{"id":287,"date":"2009-02-18T00:31:16","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T05:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=287"},"modified":"2009-02-18T00:31:34","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T05:31:34","slug":"quintessentially-postmodern-in-form-and-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"Quintessentially Postmodern, in Form and Function"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first thing I did when received this book from Amazon is flip through it. I was immediately struck by the drastically diverse layouts\u2014some pages were dense with \u201ctypewriter style\u201d text, some pages were extremely sparse with only three or four words, some had music notes, comic book illustrations, poetry, or letters. The text itself also eventually develops into a copy editor\u2019s nightmare as the novel progresses: multiple fonts, strikethroughs, upside down, sideways\u2014it\u2019s one of the most exaggerated examples of spatial disorientation I’ve seen in a text. Something looked consistent, though: the word \u201chouse\u201d was always blue. But this is my point: if that\u2019s not a quintessentially postmodern text, what is?! If we\u2019ve been unsure about classifying the previous novels we\u2019ve read for this class as postmodern texts, we cannot <\/em>be unsure about this one. Though I am unsure about many things regarding the meaning\/theme(s) of House of Leaves <\/em>at this point, I can say with certainty that this text is a postmodern one!<\/p>\n

In addition to this, the postmodern concept of \u201clayering,\u201d as has been brought up by many fellow bloggers, is what seems to hold House of Leaves <\/em>together. Danielewski interweaves multiple narratives within the book dexterously, and each tale is told with a distinctive style and unique purpose. For example, in terms of style, Truant\u2019s text has the rambling intonation similar to Pynchon’s Lot<\/em> 49<\/em>, while the Zampano narrative sounds like a profound yet satirical account of academic writing. Finally, Navidson\u2019s account has the style and tone that sounds the most like a traditional story. Intertwined in this way, the novel is relayed to the reader in rambling fragments, separated by footnotes and halting subject shifts. As I read through the pages, I found myself trying hard to resist the urge to follow a linear path, and as I adopted this mentality, the once-intimidating text slowly began to slowly reveal itself, little by little, very much like the \u2018character\u2019 of the house in the novel.<\/p>\n

This is an aside: Did anyone else notice this right before page xi of the \u201cIntroduction\u201d? –><\/span><\/span> \u201cThis is not for you.\u201d It made me laugh.. :-)<\/p>\n

But seriously, it brings up a whole slew of interesting questions: Why is this not <\/em>for me? For whom is this written? If it\u2019s not for me, why does Mark Danielewski dedicate an entire page at the start of his novel to reveal this to me and to everyone else who picks up his novel? Who is the \u201cyou\u201d\/\u201dme\u201d in this statement, anyway? Whatever it means, it definitely does the job of capturing the reader\u2019s attention, and by working in the same way \u201creverse psychology\u201d does, each reader immediately starts to believe that this work is significant for him\/her (which is probably the effect that Danielewski had hoped it would have). I think the reader\u2019s relationship with this text is meant to be dramatized, and Danielewski does this effectively by increasing the reader’s level of interaction with the text. What is the result of this increased level of interaction? Well, as opposed to any other genres of fiction, where you as the reader choose to escape into the story, the opposite happens with the postmodern genre: the text \u201cescapes\u201d into you, and changes the way you think about yourself\u2014just as Johnny Truant assures the reader will happen: \u201cFor some reason, you will no longer be the person you believed you once were. You\u2019ll detect slow and subtle shifts going on all around you, more importantly shifts in you. Worse, you\u2019ll realize it\u2019s always been shifting, like a shimmer of sorts, a vast shimmer, only dark like a room. But you won\u2019t understand why or how.\u201d Sounds creepy. And also very postmodern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first thing I did when received this book from Amazon is flip through it. I was immediately struck by the drastically diverse layouts\u2014some pages were dense with \u201ctypewriter style\u201d text, some pages were extremely sparse with only three or four words, some had music notes, comic book illustrations, poetry, or letters. The text itself … Continue reading Quintessentially Postmodern, in Form and Function<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[39,32,14,44,120],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-5-mzd","tag-danielewski","tag-house-of-leaves","tag-music","tag-psychology","tag-pynchon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}