not at all. Zampanò only wrote "heater." The word "water" back there—I added that" (House of Leaves, p. 16). It is unclear if Johnny changed other parts of the text and failed to inform the reader. Near the end of the novel, Johnny presents a story of his salvation at the hands of friends as truth, but later recants, saying, "I just made that all up. Right out of thin air" (House of Leaves, p. 509). [b]Zampanò[/b] Zampanò is the blind author of The Navidson Record. Danielewski made Zampanò blind as a reference to blind authors Homer and Jorge Luis Borges.[4] Additionally, his blindness acts as one of the key mysteries of Johnny's section of the novel: How and why did a blind man not only write a monograph about a movie, but a movie that is highly visual in nature? Little to no information is given explicitly about Zampanò's past, blindness, or personality. Only vague clues are given throughout the story to suggest at aspects of his past: On page xxii, it is mentioned that when he was in a bad mood, Zampanò would ruefully repeat a series of female names: Beatrice, Gabrielle, Anne-Marie, Dominique, Eliane, Isabelle and Claudine. These were the names of seven of the French Union Forces' defensive positions at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, a devastating defeat of the French by Viet Minh soldiers, which led to France's withdrawal from French Indochina. Among the French defenders were troops from the French Foreign Legion.[5] In the appendices, a letter appears that Zampanò wrote to a California newspaper, warning its readers that a local arms merchant is falsely selling shotguns as having been manufactured during World War II; Zampanò then goes into a lengthy discussion about the difference between WWII shotguns and their successors, down to various tactical schematics and shotgun markings; he says that he uncovered the weapons dealer as a fraud by feeling the guns. Earlier in the book, passing reference is made to Johnny and Lude finding a shotgun in Zampanò's apartment that matches the WWII era shotgun Zampanò describes in his letter. In one of Pelafina's letters to Johnny, she strangely addresses Zampanò using the code she created to be read by Johnny, asking: "My dear Zampanò, who did you lose?" The endpapers of the US hardcover edition of the novel contain hexadecimal characters, which are actually an AIFF audio file of an excerpt from Poe's track "Angry Johnny" when saved as a file in a hex editor.[6] "Zampanò" is also the name of the protagonist (a traveling entertainer) in the 1954 film La strada, which was directed by Federico Fellini.[7] The character of Zampanò was played by actor Anthony Quinn. In 1964, Quinn starred in the film Lost Command, which opens with the end of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. [b]Will Navidson[/b] Will is the central character in The Navidson Record subplot of the novel. A stint in the army early in his life leads him to a very successful career as a photographer, primarily in war-torn parts of the world; his role as an impartial documentarist of war affects him deeply. Later in his life, he moves to the eponymous house (located in the southeastern Virginia countryside), in an effort to find "[a] place to drink lemonade and watch the sun set", a place to "once and for all stay in and explore the quieter side of life" (House of Leaves, p. 9). However the unnatural events that occur thereafter have a profound effect upon him and his relationship with his partner, Karen. [b]Karen Green[/b] Karen is Will's partner and a former fashion model. She suffers from crippling claustrophobia, and throughout the novel refuses to enter the labyrinth within her house. She also seems to be extremely insecure regarding her relationship with Will; he is 'her rock,' though it is confirmed that she had at least three long-term affairs during the course of their relationship. Curiously, the events of the novel only seem to reduce her dependence on Will (as well as contributing to the eventual dissolution of their relationship). It is speculated that, during Karen's childhood, her stepfather once took Karen and her sister into a barn in their backyard. He put one sister in a well while he raped the other, and vice versa. This event is widely considered to be the cause of her crippling claustrophobia. However, several footnotes and comments about the incident question this claim (another of many examples of the use of an unreliable narrator in the novel). In the aftermath of the events in the house, she becomes an unlikely editor, approaching many real characters (including Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Hunter S. Thompson, Douglas Hofstadter, Harold Bloom, and Jacques Derrida) for comment on The Navidson Record, albeit comment within the fictional universe of the novel. Eventually, she is reunited with Navidson after she conquers her claustrophobia and saves him from the abyss of the labyrinth. [b]Tom Navidson[/b] Tom is Will Navidson’s somewhat estranged fraternal twin brother; Tom is a carpenter with substance addiction problems, who is markedly less successful than Will in his personal and professional life. After approximately 8 years of little contact, Will contacts Tom when he notices that his house is larger on the inside than the outside. A section of the novel, called "Tom’s Story" is a partial transcript of documentary evidence and radio communication with the outside world during his vigil within the labyrinth, which