Moogz

Just did a search and found absolutely no threads pertaining to Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves. This kinda puzzles me, as I found the book halfway interesting, and definately worthy of discussion. Did anyone else even read the dang thing?

The Dude

I read about a year ago and really enjoyed it. I just had no idea what it was really about!

lostatmidnight

Just finished about two weeks ago and thought it was quite a brilliant, experimental novel up there with Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' as excellent experimental literature....I think it would make a great film as well alternating between Johnny's mental breakdown and his research into the book...Peter Greenaway would probably have a fun time with this one.

smokedragon

Have you seen this pic?



(removed link to image of a vulture looking at an emaciated South African (?) child -Blade)


This is described in the book,right?

Or am I wrong?



Awesome horror book by the way.

Blade

Sorry smokedragon, but that site is off limits on this board.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

smokedragon

Blade,please accept my apologies.

Anyway, the pic looked definitely like Navidson's Pulitzer prizewinning photograph described in the book.

RoQuEr

there was a web version of this book released. I can't find it for the life of me. Does anyone have a link? I heard it has stuff in multiple colors, and even some bits in Braille. My copy of the book has none of that.

Rubix

all i know is this book was written by poe's brother and that it is one of chuck palahniuk's favorite books. i am going to read it one day i suppose.

benedict

<small></small>I've seen a good few posts like this where people say, "Has anyone read this; what did you think of it?" without posting much by way of personal opinion in the first instance. I always feel like asking such folk to post their own review to start off the discussion! (In the nicest possible way).

To answer your question, no, I've not read it. Perhaps I'll ask my brother to get it for me this Yule! Having said that, last year he got me AHWOSG that still sits on the unread pile....

For anyone in the same boat as me, here are two comprehensive reviews: one two

And here are interviews in the same newspaper/magazine: newspaper magazine

The book's UK homepage: link

<small></small> Online braille seems paradoxical!

I couldn't quickly find a link that was now valid but these pieces suggested that it was serialised online before "analog" publication and that a Flash version had been available: serial info, flash info

RoQuEr

anyone read the poetry in one of the appendixes? There is one particular one about melons.....

RoQuEr

are there any similar books to this one? I want something enigmatic.

Josh-da-man

Enigmatic?

Thomas Pynchon, Don Delillo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce.

Mudhead

House of Leaves

I've begun this book twice, after 100 pages I got cranky. As much as I admire and enjoy post-modernist fiction (Barth, Auster, Barthelme, etc.) I tend to get frustrated after 100 pages or so. I think I basically just want a rich and interesting story and good characters. I think that sometimes post-modernist fiction becomes so involved with itself - like "gee, look at what I can do!" - that it becomes distracting. I prefer short-form post-modernism (Lost in the Funhouse, Barthelme 60 stories) to the extra long variety.

Still - I dig it, just can't read it (how's that for bizarre!)

mud...

...a screaming comes across the sky...

RMSpuhler

Just re-read it (probably the fifth or sixth time now).

I'd love to turn this into three movies: The Navidson Record, Truant's story and maybe one following the band he sees ("Five and a Half Minute Hallway"). Have the author's sister play the lead singer.

RS

mersaulte

She is described in the book. It's actually a major point of characterization for one of the guys in the book.

The author was inspired by the real photograph, and in House of Leaves she is given a fictiousness name.

The real photojournalist's name was Kevin Carter and he was from South Africa. He wanted to show apartheid, and took a picture of this child, winning the Pulitzer Prize in in 1993. In 1994, he could not live with his grief, and he committed suicide.

mersaulte

I read it!
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/book-talk/4...l#post10050151

In one old interview with Danielewski, supposedly the first "version" of the book was on the internets a few years ago. I read somewhere that it was in flash, and really difficult to navigate. (Which would make this book hard to read; it involves lots of turning back and forth as you nagivate footnotes and other materials.)

While apparently that original flash copy of the book is no longer available online -- (I never saw it - if it's around I'd like to see it) -- there *is* a colour .pdf version of House of Leaves to be found online. Shouldn't be too hard to find it... But, if you are like me, and really love writing in margins of books, this is definitely the book to do it in... You have to flip around so much that you'll find yourself making notes to yourself, the characters, the House, etc., very enjoyable.

I do have a .pdf version, but it's not nearly as fun as my hardcover. If you can get a hardcover edition, get it; if your choices are paperback or not at all, you should still get the paperback.

Actually, MZD did write House of Leaves, or at least as far as most of us know; however, [according to Wikipedia] the book was accompanied by a companion piece (or vice versa), a full length album called Haunted recorded by Danielewski's sister, Anne Danielewski, known professionally as Poe.

* Black-and-White Edition—No colored words. Plain black text. House in grey. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
* Blue Edition—House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in regular black text. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
* Red Edition—House in light grey. Minotaur and struck passages in red. No Braille. Black and white appendices.
* Full Color Edition—House in blue. Minotaur and struck passages in red. On the jacket, A Novel and the Pantheon logo in purple. In the book, First Edition and the struck line in Chapter XXI in purple. The word "braille" is replaced with seven Xs. Appendices are full color plates.[6]

mersaulte

By the way, there are forums to be found about the book.... one I can think of, with a pretty generic url. Unfortunately just about all of the threads are from years ago.

However, it is a good reference guide when you are figuring out codes, things like that

brainee

I've read and loved House of Leaves. I've posted a bit about it on other forums ... the lack of a thread here (and general disinterest in book discussion ... well, it is a DVD site and not a book site ) made me think it wasn't worth the effort to bring it up.

I'm generally not a fan of experimental literature but this one worked for me. The Navidson Record worked on its own as a fantastic twist on a haunted house story, and the other material from Zampano and Truant (plus the Appendices) complemented and enriched that material. I think a key thing for enjoying HoL is to not get intimidated by the lists and Zampano's academic dronings. I don't think everything is necessarily there to be read in a traditional sense. HoL is a kind of literary Blair Witch Project in that it pretends to be a "found" manuscript put together by people who may (or may not) have experienced the supernatural. And it's authors may not be of sound mind.

A book that HoL really reminded me of was Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren". It employs a lot of the same formatting tricks (and did it more than 30 years earlier). Instead of horror, Dhalgren is a kind of sci-fi - but instead of telling a science fiction story, its real intent is to use literary deconstruction to address personal issues relating to the author.

I have to warn people though ... I didn't really enjoy this book. It was a chore to finish (and its immensely long). While I can appreciate what Delany was trying to do, it didn't make the long process of reading any better. And while it didn't bother me, be warned that a number of people were put off by the book's graphic sexual content (especially rape, homosexual, orgy, and underage stuff).

Though if you really want enigmatic ... this had it in spades!

spainlinx0

Absolutely fucking loved this book. The house was incredibly creepy. I'm going to have to rebuy this one day and go through it again.

movieking

I'm actually reading this now, but as it is not available as an ebook (and even if it was, it would be useless to read given all of the footnotes, kinda like Bill Simmon's Book Of Basketball), it is taking me forever to read, since I only usually read it at one location (as opposed to carrying a bunch of books on my ereader with me). Not that far in so far, but I like what I've read...