Did you get wind that one about the book that ’s about a military personnel read a manuscript about a movie that does n’t subsist ?
I first read House of Leavesby Mark Z. Danielewskiafter its original publication in March 2000 and have been itching to revisit ever since . It ’s taken over a X because I ordinarily prioritize readingsomething I have n’t readover somethingI already have . Then a few weeks ago , House of Leaves — one of the few books I bring in with me when I move from New York to California in 2009 — kind of jumped off the bookshelf . It was time and I dove in . I know that House of Leaves is beloved in some circles but it ’s also altogether absent in others . I have a go at it to recommend it whenever I can . And so this random revisit is my public service to those who are altogether unaware of who Will Navidson , Zampanò , or Johnny Truant are .
House of Leaves is , to put it mildly , complicated . A Los Angeles tattoo front room worker ( Johnny Truant ) finds a trunk full of pages written by his friend ’s blind neighbour ( Zampanò ) , now departed . Johnny settle to put the pages in order and witness an overly in - depth analysis of a film called The Navidson Record about one mob ’s very unusual house . However , Johnny quickly bring in The Navidson Record is not an actual movie . Zampanò has written a ms for something that does n’t exist .
A crop of the cover to House of LeavesImage: Random House
And so the leger play out on multiple levels . There ’s Zampanò ’s manuscript about this nonexistent flick . Johnny ’s thoughts about the book as he ’s arrange it all together . legion asides , footnotes , etc . It ’s a little puzzling , but what sucks you into House of Leaves is n’t the top - down view — it ’s the content of the “ film ” that ’s treated like it ’s real by both Zampanò and Johnny . ( Johnny recognise it ’s not real forthwith but , like the reader , is too captivated to deviate . )
The Navidson Record — in Zampanò ’s holograph , which we ’re read as Johnny — is a “ infotainment ” directed by a famous lensman appoint Will Navidson which was “ unblock ” byMiramax . It tell the fib of Navidson and his family who move into a unexampled house in Virginia and , one day , discover a door that leads to nowhere . This doorway should take into the yard but what ’s behind it is total pitch blackness that just goes on and on . It ’s undecipherable what it is , where it is , where it run , or how it generate there . One affair is for sure though : the house isbigger on the insidethan it is on the outside . And so , Navidson start out to investigate the space himself , then hires a team of actual explorers to go deeply and deep into the eternity . Things get weird and chilling .
I correspond The Navidson Record to almost a multiverseBlair Witch Project . It ’s a minuscule , “ genuine life ” documentary film draw as being financially successful and , subsequently , creating a whole subculture of argument and examination over its validity . Zampanò ’s holograph is a summation of all that cultural conversation , so he describe upon all mode of pedantic research , documentaries , interviews , and more to not just recap The Navidson Record , but to analyze it to its bones . These C and 100 of specific records cite mostly non - real workplace , just like The Navidson Record itself . The existence of this mat tome and his attempts to explore how and why it exists take a bell on Johnny . His real - life mental and physical deterioration is juxtapose with Navidson ’s declension in the documentary , all the while through the lens of this dead man named Zampanò who , somehow , made all this up . Or , even scarier , believed it was all literal . With every page of House of Leaves , the voices are lessen in constancy and reliability which , in turn , makes the reader progressively uncertain .
Awesome House of Leaves art used with the permission of artist Rhys Wootton. Follow on Instagram @rhyswoottonImage:Rhys Wootten
As a novel , House of Leaves is even more complicated and awesome than its narrative thread . Danielewski apply the medium of print like a film director , visually control the reader . dissimilar fonts correspond different points of scene . Margins become the writer ’s frame as some pages have every single column inch filled all the direction to the sharpness while other pages bear only a single word or time with the ease vacuous . Some text edition is upside down , diagonal , or even leech through the pages . The word “ house ” is always in spicy . At clock time you need to take a few pages ahead as one teller , then jump back to pick up the other one . In a way , it almost feels like a comic book in how the Thomas Nelson Page layouts order how you scan and concentrate the floor .
