What I took from House of Leaves was that, like we mentioned briefly in class, this novel may be many things but its essence lies in its love stories. we mentioned many examples of “unconditional love” that occur in the book between the Karen and Will Navidson, Johnny and Pelafina, Johnny and Thumper, but I think that the linked love stories of the Navidsons and of Johnny and Thumper are the two most important and poignant ones, especially in the end.
Thinking more outside of the story lines, i thought about how much we’ve talked about how long Danielewski spent working on House of Leaves, perfecting it, learning it better than anyone else ever will, I thought that the novel is a sort of love story for Danielewski himself, his love of this book, of writing it, of telling all of the stories that are in it. I especially got this impression after reading the interview we were assigned to read last class, discussing the way that it started as a novella, Redwood, and then morphing into was it is today after an incident with his father that had a heavy affect on him and the writing of the book, and another when Danielewski explained that House of Leaves is to him, a love story.
I think there are even more cases of this love of story telling throughout the novel with the way Zampanò is writing about the Navidson Records and Johnny telling the story of himself reading it, as well as all of the stories that he likes to tell to people, especially women, throughout the book.
The direct quote from Danielewski addressing the type of story that that book: “I had one woman come up to me in a bookstore and say, ‘You know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized that it was a love story.’ And she’s absolutely right. In some ways, genre is a marketing tool.”