Even though I’ve only read what amounts to 4% of the book (I’m on page 31), I feel like I already have a ton of concepts to work with-and a ton of things I don’t quite understand.<\/p>\n
First, the “reality” (or maybe “realities”) of the book is hard to pinpoint because it’s mediated through so many different elements.\u00a0 From what I’ve read so far, I think what we’re supposed to think of as the “true” reality of the novel includes Johnny Truant’s life (as laid out in the introduction and his courier font notes) and the lives of those around him (Lude, dead Zampan\u00f2, the tattoo parlor employees, Thumper, etc.).\u00a0 Inside that frame is Zampan\u00f2’s mess of notes and scribbles, which Truant compiles into the book (which I think we’re supposed to consider fiction?).\u00a0 Inside the book, is what sounds like academic criticism of The Navidson Record<\/em>, complete with footnotes by the author and suspiciously tangential notes by Truant.\u00a0 The Navidson Record<\/em> is a documentary filmed by photographer Will Navidson.\u00a0 In the documentary, Will Navidson records his family’s move to a new house, including the strange transformations the house underwent while the family went away for a wedding-but there’s controversy over whether any of that is real.\u00a0 Framing this entire crazy structure is the fact that the author on the cover is Mark Danielewski, even though the title lists Zampan\u00f2.<\/p>\n The effect of all these layers of mediated storytelling is a feeling of discomfort that reminds me of the Heidegger passage on page 25 about the uncanny.\u00a0 The uncanny is the feeling of “not-being-at-home,” where “everyday familiarity collapses.”\u00a0 This novel messes with the way people usually read novels.\u00a0 There is no clear, linear narrative.\u00a0 Instead we’re forced to jump from body text to footnote to try to piece something together out of the fragmented text.\u00a0 Because the text forces us to switch gears so much between narratives, the fictional realities often seem indistinguishable from the “true” reality.<\/p>\n The most immediate narrator-the one we’re supposed to trust the most since he inhabits the “true” reality-is notorious for wild, skillful, storytelling and there he is something clearly wrong with him psychologically.\u00a0 The book is really haunting him, making him paranoid and affecting his breathing.\u00a0 He’s unreliable, in other words.<\/p>\n My description of searching for a “true” reality seems pointless anyway, since I think the point Danielewski is trying to make is that we can’t find it because it doesn’t exist.\u00a0 Or at least, we can’t really prove that it exists?\u00a0 The realities in the book are simulacra.<\/p>\n One obvious question is:\u00a0 Why is the word “house” always in blue?\u00a0 Clearly, this is an important concept in the book (something related to the uncanny, perhaps, and the fact that the Navidson’s house is the main thematic focus), but I don’t think I understand how yet, being only 31 pages in.<\/p>\n Random connection I discovered recently (though maybe everyone knows this):\u00a0 the musician Poe is Mark Danielewski’s sister.\u00a0 Her album “Haunted” contains lots of songs that relate to her brother’s book.\u00a0 He even reads a part of the book on one of her tracks.\u00a0 There’s a song called something like “Five and a half minute hallway,” which relates to something that happens later on the book (I couldn’t tell you exactly what).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even though I’ve only read what amounts to 4% of the book (I’m on page 31), I feel like I already have a ton of concepts to work with-and a ton of things I don’t quite understand. First, the “reality” (or maybe “realities”) of the book is hard to pinpoint because it’s mediated through so … Continue reading Week #3 \u2013 Fragmented realities in The House of Leaves<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}