From House of Leaves to The Prince of Mist

Well, this is it, my final blog entry concerning House of Leaves. My final overall review.

Firstly, the plot and set-up of the book. I'll admit, Danielewski hit on a really interesting idea for a story set-up: a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, something that is incomprehensible to most people. Unfortunately, the way the story was actually told put me off a bit. Firstly, there was the use of an academic text to tell the story with: while this puts an interesting intellectual perspective to it, it is very emotionally distancing and I found it very hard to identify with the characters that were supposed to be the main focus of the novel; I personally found Johnny Truant to be the only really engaging character, if only because he isn't presented through a filter as such. Secondly, due to the academic nature of the format, there were quite a few chapters that I felt the book could have benefited without, simply because they were boring or because what they were trying to get across could have been communicated in a much more concise way.
Secondly, the characters. I felt that the characters were for the most part well-constructed, with a variety of personalities that worked well in combination. I did feel however, that the main character Navidson was made stupider than perhaps was believable: I appreciate that he's used to danger through experience of war zones, but even so there is no real reason why anyone would be stupid to explore something that has eaten his twin right before his very eyes.
Overall, an interesting story idea that was let down slightly by the odd format and some of the overly stupid behaviour of the central characters.  3/5.

So, that's House of Leaves finished, now on to the next book that I'll be reviewing. From now, I'll be reading and reviewing The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Having read the previous two books of his that have been translated into English and loved them both, I'm seriously looking forward to this. Here's the blurb as a basic preview of what I'll be reading:

"1943. As war sweeps across Europe, Max Carver's father moves his family away from the city, to an old wooden house on the coast. But as soon as they arrive, strange things begin to happen: Max discovers a garden filled with eerie statues; his sisters are plagued by unsettling dreams and voices; a box of old films opens a window to the past. Most unsettling of all are rumours about the previous owners and the mysterious disappearance of their son. As Max delves into the past, he encounters the terrifying story of the Prince of Mist, a sinister shadow who emerges from the night to settle old scores, then disappears with the first mists of dawn . . . . "

Overall sounds pretty good, and not on the mind-screw level of House of Leaves. Again, thank you for following my progress through House of Leaves, I hope you enjoyed my reviews and I hope you will join me in perusing The Prince of Mist as well.

Signing off,
Nisa.

 

House of Leaves - Appendix III: Contrary Evidence

Well guys, we're on to the third appendix, which I'm pretty sure is the final chapter left to read. Apart from the index, which I'm not reading. Who actually reads the index?
So this appendix is apparently a collection of contrary evidence collected by the editors. What this actually amounts to is 5 pages worth of pictures, none of which really contrast the book's events. I've finished it already, and that seems an utterly pointless way to do it. I'll admit, the pictures were rather cool representations of the Navidson house, including a comic book page of when Holloway is shooting at Navidson and Reston, but it's a rather anti-climactic way to end a book.

Seeing as that was the last chapter of the book, my next entry will be an overall review and an introduction to my next book. Thanks to those of you who have persevered with me, I hope you enjoyed this.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - Appendix II: Johnny Truant

Hey guys, back again for what I believe will be another interesting but ultimately pointless chapter. To be honest, none of this stuff after the Navidson Record seems to actually be all that necessary; sure it's mildly interesting, but it feels a bit like a bloopers reel or making of documentary that's been tagged on to the end of a film, as opposed to being available elsewhere. But regardless, I'll still review them. It's only this and one more left anyway, so it's not that huge a task. So today's instalment is the appendix provided by our chief editor and crazy man Johnny Truant.
So section A is a selection of sketches and photos. Compared to Zampano's picture section, this is pretty cool, seeing as Johnny's tried to recreate certain sections of the house in his sketches. The polaroids are nothing special.
Section B is another selection of poems. Johnny really seems to like pelicans for some reason: there's a mention of pelicans in quite a few of the poem titles. They aren't making much sense. Maybe Johnny identifies with pelicans? Having just finished them, I can again say that they didn't make sense; no sense whatsoever. Oh well, I'd hoped for something a bit better, considering the quality of Zampano's poetry last chapter, but I suppose Danielewski has to write in character.
Section C seems to be another picture section. It's an odd couple of pages.
Section D is his father's obituary. Okay.... A little morbid, isn't it? One odd thing that the editors have omitted at Johnny's request is Johnny's name; I mean, I could have guessed that Truant wasn't his second name, but Johnny seemed normal enough that it could have been his actual name. So why wouldn't he want people to know his real name...?
Section E is a selection of Johnny's letters from his mother while she was in a mental institute. While they're quite sweet, there's also something a little unnerving about them. I can't put my finger on what it is, but there's just something off somehow. I think it might be the sheer effusiveness of them and the way she never seems to blame Johnny for anything that he does in his life; it's not a healthy way for a mother to treat her child, certainly in my opinion anyway. She seems to be getting more and more paranoid as the letters go along as well, which is making this all the creepier. I think the thing that concerns me most is the fact that she places her entire happiness on his letters, which is really rather scary; to have someone base their happiness on you is a lot to live up to really, especially if they're as close a relation as a mother. The letters continue up until the day that she hangs herself with her bed linen. Despite the fact that she was rather scary at times, I do feel quite sad at her death, which is more than I've felt for pretty much the entirety of the rest of the cast.
Section F is a collection of quotes, which I can't really see adding to this much. As little as they do add to the novel overall, there is one quote that I rather like:

• "Love is not consolation, it is light." 

It's a little oblique, but it's nice all the same. Plus it's easy to believe, as long as it's the gentle sort of light, like the sort you get in an English spring. Well, that was my day's allowance of waxing lyrical.

But in any case, the quotes section ends this chapter. I'm pretty much going to repeat my judgement of last chapter: interesting at times, but not actually that necessary to the story.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - Appendix: Zampano

Hi guys, back again and hoping to get a fair chunk of what's left of House of Leaves done today. While it's been interesting, I'm in the mood for something a bit different now, so I'll be trying to get this done fairly quickly.
So we start this set of appendices with a note from Johnny Truant announcing that this is material of Zampano's written outside of the Navidson Record, and is being included as something of a testament about his character, which has been largely absent even though he's the narrator for the majority of the novel.
So appendix A is a basic outline of the Navidson Record and some possible titles for the chapters. While possibly useful, it seems overall a bit redundant now. For one, this would have been more useful in the contents page and in terms of revealing more of Zampano's character, it basically just tells us that he wrote lots of notes for later use, which isn't all that much really.
Appendix B is titled "Bits", which I'm assuming means it's scraps of writing that don't really fit anywhere else. From what I've seen of the first page, it seems to be scraps from his diary, none of which really make sense on their own. He mentions having a son, although considering who's writing I'm not sure whether this is a literal or metaphorical son. I'm plumping for the former, but not without hesitation. He also mentions someone's life as a commitment-phobe, who eventually wants to start a long-term relationship but fails miserably because he's never known what to do; Zampano doesn't mention who "he" is but I get an odd feeling that he might be talking about himself. There's a real sense of loneliness about him in some of these later scraps of diary entries, which is sort of sad, but then I don't think I've gotten to know him that well yet for me to feel too sorry for him. His last entry is presumably the last thing he wrote before he died, and seems oddly hopeless even if it is a tad oblique. There's a hint that he's been writing to someone, but no hint as to who they are or why they're gone in the first place.
Appendix C is "...and Pieces" showing what appears to be a series of pictures. They seem to be photos of the original manuscript, which is appropriately messy considering Zampano's character. It's somewhat unlikely that it would have been read like this, considering how much publishers emphasise clean presentation in submissions, but I'll just have to take this with a pinch of salt.
Appendix D appears to be a letter to the Editor, that complains about an article that he read that was misinformed. An odd inclusion, but I'll run with it.
Appendix E is missing. I suppose I should've expected that.
Appendix F is a selection of poems that Zampano has presumably written himself. Seems an odd addition, but I suppose that poetry and imagery can reveal more than straight prose. The first, titled "That Place", is about a dragon that is there and perfectly threatening, but unnoticed by the majority of people; sounds like either the kind of paranoia that Johnny had or the Slender man. "The Panther" again seems to be concerned with a creature that is powerful and bloodthirsty, but is taken for granted by most, perhaps like the house. There's "Love at First Sight", which is pretty much what it says on the tin. There's an unnamed poem that seems to be about a lover. A second untitled poem depicts the disappearance of a mad hermit; perhaps a foreshadowing of his own death? A third unnamed poem is about the inconstancy of the world around us. "La Feuille" is entirely in French, so I'm afraid I have no idea what it actually means. "You Shall Be My Roots" is about the give and take of relationships, much like Navidson and Karen's relationship. Overall, some pretty good poetry, although it kind of makes me think that Navidson and Zampano could be indistinguishable really, seeing as these poems could apply to both of their stories or what we know of their pasts. Considering Navidson's probable non-existence in this book, maybe they are effectively the same person? But then that's me probably getting too much into sub-text.

