# House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski



## stevemcqueen (Jun 17, 2011)

I am currently on the tenth chapter I believe. It is a very interesting read. It is book about a documentary that was written by "Zampano" which was found by "Johnny Truant", an apprentice at a tattoo shop. It is about this house that has supernatural characteristics such as rooms that just appear and walls measuring longer on the inside than on the outside. I am currently reading about an exploration of a seemingly unending staircase several hundred feet in diameter and miles long. 
Anyways, Johnny Truant reads through this book, putting a massive amount of footnotes in it. These footnotes follow his story as he reads this book and slowly starts to lose his mind. This is of course my review of the first third of the book so it may be very different than this as I go further on. The book also starts to be written in a very chaotic form all over the pages as you get further into it.


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## Demiurge (Jun 17, 2011)

Love that book. It's creepy in kind of an ineffable way, and the layering of (unreliable) narratives is a mind-fuck.

I only have two gripes that are not spoilers. One is that Johnny Truant seems like he came out of Central Casting from the leather-jacket-wearing, ne'er-do-well tattoo guy with a dark past. The other is that the author's sister, Poe (whom I think is great), kind of did a crummy job co-opting some of the themes of the book into an album she put out around the same time.


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## stevemcqueen (Jun 17, 2011)

Demiurge said:


> Love that book. It's creepy in kind of an ineffable way, and the layering of (unreliable) narratives is a mind-fuck.
> 
> I only have two gripes that are not spoilers. One is that Johnny Truant seems like he came out of Central Casting from the leather-jacket-wearing, ne'er-do-well tattoo guy with a dark past. The other is that the author's sister, Poe (whom I think is great), kind of did a crummy job co-opting some of the themes of the book into an album she put out around the same time.


 
Yeah Johnny pisses me off as well. You have to wonder how many of his stories in the footnotes are lies like he loves to tell so much.


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## SevenStringSam (Jun 17, 2011)

god i love that book. when my dad was at rehab one guy had it and everyone thought it was evil. i wanted it so bad just due to the weird factor. also check out
Crank. amazing book too


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## Demiurge (Jun 17, 2011)

stevemcqueen said:


> Yeah Johnny pisses me off as well. You have to wonder how many of his stories in the footnotes are lies like he loves to tell so much.



Yeah, total unreliable narrator, but I think one of the "features" of the book is that there are all of these narratives that kind of nest and inter-relate to one another and that none of them are entirely reliable. 



Spoiler



You have the Navidson Record at the core, which is an analysis of events that no narrator in the book actually witnessed firsthand. Zampano may or may not have even written it, whoever he is (is he partially a proxy for Johnny, and what about the personal pronoun slip by Tom Navidson?). The text of the Record includes footnoted references to all of these scholarly dissertations on the events themselves (as if there was media coverage, but we never see it), each with their own intentional scholarly spin on the events (so once again, it's another unreliable filter). Then there's Johnny putting his hands to it, the influence of his mother (whose letters make references to events in the Record), and the "editors" of the actual book.


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## liquidcow (Jun 26, 2011)

What a coincidence, I have literally just started reading this book. It's been on my 'to read' list for years but I only just bought it. Unfortunately, I realised only just after buying it that I've got the 'Black & White' edition, and there is a Full Colour edition available for not much more. I wonder if it's worth getting that instead?

Anyway, only read the foreword so far, not sure what I think of it yet, will see how it goes.


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## Demiurge (Jun 26, 2011)

liquidcow said:


> I realised only just after buying it that I've got the 'Black & White' edition, and there is a Full Colour edition available for not much more. I wonder if it's worth getting that instead?



I read the full color edition, and I'm fairly sure that some things are probably lost in the B&W. Without giving anything away, colored text in certain places kind of adds to the effect.


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## revclay (Jun 26, 2011)

One of my favorite books. It's an absolute mind fuck. It's also a scary read at times, which I think is rare. And while Truant may be a pretty stereotypical character type, I think it works really well in the context of this story. I need to re-read this one when I get a chance.


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## Explorer (Jun 26, 2011)

I occasionally relate the tale of the first short film of the Record as something I saw on YouTube. Women freak out,


Spoiler



especially as the windows, wall and door seem so commonplace... and then not.



I'll admit that I stopped reading this book after the first chapter or two, purely out of fear. I hadn't experience that in a book in a long time, and I had to take the book in over a period of time, restarting from the beginning every time I put it down for a month or so and reading past my last stopping point. 



Spoiler



The huge lesson I learned from this book is that the comonplace, with just one detail askew, can be frightening. The fact that the house was just an inch larger inside than outside is inexplicable. If this is presented in a matter-of-fact way, the wrongness of it can scare people.


 I now incorporate this principle when I decide to spin tales at parties and get-togethers. 

Great book.


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## liquidcow (Jun 27, 2011)

Demiurge said:


> I read the full color edition, and I'm fairly sure that some things are probably lost in the B&W. Without giving anything away, colored text in certain places kind of adds to the effect.



Yeh I figured I'd read a little bit of the B&W edition to see if I like it, then consider getting the full colour, as it's quite a lot of money.

So far, I didn't really like the foreword (not wild about the character and it hypes up the book itself a bit too much) but the first bit of the book itself has been really interesting, and oddly creepy.


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## stevemcqueen (Jun 28, 2011)

liquidcow said:


> What a coincidence, I have literally just started reading this book. It's been on my 'to read' list for years but I only just bought it. Unfortunately, I realised only just after buying it that I've got the 'Black & White' edition, and there is a Full Colour edition available for not much more. I wonder if it's worth getting that instead?
> 
> Anyway, only read the foreword so far, not sure what I think of it yet, will see how it goes.


 
It was also on my "to read" for several months. I am in the military and got stuck on guard duty for a week straight. I was in charge of it so I got to just sit down and read. I am still making my way through it, just not as quickly but oh man is it getting intense!


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## MFB (Jul 13, 2011)

Picked up a copy at Borders today for my vacation next week, should be an interesting read


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## MFB (Jul 22, 2011)

Currently at chapter 8, and I've had actual goosebumps from this. Seriously, it's fucking weird.

But what. the. DICKS. is with Truant's long ass cliff nots about nothing?


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## highlordmugfug (Jul 22, 2011)

Still wanting to get around to reading it.


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