After completing House of Leaves, I felt as though I had experienced the literature of the exhausted. It was just plain tiring at times, although I always had a sense that this was an extraordinary author at work. This was confirmed in the interview of MZD that we read for Thursday’s class. I found myself feeling a little more patience with this book, knowing that it’s something I might go back to (or, then again, maybe not).
One aspect of the interview that I found interesting was that MZD stated, quite matter-of-factly, that “there are no errors in the book” (114). It was a provocative comment, but how can one disprove it? He did not say that there were no inconsistencies or contradictions in the book; he simply noted that there were no errors in the book. It works on two levels; if one finds something one thinks is an error, MZD will simply respond that it was meant to be there, and he is also inviting his readers to “catch me if you can,” sending devoted fans on a treasure hunt (hey, it’s the journey, right?).
Another part of the interview that intrigued me was how MZD views readers. I was impressed that he created House of Leaves over ten years. That’s a long time, indeed, to become an expert on the pantheon of theorists, essayists, scientists, literary figures, etc., who appear in this novel. He insisted that he wrote always with the most careful and intelligent reader in mind: “I would write for the reader who gets it all, who can suspend it all, until the last possible moment before it necessarily resolve with that final chord,” he told the interviewers. “[G]radually this idealized reader I addressed came to life in my imagination, taking in every single note, noticing every twist of phrase, appreciating all the intrinsic complexities of my narrative, understanding every modulation and harmony…” (124). I felt a little guilty over the many times I became irritated and exasperated by the book. If he put that much care into creating this work, maybe I should be a little more careful as a reader. It’s a strange feeling to actually try to be objective about how I read something when the experience of reading is always so utterly subjective. As Professor Sample noted at the end of Tuesday’s class, maybe MZD is writing about reading itself.