Overall, an interesting chapter at times, but what could have been quite unsatisfying was saved by some very good poetry.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - Exhibits

Hey guys, long time no see, huh? My stuff with uni is almost finished for this year, so I'll finally have some proper time off to blog more often. I might slow down again after Easter, seeing as I have exams, but they seem to be over pretty quickly in all honesty.
Anyway, on to this chapter, which I've decided will be the exhibits one to six, seeing as they don't seem all that long in total. Quite what they'll add to what I've already read, but I remain hopeful.
We start with a note from Johnny explaining what the exhibits are in general. So far, very academic. Apparently, these are instructions for exhibits that Zampano would have added, had he lived long enough.
Exhibit one is concerned with providing examples of architecture over various different periods and floor-plans (of the house?). This one seems a bit out of place, seeing as the descriptions of the house always have the creepy bit having no architectural features other than the absolutely necessary (when it was being mind-friendly in any case) and the non-creepy part doesn't change architectural style, so this exhibit seems overall rather pointless. Off to a good start then.
Exhibit two would have provided the reader with examples of hand shadows, presumably relating back to Tom's stay in the house. Sounds vaguely interesting, but again a bit pointless, seeing as you can find hand shadow pictures fairly easily, I'd imagine.
Exhibit three would have shown all the technical stuff about the carbon-dating they did on the samples of the house, the folder for which is missing anyway. Probably a good thing really.
Exhibit four would have re-printed the Reston Interview and the Last Interview, both of which are missing. Considering the number of quotes we got from it, we probably don't lose much by not having it to be honest.
Exhibit five seems to be instructions to duplicate some pages from an Air Force manual, which apparently does turn up in one of the appendices. Quite what it's for, I have no clue. If anyone remembers anything that this would relate to, please tell me because I'm at a loss here.
The last exhibit is a recreation of Karen's anxiety/phobia test before the Navidson Record, which also turns up in the appendices. Probably quite interesting, but we'll have to wait and see really.

And that's the exhibits section done. That was unceremoniously short. I feel like I didn't do it particularly well, as there wasn't really much to discuss about it. Hopefully the appendices will be a different story. Anyway, it's nice to be back.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XXIII

After that last chapter that seemed to wrap up the remaining storylines, I'm going to be quite honest and say that I have no idea what the remaining 130 odd pages will have to add; it seems pretty finalised to me. Oh well, I will continue, though it is tempting to just leave the story at that largely satisfying ending.
There is no quotation at the beginning of this chapter, so I'm going to assume that it's basically wrapping up the Navidson Record as an academic text, which sounds pretty uninteresting if I'm totally honest; having written academic essays myself, they aren't the most absorbing of things to read.
The chapter starts by telling the reader what happens to the Navidsons after the events we all know by now (and yes, the plural was intentional as Navidson and Karen got married, which is sweet). So on the surface it would seem that they lived happily ever after. Zampano, however, is determined to make this bittersweet by looking at the potential (but very likely) psychological damage they suffered due to exposure to the house.
So over a year has passed since they all got out of the house, and they've sensibly moved to Vermont. Navidson seems to be recovering well from the frostbite from the previous chapter. The kids seem to have moved on without any real mental problems (although Chad wants to become an architect when he's older, which is probably fairly telling). Karen's been diagnosed with malignant breast cancer, but seems to be responding to her treatment well, which is something I suppose. But despite this heart-warming stuff (apart from the cancer, seeing as that tends to be pretty difficult to make heart-warming), the house is still present in their lives in some way, as Navidson can't quite let go of it or at least the memories of it. But the chapter (and by extension the film) ends on a fairly positive note as it shows him going trick-or-treating with his kids, as a mild lampshading of the genre his work will inevitably end up being grouped with.

And that's the end of the Navidson Record. It probably signals the end of the story proper, but there are exhibits and appendices still to read, so I might as well review them too. Again, a very short and sweet chapter, wrapping up Navidson's storyline further. In terms of making their conclusion bit more bittersweet, I don't think the book entirely succeeded, but it at least isn't a straight Disney-style happily ever after ending. 

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XXII

Sorry about the break between updates, I had some work to do with uni. Considering what I have coming up regarding that, I may well be a bit sporadic in terms of as and when I update this, but I'll do the best I can. But anyway, last chapter was a rather odd change of pace and has sort of left me confused as to where I stand in the narrative. I suppose I can note what I do (probably) know and try figure out what could actually happen in what looks to be the last few chapters: Johnny Truant's storyline seems to have ended with him as a hobo, but ultimately content, Navidson seems to be dying of exposure whilst either floating or falling, and Karen still has that wall of black yawning up behind her. Every other surviving character in the Navidson Record seems to have scarpered, rather sensibly really. Anyway, I'm now rambling, so on with the actual chapter.
Well the beginning of chapter quotation tells me a whole load of nothing. If you know what this could entail, I applaud you:

• "Truth transcends the telling."

And that's it. I suppose it could refer to the film gathered, but then I doesn't give much of a hint as to what's coming. Anyway, the chapter begins with Karen finally turning round and facing the wall of darkness. She seems to panic a bit when she first sees it, but then she decides to go in there to look for Navidson, with surprisingly little ceremony: she doesn't even mentally prepare herself, which seems strange. I suppose her desire to see Navidson again kind of trumps whatever fear she has of the house, which is quite sweet really.
Just under an hour later, she and Navidson are found in the front garden, with Karen cradling him in her lap. There's also a weird little detail that she now has a pink ribbon in her hair. Why I don't know and can't really imagine. So they get him to the hospital and while he makes it, he's fairly badly damaged for life, having had to have his hand and eye removed due to frostbite as well as having to walk with crutches after (inexplicably) breaking his hip.
The chapter ends with a student interview of Karen as to what happened when she stepped through the wall. She finds him just by walking forward and wanting to find him (which makes sense if you consider the whole psychological influence they have on the freaky bit of the house). She starts to cradle his head and the house just disappears around them, leaving them to be found in the front garden. Overall, a bit of a weird way to end it, I mean it's pretty much the climax of the last exploration and the house just lets them go. Plus there's still no reason for the inclusion of that ribbon.

So a fairly short and sweet chapter, presumably just to wrap up the remaining plot points that I mentioned at the beginning of the review. Comparing this to the last chapter and Johnny's plot being wrapped up, they both had this weird sort of sedateness to them; it's not disappointing as such, seeing as there were hints throughout the Navidson Record that pointed to Navidson surviving, but it just doesn't seem to fit with what we've seen of the house thus far. There doesn't seem to be much difficulty actually reaching a happy ending with these final climaxes, so I guess it just jars a bit considering how voracious the house has been previously. But I suppose I should be happy that there weren't any other deaths, so I guess it's not all bad.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XXI

Hi there guys, sorry for the wait. I would have done a post last night, but life got in the way. Anyway, that little scare is out of the way, so I now have a chance to review another chapter for you lovely people. Although after part 20 of the Navidson Record, hopefully this will either clear up a few things (like what the hell was actually going on in that place) or give me a bit of room to get my bearings again.
Well, the quotation sets the chapter up to be about disappointments, so I have very little idea of what's actually in store.
Regardless, I don't think I would have expected this as a beginning to the chapter:

• "Lude's dead."