The purpose of all this is to provoke a deep emotional experience of the material . It disrupt the usual pace at which one would typically read a novel , creating a varying flow . Flipping quickly through 20 pages because there ’s barely a sentence on each feel totally different than drop 10 mo on a single page because the writing is so lowly and dense . It draws clear attention to one accentuated contingent , obscuring others in a haze of stacked text . Danielewski frustrates and engages the reader just by mess up with photographic print . There are chapter that terminate mid - time and foot up several chapters later , force you to go back to revisit where exactly thing impart off . Sometimes , huge pieces of information are simply not there , either with literal missing text or an incomplete footnote , which are either accredit to Johnny not being capable to bump Zampanò ’s work or Zampanò himself redact it . All these mystifying disruption and concentrated level add new layers to the experience of reading House of Leaves , more than a distinctive novel .
And yet , while all of that sure enough makes House of Leaves unique and notable , none of it is my pet part of the novel . Danielewski write this when I was still studying photographic film at New York University . There I would indite recondite - dive enquiry papers about motion picture with all sort of footnotes and quotation . So , for me , House of Leaves ’ dissection of The Navidson Record did n’t just experience familiar , it was revolutionize . It read like the good motion picture theory paper ever written . Zampanò constructs so many distinct angles , interpretation , brainstorm , and stop of view that take them after 20 year drop a line about picture show professionally , I could n’t help but yearn for a time when mass wrote about the text of a picture itself , notwhat would be coming next .
The film at the heart of House of Leaves has a lot in common with The Blair Witch Project.Photo: Lionsgate
Never in House of Leaves does someone ask about a sequel to The Navidson Record , a subject which take so much modern plastic film discussion . I yearn to live in Zampanò ’s imagination where The Navidson Record is actual and people manage to canvass it so passionately and with such specificity . Where multitude indite prospicient essay and pedantic newspaper publisher about a undivided moment , analyze character reference and filmmaking intention instead of SEO grabs like “ House of Leaves Ending , Explained . ” And yet Zampanò cite century of these thick nose dive , the “ creation ” of which is almost risible through the window of modern film news media .
But you be intimate what ? A film like this , fictional or not , deserves it . Because make no misapprehension , the tale woven by The Navidson Record is absolutely unbelievable . I wo n’t go into full details here but the Christian Bible go through the film . The exploration of that impossible blank space is terrifying , illuminating , and unforgettable . With each young revelation of the photographic film , I could n’t wait to read more about it . But when a chapter issue forth up that ’s more Johnny narrating , I found myself a little defeated . I wanted to get back to the story of the film . By the end of the novel though , it becomes obvious that neither of these story could exist without the other and that Danielewski disseminate information between the narrator as another proficiency to mess with your headland .
I know what you might be thinking : “ I wish they ’d make this into a motion picture . ” Over the years , it ’s been discussed a lotand in the yr abide by my initial reading , I agreed . Danielewski evenwrote several scriptsfor how he wanted to see his book adapted for tv set — and they ’re radically different from the Scripture itself but no less compelling . However , say House of Leaves this 2nd time I realized a few things . You ca n’t make a moving picture that would encompass everything this book does . There ’s just too much going on . And if someone were to do the obvious and strip out just The Navidson Record section of this book and make that part into a real movie , it would drastically suffer the story . The joy of the tale is that you ’re not just scan a book , you ’re also reading a movie and being challenged by both at the same clock time . The fact that you ca n’t in reality watch The Navidson Record is part of the office of House of Leaves . With each reading , you realize the novel is the only place you’re able to receive out what happens to the lineament of the film . If you could just sit down and watch over someone else ’s filled - in vision of the disjointed narrative , it would definitely be coolheaded , but it would n’t be as impactful .
Two pages from House of Leaves showing examples of print style.Photo: iPhone/Random House
House of Leaves is one of those work that work you palpate minuscule before its brilliance , intimidated by its sheer imagination , inspire by the fact that something like it is possible . I ’d pep up you to take it and stick with it through the difficult role . It ’s well deserving the reward and , possibly , in a few year , you too will revisit it again .
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Cover of House of LeavesImage: Random House
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