House of Leaves Footnote, Bijou Style
Written: Feb 02 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It challenges so many literary conventions it forces (gasp!) critical thinking and analysis.
Cons: If my home were bigger on the inside than outside, would my rent go up?
The Bottom Line: Challenge yourself--put down *Maxim* or *VC Andrews* and read this incredible, odd, scary, bizarre opus.
|
|
|
| Bijou's Full Review: Mark Z. Danielewski and Zampano - House of Leaves |
"It was enormous. We dropped a few flares down it but never heard them hit bottom. I mean in that place, it being so empty and cold and still and all, you really can hear a pin drop, but the darkness just swallowed the flares right up...It's so deep, man, it's like it's almost dream like."--Jed; House of Leaves
Have you considered how many things you take for granted each day? Not those typical things such as your lungs taking in air, your gassed-up vehicle or your health. How about what you consider to be permanent--things that cannot change because it would be physically impossible. What would you do if you discovered that everything that you thought was static was in fact mutable? How would you react when everything you’ve considered to be a reality was in fact an illusion? What would you do inside your own House of Leaves? Author Mark Z. Danielewski challenges his readers to consider these questions and others as they tackle his 709-page debut effort that challenges every convention we are familiar with in narrative and literature. Through a variety of machinations, Danielewski crafts a novel that manages to entice readers into its labyrinthine complexities and remain as a mental echo. This is a novel that is difficult to forget; it lingers even if you don’t want it to.
The Navidson Record
The Navidson family inhabits an attractive Virginia home after the patriarch, Will Navidson, decides to spend more time with his companion, Karen, and their children. As a Pulitzer-Prize winning photojournalist, Will witnessed horrors of war, ignorance and the ravages of poverty that have scarred his consciousness (and unconsciousness) to some degree. After settling in his new, attractive house, Will’s “Old Habits Die Hard” mentality kicks in and he sets up cameras at different points, hoping to capture domesticity imagery. He also uses a handheld camera at various intervals to film the exploits of his children, Daisy and Chad. Danielewski creates a tension reminiscent of a held breath—when the novel opens on the Navidson storyline, one senses something off, not quite right. It’s as though Will is desperately entreating normalcy to work its magic and eradicate his nightmares that manifest themselves in a cryptic word, Delial. Once the family begins to settle into a suburban rhythm, they leave for the weekend only to return to discover that their house has been altered. In fact, a foreboding door and an ever-changing hallway appeared in their absence. Without an explanation to its origins, the children scamper through this unfamiliar architectural anomaly while the adults begin measuring the fluid space in a frenzy. The measurements indicate that Navidson’s house is, in fact, larger on the inside than it appears to be from the outside. In fact, the hallway stretches to an incredible length while the exterior of the house remains unchanged. This central plot captures the reader as the house and its cavernous interior begins to alter not only the foundations of the mysterious house, but also of Karen and Will’s family.
Johnny Truant and Zampanò
The Navidson story is narrated primarily through a third person account. Johnny Truant, a lonely twenty-something drifter discovers the manuscript for The Navidson Project while visiting his “friend’s” neighboring apartment. It seems that Zampanò , the reclusive, blind neighbor, died of natural causes in his residence; yet, the violent rents in the hardwood floor that surrounded Zampanò ’s body unsettle Truant. He finds a trove of writing in Zampanò’s place, and Truant’s obsession with piecing together the mismatched footnotes (and are there *ever* footnotes in this novel!), testimonials and narrative becomes a parallel plot to the Navidson’s eerie experiences. Truant’s narrative is relayed through the footnotes, and we begin to see the insidious malevolence of the house and how it can warp minds even from a distance. Truant begins to hallucinate violent imagery, disconnects from the world and essentially blockades himself in his own apartment by creating a dark womb that he hopes will insulate him from his escalating anxieties.
The Truant plot is addicting. His first-person narrative is loaded with honesty and untruth, and the reader is left wondering oftentimes what Truant’s reality is. It would be too convenient to make the connection that Truant’s mother, institutionalized for her own mental incapacitation, was insane and therefore it runs in the family. Unreality is not always biological. The appendix featuring Pelafina’s (Truant’s Mother) letters Johnny reveals her downward spiral into her own damaged psyche. The reader is left to wonder how Zampanò, a blind man, became interested in The Navidson Record, which was the cinematic documentary of the Navidson’s experiences in that expanding, contracting house-abyss-maze. Ultimately, Danielewski’s novel is not about tying together loose ends as neatly as we would like—for when is the human mind and all of its haunted corners ever neat? When are our fears reasonable?
”Provide Examples of Hand Shadows”
What is either deterring or attractive about this novel is its unique layout and textual play. On the surface, the narrative buffered by hundreds of footnotes (citing actual and recognized critics, authors, actors, writers, etc.) lends a feel of authenticity to the Navidson’s supernatural experience. By the novel’s close, one feels that The Navidson Record was, in fact, a respected documentary featured in a Cinema House Near You. Yet as the novel continues, the “typical” textual formatting evolves into something more interesting. Words spin in spirals, text overwhelms as it is enjambed together, a page features only one word, narrative is written upside-down. Danielewski manipulates the language and the text in the same way that the house manipulates the Navidson’s reality. The textual play is an effective facsimile of the tension, struggle and dead time felt by the “explorers” of that strange hallway. As a reader, I appreciated the risks Danielewski took in using language as a vehicle to experience that which cannot be adequately defined. And that is exactly what this novel is: an experience.
I own the second edition printing that features the word house in a blue hue throughout the text. Even the font style selected by Danielewski is symbolic—every contributor has his/ her own font face, such as Truant’s “Courier,” to distinguish between speakers but also for symbolic purposes. There are also color and black/white plates featuring collages of handwritten prose (presumably Zampanò’s) and strange oddities such as Edgar A. Poe stamps, a broken compass, and a bullet casing. In the same way that Navidson is the (mental) architect of his bizarre home, the readers can construct their own meaning concerning these collages and images featured in the plates. There is no answer key. There is no “yes” or “no” to refer to. Even the stability of direction isn’t afforded to you, as it is not afforded to the Navidsons as they navigate the seemingly unending catacombs with only an evil growl for aural entertainment.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here
I recommend House of Leaves to anyone who feels that fictional conventions need a good shaking-up. If you’ve ever regarded language as a social construct that can manipulate realities and reshape them, this novel is an absolute must-read. Those who enjoy the gothic genre or supernatural stories would also find pleasure in reading this novel—and although it seems a more psychological journey into our own bottomless human darkness, it does boast some potent supernatural imagery. Danielewski weaves an incredible tale of hope, despair, survival and loss that is affecting and unusual. Once you complete the novel, hop over to the House of Leaves bulletin board where the symbolism (mirrors and minotaurs, names and letters to name a few points) is analyzed in great literati fashion.
The address for that board is: http://www.houseofleaves.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi
Enjoy! Oh, and don’t forget to take a good supply of water and a few flares with you while you read. You never really do know how long it will take you to journey back to your world, do you?
Random Footnote: Musical artist *Poe* and Danielewski are siblings. This novel and Poe's Haunted are a complimentary efforts, and after completing the novel her lyrical content took on an entirely different level of symbolic meaning.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Bijou
|
|
Location: New Digs in New Jersey
Reviews written: 132
Trusted by: 175 members
About Me:
I think I need a coffee addict intervention.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.