That has to be the most abrupt beginning that I've ever read. Presumably this is a chapter from the viewpoint of Johnny Truant then, which is a bit odd; he's got an appendix at the end of the Navidson Record, but I hadn't expected an entire chapter from him in the actual record itself. Oh well, I guess I'll just roll with it. From what I can tell, Lude's managed to kill himself with prescription painkillers or the crazy boyfriend who beat the crap out of him before got to him again whilst he was all drugged up. Either way, not fun. Yep, the drugs made him crash on his motorbike at 100mph, leaving his brains all over the pavement. Certainly, this is one of the more graphic death scenes I've read. And just as an aside, Johnny is sounding a lot more controlled and, to put it bluntly, sane in this bit; maybe he's exorcised whatever demon the notebooks unleashed by going out to Virginia. Or not, seeing as he's still got a few creepy imaginings going on, but he still sounds saner than he has done in a long while. Except he seems to be in an asylum, which would contradict my idea just now. This is odd to say the least.
I was wrong earlier about him being in an asylum. Presumably that was a figure of speech. But I'm kind of beginning to worry about him precisely because he's sounder saner. The creepy shit in his head and possibly around him is still happening, he just seems to have detached himself from it, getting rid of the fear at the same time. I don't know about you, but that's just a little bit unsettling. He seems to have gone to completely the opposite end of the scale, from fear and self-destructiveness to detachment and some weird sort of lack of empathy.
He's just been punched out by the creepy boyfriend guy, which comes as no surprise really, considering that if Lude got beaten up for being associated with Johnny, Johnny himself wasn't going to be let off. And he's just lost it completely, beating this guy to a pulp, I think to the point where Johnny's actually killed him. It's official, he's gone postal.
Yet the newest entry he's made seems not to realise it. Multiple personalities maybe? Because he seems to have reverted a bit to his fearful, paranoid mindset, which doesn't make sense in this new context.
New entry suggests that he can't remember what he's done since May and that he forgets whatever's happened as soon as he writes the journal, which automatically reminds me of Momento (even though I still have yet to see it).
Now skipping back to when he made his way to Virginia, so hopefully something should be explained. Regardless, he's gone down there, only to find that no-one's heard of Zampano or the Navidsons and there is no Ash Tree Lane. Seems like there's nothing in Virginia that Johnny can connect to the Navidson Record, but he's found traces of it in every place he's visited on the journey east. At the moment, it's sounding more like a trip of self-discovery than anything else. He even visited the place where his mother died, presumably expecting to find something of her there. Apparently not.
He ends up visiting friends of his who are doctors and they force him to start eating properly again. They've also put him on some kind of pill that's stopped his violent mood swings, which I'm a bit sceptical of, but then I am reading a horror novel. And of course, now that he's made it back home, he's revealed that the section about the doctor friends was a bunch of lies. I should've seen that coming at least. Regardless, he does seem calmer (and no going postal yet) after his trip, actually calling people up, like Lude and Thumper.
Now gotten past the part about Lude's death and his episode of going postal, only to find him leaving again. At least he sad goodbye to Thumper this time though; it was rather sweet if I'm honest. Maybe he needed that going postal episode, seeing as he's almost totally back to normal now. I'm wondering just how long it's going to last though.
And on his second trip, he ends up hearing some oddly familiar lyrics:

• "I live at the end of a Five and a Half Minute Hallway."

Wonders never cease. If that doesn't set him off again, I don't know what will. Apparently the band have read the book, which is just great. At the end of this section, he seems content, which is nice. After all the torment he's gone through editing this book, he deserves to be content, if you know what I mean.
We now skip back again, to just after his going postal bit. Which apparently he didn't carry out after all, which is probably a good thing, despite how screwed up Kyrie and her psycho boyfriend are. What seems to be happening is Johnny coming to terms with what inhabits the darkness, which is a good idea in my book. I almost don't trust it, I mean you hardly ever get stuff this positive or cathartic in a horror novel.
We now get a story about a baby born without grey/white differentiation. Maybe this is Johnny and the only reason he's been so afraid of this is that he hasn't been able to tell the dark from the light or something. In any case, it is born unable to breathe by itself, so the doctors want to turn the machines off and let it fend for itself, only the mother won't let it. To prevent her baby dying, she stays up for (at the moment anyway) 3 days straight. On the 4th day, she requests that they turn the machines off. So the baby dies. And that's where the chapter ends, on that rather odd, sad moment.

This has been an odd chapter, full of emotional peaks and troughs. I think this is probably the weirdest thing about it, the amount of actual emotions that were stirred in the course of this chapter: thus far, I've only really had either creeped out or intellectual responses so far. But I think it's a good change, one I would have preferred to see a bit more often, but then that's just my preference. In any case, Johnny's storyline seems pretty much complete now, and in a satisfactory way as well.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XX

Well, after the disappointment that was the last chapter, I think we might actually be back in the house for real this time. Otherwise I may well have to hit something.
Well, hitting things should be avoided pretty easily I think, if the opening quotation is anything to go by:

• "No one should brave the underworld alone." - Poe.

If anything could be described as like the underworld, the house has got to be pretty close to the mark. Purgatory at least.
I am currently confronted with what looks suspiciously like braille. A bit of an odd inclusion, not because it's unlikely (seeing as Zampano was blind, this is probably the more logical format really), but because it's an inversion of what's gone on before; thus far he's been getting on quite well with dictation, so why have the braille section here, especially so late on? Maybe it's something he wants to keep, but doesn't want the scribes to know what it is? In any case, the editors have provided a translation, which describes a place that is totally bare and will not let traces of the outside world exist or survive. Sounds a lot like the house to me.
So we revert back to normal text, and join Navidson as he embarks on Exploration 5. He's taking with him lots of camera equipment and film (all of which sounds quite technical) and some survival gear, including 2 weeks worth of rations (did he manage to stretch that out into a month's supply?), all of which is loaded onto a bike. It may sound weird, but I hadn't considered taking a vehicle in there; I don't know about you, but most horror films that I've seen has the main characters running around being eaten on foot. As he starts his exploration, he decides not to head straight for the staircase, but explores the corridors first. Quite how he makes a conscious decision not to go to a specific place I'm not sure, seeing as the corridors and layout seem to change every time they go in. Unless it somehow can sense that Navidson doesn't intend to go there yet and accommodates him accordingly, in which case it's an unusually helpful house of horrors. In any case, while his journey starts off rather slowly, he soon picks up speed and realises that the corridor is on a decline, so that by the time he stops for the night, he's travelled 163 miles. The next day he decides to head back again, as it'll take him about 6/7 days to get back to where he started if he goes back uphill. Except that even though he points it back where he came from, he's still going downhill; whichever direction he goes in, it's downhill. It gets to the point where one day he ends up travelling 428 miles in 14 hours, so a steady speed of about 30 miles an hour; I take back what I said about the house being helpful. The height of the ceiling and the width of the corridor seems to be changing abitrarily as well, as if things weren't weird enough to start with. And just to add to that, each change is accompanied by the growl. Navidson, I really don't envy you right now. His odometer (measures distance for those who don't know) has just broken, so his sense of reality has got to be getting seriously weird by now. Although there's still enough of it to sense the abyss he was about to fall into and just about stop himself in time. At the edge of the abyss, he finds a tower with a spiral staircase inside it; what's odd about this staircase is that it extends sideways, out over the abyss. Now that's something I'm having a bit of a hard time imagining, to be quite frank. He spends the night inside the tower and wakes up to find the door outside has disappeared and the stairs that were horizontal are now vertical, extending upwards; whether it still goes out over the abyss, I don't know. After the stairs (which swallowed up a load of his water and food, so good move there Navidson) he finds himself in a room where the only exit is a ladder up a narrow shaft. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it. After the ladder is a narrow corridor, which is still freaking me out. It gets narrower and narrower until he has to crawl on his stomach to get through it. He then gets to a room where it says:

• "here everything about the room suddenly changes."

What about it has changed? I don't know because it's been blotted out. I'm trying very hard to stay calm, but seriously: WHY?!?!?! According to Navidson, it's an enjoyable sight, but I still don't know what the hell it is.
It's a window. Holy crap, it's an open window. I cannot tell you how weird it is to find that out; it just seems........wrong to be there. He steps out of the window onto a terrace where he finds that there is nothing to see, which is incredibly frustrating; abyss above, below and to the sides. When he tries to turn back, he finds that the room has vanished and he's left on this terrace which doesn't seem to be supported by anything. Another great move right there. The flares that he ends up having to use as a light source turn out to be pretty interesting. The first one gets dropped over the side and vanishes before reaching the bottom, the second one floats and the third one flies upwards and vanishes before reaching the top. It's not interesting for any other purpose than I'm rather amused by the trippy physics. Go figure. In any case, this leaves him utterly disoriented, literally not knowing which way is up. But all he can do is sit and read by the light of a match until either something happens or he dies. Fun prospects either way. Severely unamused by the book burning, but then that's just me (although the irony that he burns the book in order to read it does amuse me).
By this point, he has no water, no food, no light, some film left which he can't use because the flash is dead and the slab he was on seems to have vanished, so he's either falling or floating. I don't know about you, but this is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to imagine in the course of reading something (apart from the spinny chair for centaurs in Artemis Fowl, but then that's probably through lack of knowledge about horses rather than anything utterly unknown). So he's left to float/fall in total darkness while he dies of exposure. I can certainly think of more dignified ends, to be sure. The delirious talking to himself/the camera/the microcasette certainly doesn't help things. Towards the end of the film, Navidson sees light, which appears as a fleck of blue in the corner. Then the film runs out. And the chapter ends there.

