{"id":218,"date":"2008-10-04T00:40:02","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T04:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/?p=218"},"modified":"2008-10-04T00:40:02","modified_gmt":"2008-10-04T04:40:02","slug":"who-is-gaby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/archives\/218","title":{"rendered":"Who is Gaby?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pulling myself away from an author’s biography is difficult; as painful for me as pulling teeth. Thomas Wolfe once platitudinously noted that ‘one should only write about what one knows’–or something like that. Maybe that bromide would have been lost to the annals of history if not for the fact that it was what every displeased critic used against Mr. Wolfe when lambasting his novels. Well, the idea that any writer could write about what he doesn’t know is nothing short of absurd; so it follows that focusing on how the writer’s material draws from his or her real life of course doesn’t seem that original (least of all, as I’ve found, to English professors) or groundbreaking. Heaven forbid me to try an unoriginal analysis of House of Leaves <\/em>that lacks the pioneering spirit Danielewski patiently awaits. But I still persist in my belief that ignoring a writer’s life, past struggles, and (especially in MZD’s case) real issues in many ways inhibits and limits a work.<\/p>\n

As we’ve mentioned in class, and by MZD’s own assertion in the interview, by reading Pelafina’s letters and understanding some of the history and influence of Truant completely changes a reader’s experience of the rest of the novel. And as we’ve all experienced, not knowing Zampano’s biography can be a frustrating hindrance, or barrier, throughout. Trying to pinpoint the full influence of Truant on Zampano’s writing, or trying to understand why he forcibly eliminated passages, is a very difficult enterprise because of this lack of information. Thus, in not knowing Danielewski’s history it would follow that if the novel is not impoverished, it is at least different. For as self-referential a novel as House of Leaves<\/em>, I do not think knowing the writer’s backstory would imbue a reader with set expectations or unnecessary framework that might damage or inhibit the experience of reading a novel.<\/p>\n

Postmodernism often relishes in a writer who will unapologetically insert himself into the novel, either as a character or a blatant voice intruding on the narrative, for the extended scope it lends the experience and understanding of a work. House of Leaves <\/em>frequently plays upon the influence certain characters or histories on the other, with numerous symbiotic relationships expressing themselves, and oftentimes these are only evident when one understands where the characters come from or the state of his mind while composing. Learning something of Danielewski’s past sheds some fortunate light on such a reticent, mysterious writer, but more importantly, on the novel itself. We can discern that Truant, Zampano, and Navidson have all dealt with some serious family issues because of how they react to the hallway, and of course the context of the hallway itself. <\/span>It would logically follow that understanding MZD\u2019s own issues with family further a reader\u2019s preexisting interpretations.<\/p>\n

I admire MZD’s refusal to explicate his novel as much as I admire his willingness to divulge the painful, emotional details of the novel’s inception and his childhood. <\/span>Particularly for me, MZD\u2019s detailing his late father\u2019s film of the hallway leading to the matador\u2019s arena, a film he never saw yet was of course a part of, being there for the filming. <\/span>Later in life, his father\u2019s retelling and passion for the film created another film entirely in his imagination, one almost perfect, certainly vivid, impossible. <\/span>House of Leaves <\/em>left me with this same yearning for what I feel to be the most amazing film never recorded, The Navidson Record.<\/em> <\/span>The film of that family, and the sensation in imagining the hallway and its power, left me with the same irrational desire to see that movie, but also the same understanding which afflicts MZD, that it would only lessen in the rendering. <\/span>Truant, however, is compelled to find any trace of that film, even returning to the site of his former house, and his mother\u2019s hospital room, to devastating effect. <\/span>Zampano lost his mind in rendering his imagining of such a film. <\/span>But of course we all know these effects are not in the film, but in the story of that family, and those hallways that can mean so much so differently to so many\u2014all of them frightening and, for me, sorrowful. <\/span>It is MZD, Truant, Zampano, Navidson and the reader whose back-stories are embellished in House of Leaves<\/em>, given a particular light. <\/span>Uncovering the biographical details of the characters in the novel was one of the greatest points of interest for me, one of the novel\u2019s most rewarding challenges. <\/span>But at the same time, learning the details of the life of the most important and noticeably hidden voice in the novel, MZD, extended that most powerful echo of loss, family strife, and, why not?, love. <\/span>That\u2019s why, no matter what some academics have said to me, (return to first line). <\/span><\/p>\n

(Admittedly that was lame)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pulling myself away from an author’s biography is difficult; as painful for me as pulling teeth. Thomas Wolfe once platitudinously noted that ‘one should only write about what one knows’–or something like that. Maybe that bromide would have been lost to the annals of history if not for the fact that it was what every … Continue reading Who is Gaby?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","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\/218"}],"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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}