he spends alone with his radio, waiting for Will. This section is referred to in the book as a "sometimes funny, sometimes bizarre history of thoughts passing away in the atrocity of that darkness" (House of Leaves 252). He often refers to "Mr. Monster" and many of the jokes and anecdotes he provides are religious in nature. However, in a test of his true character, he bravely saves Will's kids from being swallowed by the house but is swallowed himself. [b]Billy Reston[/b] Billy is an engineer and a friend of Will's, whom Will enlists early on in the story to help him try and find a rational explanation for the house's oddities. Billy uses a wheelchair, having been paralyzed from the waist down in a freak engineering accident in India; Will happened to be on the scene and took a photo of Billy moments before he became paralyzed. Billy came across the photo after his accident and kept it as a reminder that he was fortunate to have survived. Once the house's irregularities become more extreme, Billy joins Will and Tom in a thorough analysis; after Holloway and his men go missing, Billy, in spite of his handicap, insists on joining Will on the rescue mission, navigating the maze in his wheelchair. He eventually saves Will and Holloway's men from Holloway by engaging in a firefight with him, holding him back long enough for the house to "consume" Holloway. Billy survives the journey into the maze, but suffers persistent cold spells afterward as well as sustains damage to his wheelchair. __________________________________________________ [quote][b]Typography[/b][/quote] The text of the book is arranged on the pages in such a way that the method of reading the words sometimes mimics the feelings of the characters or the situations in the novel. While characters are navigating claustrophobic labyrinthine sections of the house's interior, the text is densely, confusingly packed into small corners of each page; later, while a character is running desperately from an unseen enemy, there are only a few words on each page for almost 25 pages, causing the reader's pace to quicken as he flips page after page to learn what will happen next. The unorthodox typography and arrangement of chapters or sections is similar to works by Milorad Pavić, allowing the reader to jump around from section to section at will while following footnotes or the multilayered narrative. Continuing the ergodic nature of text-reflecting-tale, the chapter in which Navidson, Karen, and Reston hear a knocking from somewhere deep inside the house, a knocking patterned after the Morse code emergency signal SOS - three short, three long, three short - the text itself is broken into a similar pattern. The breaks are often arbitrary, sometimes even in mid-sentence, and done seemingly for the sole purpose of imitating the SOS signal. It has been noted that the font used for the narratives of different people is relevant. Johnny's font is Courier, Zampanò's font is Times, the Editors' font is Bookman, and Pelafina's font is Dante. [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XAr97XIkYUg/S7CtqAjQ4uI/AAAAAAAAF-4/QRv_2cnl7ik/s1600/hol3.jpg[/img] _______________________________________________ [quote][b]Title[/b][/quote] House of Leaves originally began as a short story, titled Redwood.[citation needed] "Redwood" is also referenced in relation to the cats who have started dying and disappearing: "Redwood. I saw him once a long time ago when I was young. I ran away and luckily, or no luck at all, he did not follow me. But now I cannot run and anyway this time I am certain he would follow" (House of Leaves 547). Zampanò's linking of the cats' disappearance with Redwood could be a connection to the disappearances that occurred in the house and the elusive being which seems to haunt the halls. Redwood was also the main type of wood used in the construction of the Winchester Mystery House (see below). A great amount of interaction exists between the house and the book, beginning with the title of the book, House of Leaves, where leaves is a synonym for pages, thus making the "house" a book. House of Leaves is also the same title that Zampanò originally uses for his manuscript. Additionally, at the end of the book, when Navidson is falling through nothing inside the labyrinth, he reads a book supposedly called House of Leaves, burning the pages for light as he goes along. Also notable is an untitled poem in Appendix F, seen below: "Little solace comes to those who grieve as thoughts keep drifting as walls keep shifting and this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves Moments before the wind." (House of Leaves 563) [img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/134/327671777_79b8bd3d84.jpg[/img]
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I heard that this might not be possible to read on a Kindle. It may be the first physical book I get in a while. Thanks for sharing this OP, I'll definitely check it out at some point.
I was going to base a short story that I was going to make for my Extension English 2 major yearly work on this but it was really hard to reach the standard of Danielewski's work. Also, even though this book is great, I think that this thread is going to be under-appreciated because FP doesn't really seem like the demographic that would enjoy this work. Or even pick it up.
I can't remember the name of the literary movement which took apart sentence structure and twisted it to form images. Anyone?