Holy crap, that was freaky. I really have no more words left to describe what that was like, I'm just.........numb, empty, I don't honestly know. I mean, it's incomprehensible really. On that bombshell, I shall take my leave of you.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XIX

Wow, part 19 of the Navidson Record. It's taken a fair while, but I'm definitely making progress. Last time, I believe heebie jeebies were caused by the wall behind Karen turning black (then negated by Madagascar being played in the room next-door). So now we get to find out what will actually happen to Karen.
The quote beginning the chapter talks about how photography doesn't bring us closer to nature, but actually serves to serparate us from it. Why do I get the feeling that Karen will be largely ignored in this chapter now?
Yup, the focus seems to be on Navidson again. Not amused. This chapter looks to me like it'll be concentrating on why he went back to the house and what's been happening to him while he was in there. We start off with another, less formal theory as to why he went back in: to get a better quality picture. It's so simple, yet the mind tends to pass over it because of it. That and it's a bloody stupid reason to go back in, frankly. Regardless, he seems to have ordered a lot of hi-tech filming equipment before he went back, so it was certainly planned, which seems missing from the other ideas.
We then are launched into an impassioned argument defending photojournalism as an art-form. Interesting as it is, and much as I would love to debate it generally, I'm really not in the mood for intellectual defences of photography at the moment: considering where it left off last time, I'm more in the mood for some pay-off, like Karen being eaten or something. Anyway, at the same time as it defends photography, it's demonstrating just how marvelous a photojournalist Navidson is: it wanders a bit too far to Mary Sue territory for my liking, but then I might just be biased. It then analyses what makes the Delial picture so fantastic, which feels a bit odd right at this moment, seeing as we kind of finished with Delial a few chapters back: why bring her back now? The chapter concludes with a statement that while Navidson has often photographed death, there's always been something between him and death for him to focus on, but by re-entering the house he is removing the other and photographing (well, filming in this case) something he'd never tried to photograph before.
The chapter then ends, rather abruptly I feel. I will admit that I've mostly enjoyed the book so far, but that chapter was just irritating really. Much as Navidson's profession as a photojournalist is probably important to the narrative, I don't see how gushing about his work for an entire chapter is necessary for the book.

One good thing about this chapter is that it sets us up nicely for re-entering the house with Navidson, but still not happy.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XVIII

And we're back again. Hopefully we will actually get to see the house in action again this time, even if the last chapter was pretty good.
So, we begin the chapter with Karen going back to the house, because Navidson was dumb enough to go back inside. Thankfully this time she's left the kids in New York so that they don't almost get killed again. I've decided that I like Karen's mum, if only for the fact that she believes:

• "her daughter's trip will take her one step closer toward selling the house and suing Navidson."

It's a refreshingly practical view which no-one else seems to have taken throughout the entire narrative, plus I like the fact that her immediate reaction to her daughter's crisis is "sue him". Anyway, Karen's first stop is at the estate agent's, with a view to putting it on the market. The estate agent she talks to seems to have done some research on the house after she and Navidson went to get building plans, hoping to find something involving ghosts (which, to be fair, would be pretty cool). She says that she didn't find anything involving ghost sightings or any mysterious event specifically tied to the house, but she does mention the "Jamestown colony" which impacted on a fair bit of the surrounding area. Whatever that is. Hopefully there'll be some kind of explanation soon.
Apparently the Jamestown colony was an early settler's colony that was almost totally killed off in the winter of 1609-10. After that it was burnt down. And then abandoned. So overall, not a very lucky place. Quite how historically accurate this is I have no idea, mainly because I've never studied American history (apart from Cold War stuff). Regardless, a set of documents are found several years later recounting the fates of 3 men who went hunting in that winter of death and weren't too successful.
But, before we can make headway into this document, we get what looks to be a fairly substantial footnote from Johnny Truant. Firstly he's confused about the occasional use of f instead of s in the document (which the editor informs me is his confusing a long s for an f, which is a reasonable mistake in all honesty). Secondly, he's being evicted from his apartment so he's decided to travel to Virginia to see if he can find the house in question. A questionable plan in my view, but it's fairly plan to see that he went off the deep end a few chapters back. He goes around saying his goodbyes (which don't seem all that well received to be honest), but then can't find Lude. He eventually finds him in hospital, where he seems to have broken most of the bones in his body and face. Seems one of the recurring girls' (Kyrie I think) boyfriend has decided to beat the crap out of him because Kyrie had told him lies involving Johnny, Lude and the act of accosting. Anyway, it appears this may be th last we see of Johnny for a while now.
Back to the main narrative, with the hunters. They seem to have picked possibly the worst place to hunt as they see absolutely no living creatures other than their companions and it's pelting it down with snow. The document is quite short and fairly standard "hunting trip gone wrong" sort of scenario, apart from the last entry which reads (keeping in mind the f/s thing):

• "Ftaires" We haue found ftaires!"

Somehow I think that might be the start of our house, or at least the creepy part of it. The fact that only 2 bodies were found is probably fairly significant.
So Karen finishes her meeting with the estate agent and goes back to the house, regardless of how much she hates it. I'm kind of hoping that this signals a re-union for Karen and Navidson, since it's obvious that they still love each other, but then I can't see it actually happening. Call it my inner romance fan, but I want to see them happy together. Anyway, she decides to explore the house in the day (the power having been cut off since the last time they were there). She looks around to find that the corridor has been reduced to the size of a cupboard, even with innocent white walls. It kind of presents her with a dilemma: no corridor means no having to face her claustrophobia, but then also no hope of finding Navidson. However, despite dwindling hopes, she decides to resume living in the house during the day, hoping to find Navidson coming back. And weirdly enough, she seems to be coming to terms with the house and Navidson's disappearance, as there's a long section describing how her smile has changed from something beautiful, but ultimately fake and defensive, to a less even smile that shows more of her character and actual feelings. In any case, after a month has passed since Navidson's disappearance, Karen says to Reston that she knows that he's still alive and that she's heard his voice through the walls. Now, suspending disbelief for a moment (not too difficult as quite a lot has been shown to be possible in that weird non-space) the question that occurs to me is how in the hell has Navidson survived that long with no supplies? It soon turns out that Karen might well be right, as Navidson's clothes, pack and video tapes are found in the children's bedroom one day. The chapter ends on a rather ominous note: as Karen rewinds one of the tapes in order to watch it, one of the walls behind her is consumed by black, just waiting for her to turn around. And now I'll have the heebie jeebies all night. Or at least I will if my neighbour decides to turn Madagascar off. Hooray for the little things.

A decent chapter with an excellent cliff-hanger. Looking forward to the next one immensely. Doubt I'll get it done tomorrow though.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XVII

Hi again guys. I really hope that this is the last time I have to predict Navidson going back into the house, because this is getting silly now. Admittedly, after a chapter where the house has tried to eat them, you need a little time to get your heart-rate back to normal again. But 3 chapters might be taking this a little bit far, so if the house doesn't make a re-appearance this chapter I will be sorely disappointed.
The starting quote seems to be about knowing intimately the spaces you can call home and how they're the last barrier between you and infinity. I would point out the irony, but I think you're all intelligent people and can figure it out. Other than that, maybe it's hinting at some kind of attempt to map out the house?
Anyway, with the samples bringing in minimal results (made even more minimal last update by my terrible knowledge of geology) Reston is ready to call it quits, being smart and having no desire to court death again. Navidson, on the other hand, is totally obsessed. He manages to convince Reston that he'll hand over the exploration stuff to National Geographic or whoever, but sneaks out in the night and goes back to the house. Reston goes after him, but finds that the house is empty and the corridor nowhere to be found. So, has Navidson vanished? Somehow it seems a bit sudden, so much so that it's totally underwhelming; I had to re-read the last paragraph to actually make sure he wasn't there. Anyway, it looks as if Zampano will be looking at why Navidson went back in there in the first place, which I suppose should be more interesting than wall samples.
Firstly is the Kellog-Antwerk Claim. At first glance, it seems to argue that he went back out of a feeling of possession over the house and to stake some sort of territorial claim on it. While it sounds plausible, somehow the argument puts me more in mind of Holloway, hence his arguably crazier behaviour. Anyway, Zampano's problem with it seems to be that he never made public his claim to the house by luring television programs etc, but then do you really need recognition from others to feel that you own something? Regardless, this one falls a bit flat in my eyes.
Secondly is the Bister-Frieden-Josephsen (BFJ) Criteria which argues that Navidson goes back to the house as some kind of addiction to the darkness, maybe to help deal with his grief at Tom's death or as Zampano puts it:

• "He sought nothing less than to see the house exact its annihilating effects on his own being."

So using the house as some kind of suicide or self-destruction? Given what we've been told of his history, I suppose it's possible, especially considering he's just had his twin brother die right in front of him. As part of the argument, a copy of the letter that Navidson left for Reston to deliver to Karen is provided. I can see this being somewhat emotional. It has to be said, apart from a few typos, this is a remarkably clear-headed letter from someone who's apparently drunk, but then I suppose it affects us all in different ways. Anyway, I digress. He's brought up a rather interesting idea though, so maybe the drinking has affected him a little; in his letter he asks Karen if she believes in God, then says:

• "God's a house. Which is not to say that our house is God's house or even a house of God. What I mean to say is that our house is God."

Now I don't know about you, but I do love a theological discussion every now and again. For the most part, being an atheist in a relationship with a Christian I tend to get a fair few. But one thing that I've never been able to reconcile about the traditional view of God is that how can humans be created in the imge of God, yet have God be this wholly benevolent figure: having seen first hand how ugly people can be on the inside, it just doesn't fit. So if God in this story is represented by the house, then maybe this is the part of God that is responsible for the presence of evil in people. I'm sure I could go on, but I'm sure you've got better things to do than read my theoretical musings on religion (however, I would welcome any comments from those more learned in theology than I am). Anyway, the letter continues with Navidson berating himself for the Delial picture and how he could have saved her and become a better person, instead of taking her picture and indirectly causing her to die. It degenerates pretty quickly, but it's touching to see just how important Karen and his kids really are to him. There's a quick footnote from Johnny at the end, which I think just about sums it up perfectly:

• "Reminding me here, I mean that line about "a code to decipher", how the greatest love letters are always encoded for the one and not the many."

Hell, looking at it now, it doesn't make much sense as a line, but it just fits; it's first and foremost a letter to Karen to tell her that he loves her, in case the worst should happen. So I think I'll keep the quote up there; besides, I rather like it as a line. Overall then, the BFJ Criteria seems a pretty safe bet so far, as there's plenty of evidence why Navidson would want his own self-destruction.
Finally we have the Haven-Slocum Theory. This one argues that the longer one is exposed to the house, the more extreme an effect it will have on you afterwards, which is certainly possible. Apparently, due to Navidson's prolonged exposure to the house damaged him to the extent that normal emotions and everyday scenarios have ceased to be important to him. Sounds like the house is building up to be something of an emotional crutch in this scenario. There are a few dream sequences being described and analysed, which should be fairly interesting to see.
The first seems to be an interpretation of the afterlife, maybe purgatory; a blank room, with no windows or doors and a well. When you're ready to move on, you jump in the well; if you've had a good life, you'll be taken away to a gentler place, but if you haven't you just keep sinking into an endless black pit. The references to the house are obvious, and the implication seems to be that in order to be truly rid of the house, he needs to gain an understanding of his own life in there. Personally I made a weird mental connection to Albert Camus when reading the part about the well, The Myth of Sisyphus to be precise; it fits surprisingly well theme-wise, although the tone is probably less creepy.
The second dream sequence has him travel through the spiral of the empty shell of a giant snail that humans are in the process of eating. Right, okay, I'll run with it. Whoever said dreams had to make sense? With due reflection I've realised mine rarely do. Well, in any case, there's just been a line about a house that continues to grow with its inhabitant, which makes this dream sequence a lot less nonsensical. The analysis seems to equate the spiral shell to be an inverse of the spiral staircase in the house, which makes a certain amount of sense: white vs black, light vs dark, happiness vs fear, nourishment vs destruction etc etc ad nauseum.
The third dream sequence is hinted by Zampano to be both more disturbing than the first two dreams and to be far more complex. However, I won't be able to simplify it for you because there are 2 pages missing. I'm beginning to view this feeling of frustration with something approaching deja-vu now. Oh well, there seems to be a footnote from Johnny that we can peruse instead. Apparently he's suddenly remembered the dream/nightmare that has had him screaming during the night, so we're getting that as a consolation I suppose. Having read it, I'm not sure what to make of it; at first he's wandering about the passages in the bowels of a ship, not knowing where he's going whilst still having some faint idea. He sees a frat boy preparing to swing an axe at him, which is explained when he realises that he's badly deformed, but in a way that makes him dangerous to others. He goes to attack this frat boy, who then seems to change into an amalgamation of the important girls he's met, looking at him with adoration. He doesn't try to stop her/them killing him, almost seems to welcome it in fact. If I had continued psychology or something, that would mean something to me, but frankly that has me stumped. Well, knowing these dream symbols, they'd end up being Freud and subsequently a bit loony (if highly amusing).
Anyway, to sum up this latest theory, there's a second chart of effects of those exposed to the house after Navidson re-enters it and in all cases effects were reduced or ceased completely. And, as Zampano notes:

• "Even more peculiar, the house became a house again."

So maybe the house was a physical manifestation of Navidson's psychological state, as put forward a few chapters ago, which ties up well with this theory as well. Meaning that he knew that the house wouldn't be normal until he went back inside it.

And that's where the chapter ends. In a sense we've gotten back to the house, but considering the numerous references to Exploration 5, I think next chapter will be the actual house again. I'll admit, I'm not as disappointed about the content of this chapter as I thought/predicted I'd be due to lack of actual house, but then with this there's been more to think about than the last 3 chapters put together. If I hadn't put so much time into reading this already I think they could have put me off a fair deal. In any case, a really decent range of subjects to think about and as I said earlier, I'd love to hear any opinions on some of them or any of my musings on them.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XVI

So, after a couple of chapters ending on melancholy notes, hopefully we'll get a chapter that's a bit more focused on the horror elements of it.
So we start with a quote from Einstein about maths. Quite what this has to do with the house or this particular chapter, I'm not sure. Anyway, the chapter seems to be dedicating itself to figuring out what exactly the house is, and not just how it affects the people in it. Looking at the actual facts of the place, it's kind of underwhelming really: after all the turmoil and horror it's caused, it feels like there should be more to it. But no, at its most basic level, all we can say about the house is that it has no light, humidity, air movement or sound (apart from the roar), the walls and ceilings are uniformly black, with no decoration of any kind, the size and shape can change at will, items left in there will be lost and 3 people have died in there at the current count. So not that much really. We're pretty much left with the wall samples that Holloway collected whilst he was still (partially) sane.
So Navidson has taken all the samples in to be tested (for what isn't made clear), making it quite an expensive undertaking really. The samples are lined up and apparently appear to be a mixture of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, but before we can get anything particularly definite, there's a note saying that there are 2 pages missing. Wonderful. The next available pages are mostly crossed out with the occasional fragment of a word poking through. The footnotes seem to be mostly untouched, so I will endeavour to figure out what the main narrative is going on about. Well, for the most part it's geology stuff that I don't really understand, but there was one part which is quite interesting:

• "As O'Geery indicates to Navidson, several of the XXXX samples also appear to have ages predating the formation of the Earth."

Now that is certainly weird, and makes for a few logistical problems really. There are also a few footnotes regarding meteorites, so maybe it's aliens. If it is, then I think I may feel just a little bit cheated. Now there's another 17 pages missing, which is apparently Johnny's fault from accidentally spilling a bottle of ink on them. Not that I think I would have understood the science stuff anyway; I was always better at Biology.
Anyway, when the narrative reappears in full, it turns out that the samples seem to get older the further into the house they go, the last sample being older than the solar system. Interesting as this is, however, I'm not really sure what this really tells us about the house. I mean, okay, the rock it's made of is old and possibly made of meteorites: what use is that to us really? It looks as if Navidson's test results will turn up later in the book, somewhere in his extra material, but according to Johnny that's gone missing entirely, so we'll never actually know what was in those ink-soaked pages. Again, not that I would've understood it. Johnny continues his footnote to talk about what would have happened if he'd actually gone to the psychiatry sessions. His theory? That they'd diagnose him with a mental illness and either send him home or put him in an institute. He's certainly not sounding particularly healthy. Although looking at his recollections of his mum, it doesn't sound like sound mental health runs in the family, considering she tried to choke him as a child.
Anyway, back to the main narrative, where Navidson seems to be using the samples to cope with the losses of Tom and Karen. And that's where it cuts off. Somehow that seemed really unfinished and just feels weird to end it there.