[QUOTE=Rubs10;27945099] Thanks for sharing this OP, I'll definitely check it out at some point.[/QUOTE] :insertkittyemoticonhere:
I got this book for my birthday a few years ago, after seeing it mentioned a few times as being a good book. It's really amazing, pretty much one of my favorite books at this point. Unfortunately, it really is hard to explain to people. "See, the book is about a guy, who writes a book on a guy who makes a documentary about his house, which is bigger on the inside, but the documentary doesn't exist and the guy who wrote the book is blind, and then everyone goes crazy." [editline]8th February 2011[/editline] Here's the quote I was thinking of: "[I]It's a book about a book about a film about a house that is a labyrinth. In short, the book is a labyrinth in itself."[/I]
I was always pretty uninterested about Johnny when reading the book. I couldn't wait till the Navidson Records came up because I really liked those parts.
Last year, my english teacher told me the metaphor on the house. I was so mad, I wanted to find it myself. [sp]The house is a metaphor for the human brain[/sp] Now FP, there was always one part I never got about the book, what does the growling/sounds mean? I feel stupid for asking this but I never really understood it even though my english teacher told me plenty of times.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;27945133]I can't remember the name of the literary movement which took apart sentence structure and twisted it to form images. Anyone?[/QUOTE] That could be either Absurdism or Dadaism. Dadaist poets randomly plucked words out of a hat to form a poem and prose writers completely ignored structure.
[QUOTE=Unicorn Kid;27945288]Last year, my english teacher told me the metaphor on the house. I was so mad, I wanted to find it myself. [sp]The house is a metaphor for the human brain[/sp] Now FP, there was always one part I never got about the book, what does the growling/sounds mean? I feel stupid for asking this but I never really understood it even though my english teacher told me plenty of times.[/QUOTE] It's the house expanding and contracting, or it's a Minotaur.
[QUOTE=pie_is_good;27945364]It's the house expanding and contracting, or it's a Minotaur.[/QUOTE] Oh, I feel dumb now.
to be fair, there's probably a dozen other theories about that floating around.
This book amazes me. I love it. It's a story in a story in a story, full of mystery, interesting stuff, the whole shabang. Recommended read. In paper. Cause this is one of those ones you need in paper. Not that there's ever any reason to read a book on a screen when it's the same price as the physical copy anyhow, but whatever. Read it.
[QUOTE=Detective P;27945400] Recommended read. In paper. [/QUOTE] I agree! Go to your nearest book store and get it, I got mine at Barnes and Nobles for a cheap 20 dollars I think. Having the book in print is a lot better than reading it online, there is just that weird feeling of holding paper that entices me. I love it.
Ah House of Leaves, one of my favorite books. Had to reread it several times to get everything straight. Has to have one of the best uses of unconventional typography and irregular story structure to date.
Too bad my copy has nearly fallen apart. I might pick up another one soon. The sequences with Johnny were a hit and a miss for me. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they were bad.
I still have my copy and all the bookmarks I put in it right here on top of my desk. Stay strong little book.
This book is fucking diamonds, go get a copy yo
I think I'm gonna get this, can it be read on any digital thing?
[QUOTE=Esteam;27949049]I think I'm gonna get this, can it be read on any digital thing?[/QUOTE] yeah, if you're a loserrr >Attain PHYSICAL COPY
I read this book about 2 years ago and loved it, and so I was really pumped when I found out Barnes & Noble was closing out Only Revolutions for about five dollars. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's another book by Danielewski in the same "mess with the format to force pacing and mood on the reader" style. It is easily the single most difficult to read book I have ever read. I never even finished it because it was so bad. [URL="http://books.google.com/books?id=U34vc8UjlTkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=only+revolutions&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=kEBSTYXnJ4OBlAevupX1Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false"] here's a google books link to anyone who wants to try and decipher a few pages[/URL] And the entire book is like that. I could get a vague idea of what was actually happening in most of the scenes, but I felt like I was missing some huge metaphor in the mountains of obtuse wording.
Read it a couple of weeks back. The Navidson Records were alright, but overall, it was horribly pretentious.
That book always gave me the chills. Fantastic book.
I did this as one of my novels that I had to study in grade 12 English. It was so hard yet so awesome to have to find meaning in it. This is definitely in my top five books of all time.
One of my favourite books :buddy:
[QUOTE=KStyleAzure;27949054]yeah, if you're a loserrr >Attain PHYSICAL COPY[/QUOTE] Or, I don't want too, there's always that.
[QUOTE=Esteam;27951895]Or, I don't want too, there's always that.[/QUOTE] Not really sure if there is a legit online version of the book. To be honest, the book is only good if you feel the paper against your touch. Its just one of the things of owning a book in paper than having it over hard cold plastic or metal.
The paper of the book smelled rather nice.
[QUOTE=Esteam;27951895]Or, I don't want too, there's always that.[/QUOTE] Reading House of Leaves digitally is a waste of time.
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