Anyway, an interesting chapter, although a bit choppy and a fair bit of the geology stuff was beyond me. Hopefully the actual house will return next chapter. There have been hints this chapter, so I'm hopeful.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XV

Hi guys. Well, last update was certainly melancholy, so hopefully this chapter will at least have a bit of action/horror to cheer us up, as it were.
We begin the chapter with Karen in New York, 4 months after the events in the house. It's also been 4 months since she saw Navidson who is still down at the house with Reston; quite why neither Karen nor I are sure. While she's in New York, she's been taking care of the kids and the film, creating a short film from it based around Holloway's tape. Apparently, having sent out copies of it to people, we're about to get the transcript of some of the responses that she made into a short film. There's an interesting array of people so far: critics, psychologists, architects, playwrights and mathematicians to name but a few. And they all look at it from different perspectives. The critics and those connected to the arts seem to be convinced the least of it's authenticity, treating it as if it were a text to be analysed and viewed critically, whereas the architect and the more science-based professionals seem to be looking at the practical ramifications of the house; particularly interesting, which surprised me a bit, was the architect, who is very concerned with what kind of materials the walls would be built from and what kind of foundation it would have to have, and stuff like that, which you tend to forget in the general freakiness of the place. One other thing that I find interesting, or at the very least is amusing me to no end, is that there are responses from Anne Rice, Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick; I don't know if I can really think of people more able to talk about weirdness. And it has now taken the cake by having Hunter S Thompson of all people tell Karen:

• "You need to lay off the acid, the mescaline, or whatever else you're snorting, inhaling, ingesting"

The irony is just too much.
So we get to the end of this transcript and Johnny's just chipped in. He gets a call from Thumper, who tries to convince him to visit, but his mental image of her is marred by the fact that he knows almost nothing about her as a person; weirdly enough, I think this bit of character development, despite showing how bad his condition is that even Thumper can't lure him outside, is rather positive in a way. I mean, while I suppose it's normal to get crushes on people without knowing them that well, it's nice to see him looking at the more personal side of things. Then the phone company disconnects his line, leaving Johnny alone again. It can only get worse from here, I imagine.
We go back to Karen, who's made another short film as well, entirely devoid of the house itself. This short film seems to be about Navidson, and hopefully about his relationship with Karen before things went so horribly wrong. Anyway, it starts off with a load of home videos from Navidson's childhood; it seems a lot more idyllic and sweet here, which makes it seem sadder somehow, like it emphasises the innocence he lost. It's followed by photos that Navidson himself took, images of war and suffering. It's really uncomfortable to read to be honest; it's a little closer than I'm used to getting with characters when reading. And it's finally shown who Delial is: she's a little girl dying from starvation as a vulture comes up to eat her. Fun.

So ultimately the chapter ends on a similar melancholy note, but did start off with an interesting look at the house from various different perspectives. From what I read about these short films being the break in the Navidson Record, I think we'll probably be back in the house proper in the next chapter. Quite what Navidson and Reston are still doing there, I have no idea.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XIV

I'm not very good at this time-keeping thing, am I? I do feel rather bad about saying I'll update more often, then not getting round to it when I said I would. Reading week ended up being a bit busier than I'd anticipated.
Anyway, part 14 of the Navidson Record, where the quote at the top would imply that it's looking at the fall-out of Tom's death and appreciating what you've got/had. A nice topic, but I can't see this being the most exciting of chapters; a stop-gap chapter if you will.
We start the chapter with Navidson going away to sort out Tom's things and not coming back to Karen and the kids in New York when he said he would, apparently going back to the house, like an idiot; Karen decides to have an affair while he's gone, seemingly to spite him. While I'm of the opinion that adultery is one of the worst things you can do in a relationship, I can sort of see Karen's reasoning; he's effectively abused her trust so many times that you could almost say he had it coming.
After the ordeal in the house, Karen's claustrophobia has worsened until she can't go in dark/enclosed spaces of any kind. And the (possible) origins of said claustrophobia have just been revealed, making her behaviour make a lot more sense: when she was 14, she and her elder sister were raped by their stepfather, with the sister that wasn't currently being raped lowered into the bottom of a well. It would make perfect sense in context, but Karen won't comment on whether it's true or not.
So we're back to Karen's affair, caused by the fall-out from the house and the problems she had with Navidson anyway. This guy, Fowler, seems to have helped her up when she fell over and twisted her ankle in the street. Of course, when the film gets some success, the press are all over it, with Fowler being more than willing to spill (some) details about it. Reston is more than happy to debunk some of them, which is nice, but probably fairly futile. The weird thing is that Navidson seems to have had some awareness of her indiscretions all along, through her collection of love letters from people, but hasn't really focused on it much; I would've thought that would be a real hot topic of discussion for the two of them. Johnny interjects here with a protest that lots of people keep old letters, giving his mum keeping the first letter she received from him as an example; it's really rather sweet, but really sad at the same time.
Anyway, back to the main narrative, where it seems that Navidson has gone back for a final exploration of the house on purpose, because he already knows that he's lost her. That's got to be the most depressing feeling possible really, to know that you're going to lose the one you love because regardless of what you do, you've already caused too much damage. When Karen decides she wants to go back to Navidson, she's lost him in turn as well.

A rather melancholy chapter, but I suppose I wasn't that far off the mark at the beginning there. It's more appreciating what you can't have again though, which is somehow worse as a partner is one of those things that should be cherished as much as possible while they're there. The people in your life, they're the only things that should never be taken for granted in all honesty, because there will never be anyone exactly like them ever again once they're gone.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XIII

As you could probably tell from my last post, I wasn't particularly happy with where it ended. Mainly because I couldn't think how Navidson was going to get out of there in a generally alive piece.
Well, the first thing on the first page is the title The Minotaur. Followed by a quotation that translates to something about a creature that cannot be named. This is sounding just a little bit familiar. Please let the monster thingy eat Holloway.
So the actual narrative starts with Chad's teacher asking her class to draw a picture of their house; fair enough, keep the little kids amused and get them working creatively. Chad's drawing isn't like the others' drawings however. Instead of your traditional idea of a house, his teacher receives a drawing of:

• "nothing more than a black square filling ninety percent of the page...In the thin margins, Chad had added the marauding creatures."

I pity that teacher. I mean, that's got to be a shock when you're expecting a little boxy house with a smiley yellow sun in the corner. Daisy has a similar picture, taking up less space on the page and presumably no monsters. Because the pictures have scared the hell out of her, she decides to take a visit to the Navidson house when neither of the children come in to school one day. And of course, everything will go horribly wrong. She goes to the door, hears screams and knocks; ordinary concerned citizen I suppose. Reston opens the door and asks her to call an ambulance, which are obviously for the two guys bleeding on the floor. Now, looking at the head-count, we can account for Karen, Tom, Reston, Jed (or the body formally known as Jed), Wax and the kids; at least that's what I can gather from what happened in previous chapters. If my count was right, we're still missing Navidson and Holloway. Ominous.
So, we skip back a little, where we see Karen neglecting her children as she monitors the radios for signs of Navidson and company, which cannot be healthy for either Karen or the kids. The distance from Navidson seems to make her switch her dependence from him to their children and helps her make up her mind to leave. She is in the process of leaving with the kids when Tom comes in with the gurney.
Well, obviously there's horror at Wax's condition, but then Reston slams the door behind him as they're followed by a deep growl. Oh dear. It's all a bit of a shambles really, especially with the teacher turning up.
If it's any consolation, Wax apparently survives, although it's kind of an abrupt way to tell it. Karen decides to show the police the corridors, which I frankly can't see going well. And it doesn't, seeing as it scares them and they, rather smartly really, walk out fairly sharpish. Apparently after the film, the door disappeared; maybe relating to that thing about the house reflecting the inhabitants' psychological state? But anyway, Karen insists on keeping the door open in case Navidson comes back, but no-one's really that hopeful on that front: in their minds I guess he's as good as dead. We get examples of how they're all coping (or not coping), when there's a rather odd sentence regarding Tom. I'm not sure whether this is just a typo or deliberate, but when Tom starts drinking heavily to cope with the loss of his brother, it says:

• "He might have spent all night drinking had exhaustion not caught up with me."

Now I don't know about you, but that's just a tiny bit weird. Anyway, Tom and Reston try to go back in and save Navidson, but find that the corridor only extends 30', with no branching corridors. Chad refuses to go back inside when he hears a bang followed by a sound like someone dying; probably Holloway then. Tom starts drinking even more, which is unfortunate but understandable. Karen starts paying attention to her children again and gets ready to leave with them, which is understandable and really should've been done a long time before in all honesty. Reston continues toman the radios, even though the hallway has shortened to 10'. Everything seems lost when Navidson walks out of the door, presumably amazed that he got out at all. Karen seems pleased to see him, but makes no change in her plans, which is a very smart thing. Holloway seems to have disappeared within the house, leaving behind only the tape he was recording. Apparently the only one who still wishes to stay in the house after watching that tape is Navidson, but then we've already seen that he's just a bit of an idiot regarding that.
So we're now on to Holloway's tape. According to a footnote by Johnny there are gaps where some kind of ash (type unknown) have burnt through the paper, which he's decided not to try and reconstruct. Obviously he links it in his head to some kind of explosion; thanks for that bit of paranoia, Johnny, thanks a bunch. Lude visited and advised him to get rid of Zampano's papers: wise words but a bit hollow from the guy dumb enough to show them to Johnny in the first place. Johnny himself knows how bad these papers are for him, but he can't seem to quit them until he's made them into just a book. If it doesn't abate, he has a new gun to shoot himself with, which is probably the kinder fate in all honesty.
Anyway, back to the main narrative which is looking at the madness of Holloway. Seems he was treated for depression, which, from what I can remember from college psychology, doesn't generally make you want to go out and shoot people. Considered suicide due to feelings of inadequacy despite all his achievements, so so far so vaguely normal. Started dating a girl in high school who dumped him for a footballer; still vaguely normal, and beginning to wonder if any of this will actually account for what sent him over the edge, seeing as these aren't exactly uncommon. The argument seems to be that his insanity was caused by Jed and Wax's desire to turn back as a final sign of his inadequacy and failings, which I guess makes a certain amount of sense. The book also seems to equate suicidal depression with murderous rage; having seen people suffering from clinical depression this is, if you'll pardon the term, utter bullshit. Frankly, anyone with genuine depression finds it hard just to get up in the morning, let alone try and kill people, so this is pretty offensive really. Although we now have an opposing viewpoint, which seems to be less attacking suicidal people and more actually thinking of a credible reason. In this, it is shown that Navidson too had suicidal tendencies, but managed to avoid trying to take two people with him; however, no actual reason for Holloway's actions. Oh well, we're on to the tape now, which should be more interesting.
Basically what we have is Holloway wandering around, getting more and more lost, continually muttering who he is and that he doesn't deserve to die; I'm sure Jed and Wax would disagree with that last point, but that's beside the point I suppose. There's an emphasis on Holloway's assertion that there's something stalking him, however critics can't seem to decide whether it's a real monster or something more rational. Great, more uncertainty. In all the uncertainty, Holloway shoots himself. Despite the fact that I really didn't like him, it's almost sad to read. Almost, but not quite. Anyway, right near the end of the tape, there's a minute or so of nothing. Then claws reach out and consume Holloway in darkness. If that isn't creepy, I really don't know what is.
After watching the tape, everyone except Navidson is understandably a little freaked out and decides to get the hell out of there, with Tom creating a barricade against the door. Although I've just had the thought of: "Surely there's still that closet thingy upstairs?" Why do I get the feeling that will become important again? Anyway, there's a nice little scene between Navidson and Tom, before Reston hears something. It builds, making you think it'll knock down the barricade, then dies down and knocks. Somehow, that's scarier than if it had just stormed straight through. Turns out the house is going to change to try and get them instead of using the conventional means of the door, starting with Karen. Well, at least we know that the monster is creative. Yippee. And the house has eaten the kids. Dear God, and right after they were starting to be interesting. Never mind, they're safe, if traumatised for life. Instead, Tom bites the bullet, as I predicted he would a couple chapters back. And that's where the chapter ends, with Tom falling into a black abyss. So the house got angry that they were leaving, huh? So much for this being a house to create a closer family.

Anyway, I'll probably update again tomorrow, but while I still have time, let me just wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, regardless of how you spent it.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XII

Hey guys, again sorry for the long wait between updates. Uni has been a bit hectic recently. Thankfully I have a bit of a break, so I should make some headway into the rest of this. Anyway, last time we were focusing on Tom and his mental collapse at the top of the stairs. My bet is that Tom won't be found alive in this chapter.
Although, considering that the quotation at the top of the chapter is one about how sometimes people can go missing without ever being found, Tom's fate will probably never be known..... Fun.
So Navidson and Reston get back to the base of the stairs and Tom isn't there like they agreed. They're all in pretty bad shape (and they seem to be bringing Jed's body with them, which seems a tad pointless to me to be honest) so I imagine they aren't going to be too happy with him. Until the rope comes down. So he is still there. Probably.
So instead of meeting them at the bottom, he's made a gurney on a pulley system. Which is pretty damn good really. It's all going swimmingly until Reston's being pulled up and suddenly the scale changes, growing exponentially, yet somehow Reston still keeps going up to the top. Which doesn't make sense by the laws of physics, so maybe he's actually gone down instead. Nope, he is going up, but Navidson is stuck at the bottom now. But the staircase has lengthened beyond the scope of the rope, so it's snapped. Fun.
Now, an interjection from Johnny. Frankly, a lot of his stuff is actually scarier than the main narrative, mainly because the main narrative doesn't have the same sort of paranoia to it, which is generally scarier to read about than axe-crazies like Holloway. Anyway, Johnny goes to work for the first time in 3 weeks to find they've replaced him, unsurprisingly really, but he's not all that bothered. He goes back to his apartment which is beginning to sound legitimately crazy now: egg boxes soundproofing the room, tin foil stapled to the windows to block out the sun etc. That's rather worrying, even if I have considered soundproofing my room so that idiot in the next flat will be silenced for once. Anyway, despite these precautions, he's still getting these attacks of paranoia about this weird monster thingy. And he suddenly remembers something, I can't remember what that was now as he's rambled on to a rather graphic description of a sinking ship. Ah, yeah, it was that girl that he had a one night stand with who she said had met him in Texas. Sorry, that ramble was truly epic in length, about 3 pages in one sentence.
Anyway, back to the main narrative, where the rope holding up the gurney Reston is in has just snapped. Again I say: fun. Thankfully Reston is saved from being a splat on the floor below by Tom catching the rope before the gurney drops. From what the footnotes have just said, the staircase is now between 27,273 and 54,545 miles deep, which is longer than the circumferance of the Earth. I somehow doubt Navidson is going to get back up to the top any time soon. He has food for about 3 days. But then I really doubt he'll be able to climb that in 3 days. 3 years maybe, but he doesn't have that long in all honesty. And now the film's run out, as if things couldn't get worse. And it ends there..........excuse me while I scream in frustration and rage at it. Why end it there?!?!

Well, I at least have some time to get back into reading this, what with reading week now. Hopefully it'll explain just how Navidson is going to do this, as there's been references to his survival after the main narrative, so he's got to get back. I predict that he'll end up meeting Holloway again down there and be forced to put the crazy bugger out of his misery. At least that's what I hope will happen. You can probably tell I'm not a big fan of Holloway.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part XI

Hi guys, sorry for the delay. I went home for the a few days around the weekend, then had my busiest days of the week, so all in all not much of a chance to read this. If I remember correctly though, Jed had just been killed, Holloway was shooting at them and Navidson and Reston had Wax out on a stretcher.
We start the chapter with a quote about the staircase. It's going to grow again, isn't it?
Anyway, we're focusing on Tom for now as he sits at the top of the staircase and smokes weed, which is probably rather sensible given the circumstances. Mostly it seems to be focusing on the differences between him and his brother, which are pretty drastic for twins. Although it never actually says whether they're identical or not; if not then it makes much more sense. On the whole, Tom seems to be the one who is most liked, while Navidson commands more respect; makes me feel slightly sad for Navidson, if I'm honest. It starts to compare them to the Biblical twins Jacob and Esau, but then becomes all jumpy because Zampano ripped up the next few pages, citing that they were:

• "too personal."

After that choppy section, we get a transcript of Tom's view of events shown in the film. His monologues to the camera are for the most part scared (and with good reason really) and they sound genuine, with little clips of him radioing Karen and Navidson until he goes out of range and him telling jokes to keep his own moral up, which I think is a nice touch.
The scene is interrupted by Johnny, who's getting seriously messed up now. He was just ordered to have a day off after scaring the depraved biker client. Which must have looked kinda funny in a very weird way, this little skinny guy freaking out the biker who could beat the living daylights out of him. He talks about one November's worth of one night stands for him and Lude, which is really rather sad, definitely melancholy more than anything. It makes you wonder what their emotional lives must be like if they just flit from person to person. And from his revisiting the list, it looks like I was right. And he begins to tell "the story of the pekinese", whatever that is. Having read it now, I don't think I could recount it. Poor dog....
Anyway, back to Tom. Talking on the radio to Karen, we find out that she intends to take the kids and leave after Navidson and the rest get back and that her feng shui stuff she'd gotten to improve the house's energies (because of course that would work so well) have disappeared. Tom is getting steadily more scared and stir-crazy, which is totally understandable. His panic when Navidson asks him to meet him at the bottom of the stairs is understandable too, especially seeing as the staircase lengthens before his eyes. You've got to feel sorry for him really.
The chapter ends with a summary of the scene, with a focus on the tenderness with which Navidson edits it. Considering there have been footnotes of Tom's friends talking about him with fondness, I have a very bad feeling that this might be the last that we'll see of Tom, which is a pity as he seems a genuinely nice guy.
Anyway, that's the end of another chapter, which felt more like a stop-gap than anything else. I mean, it did have some interesting and engaging moments, but it was bereft of anything to really stir the intellect or a sense of creepiness. Hopefully next chapter will be more engaging like that.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part X

Okay guys, so last time was just a little bit confusing, frustrating and sad, due to the weird layout, pointless looping footnotes and the (presumed) deaths of Jed and Wax. I can only imagine the layout gets weird from here on in, so you may as well brace yourselves for various bits of ranting sprinkled throughout this particular post.
Back with the rescue team now, where of course we have the tensions between Karen and Navidson brought up again. I think it's pretty clear that their attempts to salvage their relationship has failed rather badly. There are remarks about the kinds of images of the spooky bit of the house, mostly about scale and emptiness; this might well be why the pages are so full of blank space. There seems to be about one paragraph per page maximum. I'm really beginning to pity the printer or whoever had to format the pages for these last two chapters.
Anyway, they make it to the staircase, where Reston makes camp. Navidson and Tom are going to go down and try rescue Holloway and his team, but Tom suddenly panics, leaving Navidson to go by himself. Have they not figured out that going alone is a very bad idea? Yet he goes down the staircase, that he'd estimated as about 13 miles deep, and gets to the bottom only 100 feet down; I suppose that makes sense considering the corridors branching off from the staircase and how everything seems to shift. Anyway, Reston makes his way down the stairs, so Navidson is effectively forced to take him along; while this at least improves on the whole "going on alone" thing, a physically handicapped man is probably not most people's top choice of companion in a dangerous situation, no offence meant. They continue their search, following traces of Holloway's team, when suddenly Reston is nauseous; this is a new development, probably not a good one either. Zampano theorises that this is to do with the explorers' expectations: Holloway et al went in with caution (initially anyway), so everything is huge and uncertain, but when Navidson go in, they know the staircase is not bottomless so it's tiny in comparison. This is all very well when explaining size shifts, but that doesn't explain how the rooms change place. Unless maybe that reflects Navidson's original panic when he couldn't initially find his way back out. But this general theory now brings up the question that if there was no human perception anywhere in the house, would all this spooky stuff actually exist? Maybe this is something in the house responding to something in Navidson, always described as the "man of action", and creating a situation that fulfills a sub-conscious desire for adventure. If you take this theory as the truth of whatever's behind the spooky stuff in the house, it certainly portrays Navidson in a different light.
That discussion about perception continues for a bit, then Johnny pips in again. He's gone to the doctor's with his panic attacks, causing me some confusion before I remembered that the American health system is very different from here (or at least it was, I have no idea what the state of that National Health scheme is in). They give him meds which he promptly crushes, making it seem a bit of a waste really, as well as throwing out the rest of the drugs in his apartment, of which there seems to be an alarming amount. I somehow doubt clearing his system of all those drugs isn't going to help him much though; his general health might be a bit better for it though. Yeah, this is why optimism is rare in horror, it just sounds silly.
Back to the main narrative. Navidson and Reston make camp, but nothing happens overnight. The second day they're down there, they hear something; personally, while I'd like to be proven wrong, I very much doubt that either Jed or Wax are alive so the noise is either the creature that's presumably down there or a batshit crazy Holloway. I'm putting my money on Holloway. We find out that something's wrong with Karen via Tom, but we don't find out what because the radio cuts off. I don't know why, but I suddenly get the distinct feeling that Karen's going to take the kids and make a break for it, maybe shutting them in the spooky part of the house before she goes; or maybe I'm being too harsh on her. Anyway, they continue following the cries until they find a door that's locked, another new development; maybe this is where Jed and Wax are, with the locked door being their attempt to keep away from the axe-crazy. And I actually turned out to be right! Except now he's been shot in the head goddamnit. Of course Holloway has to butt in. And the blank space has increased, with there only being a few words per page; slowing things down maybe? And we're back to a paragraph per page now; at least they gave Jed's death a bit of emphasis. Of course they had to kill the most sympathetic one first; I'm not surprised though, this seems to happen to all my favourites. Although I've just figured something out: he was shot in the front of the head, with the bullet exiting through the back. How did Holloway make that shot? He has to either be behind them and either shot between Navidson and Reston or through one of them, or he has to be in front of them, which they would notice surely? Either way I think they're pretty screwed. Anyway, Reston starts firing back, because he apparently had the forethought to come armed; I see they're (well, some of them anyway) becoming more genre savvy. Although it seems a bit pointless moving Jed out of harm's way, seeing as he's kind of dead now. Oh no, not quite, but pretty much dead. Wax, on the other hand, is very much alive. Hooray for the little things. Looks like my prediction that the quiet one would live was completely wrong though. The chapter ends with Navidson and Reston loading Wax onto a makeshift stretcher and making their way back.
So, all in all a pretty decent chapter, both in terms of action and things to think about, even if my favourite character was killed off. RIP Jed, I'd hoped you'd be the last man standing, but apparently not. Hopefully Wax will make it though. It would make things kind of pointless if he got killed on the way back. Now I've said it, it'll probably happen.

Signing off,
Nisa.

House of Leaves - The Navidson Record - Part IX

Hi guys, here we are again. Part 9. Just before I start I was wondering if I could direct your attention to the little rating boxes down at the bottom of each blog entry. I can see that occasionally people have been looking in and I'd love to hear your opinions about anything that comes up in these blogs, even if it's just a little click on the box you think most appropriate out of the ones listed below. Thanks.
Anyway, last time we had the SOS chapter, where everything seems determined to go pear-shaped. The rest of the team have gone in to try and rescue them, although personally I'm not sure why; call me a cynic but if they've been down there for 8 days already, the other team aren't going to be that successful either, especially seeing as they hadn't prepared for being a rescue team. But it does have to get worse I suppose.
We start with a footnote of Johnny's, in which he seems to be getting even more paranoid about getting out of the house. Although I'm sure the result of leaving the house is graphic enough that I'm sure he's rather glad he did; I mean, admittedly there's been sex depicted in this already, but that was a bit of a shock.
Back to the main text again, it begins to talk about mazes and labyrinths, which I suppose is rather apt really. What's interesting though is when some of the text is crossed out, specifically that of the Cretan Minotaur myth; maybe a hint that the house is the entrance to the minotaur's labyrinth (so to speak) and that the current cast reflects the figures of the Athenians sent down there to be eaten by the minotaur? Certainly the fishing line is very close to the magic thread used by Theseus. This certainly brings up some interesting implications if this is the equivalent of that mythic labyrinth. Zampano seems to make the case that the minotaur of legend was merely a metaphor for deformity, which is interesting in itself, but he seems to have wanted this section to be destroyed. Maybe whatever is/was/used to be in the house was more dangerous than the mere deformity argument would suggest? Any answers don't seem to be forthcoming any time soon though. What we do get though is lots of stuff about centres and structures, so basically stuff that is incomprehensible to me due to my general lack of interest in architecture and/or physics. I probably should, seeing as I'm kind of actually studying centres in a way when analysing the city, but I will studiously ignore this in favour of being dumbfounded. We seem to talk a little about how perspective changes the view of a maze, which is fair enough but somehow I don't think we can really apply it here, seeing as it's impossible to see it from any other view but inside the maze. The film itself is compared to a maze, which is apt; the irony being here that the entire narrative of this book so far is maze-like, having been given a glimpse of "the end" with Johnny and never quite knowing what is going to happen next. Frankly the text and footnotes have been a bit all over the place this chapter, so that increased the weird, dreamy, maze-like feel to it, although that's probably the point. The footnotes keep going back on themselves; I'm treading the same paths over again, which is really unsettling. As is the line I've just read regarding the structure of mazes; it's not especially openly scary, but it's certainly put me on edge a little:

• "And if you do lose yourself at least take solace in the absolute certainty that you will perish."

Somehow Johnny seems to have interpreted Zampano's theory that in the face of a maze like the house, all solutions are personal to mean that Johnny's personal way of continuing a normal life is to have sex with any of the girls in his life. Well, I guess he took the "personal" aspect to heart. In any case, none of them seem to answer their phones. Actually, have any of them ever answered the phone? Oh well, he's gone drinking with his best mate Lude, which does seem the next best thing. Never mind, it's evolved into a one night stand. I should've have guessed, huh?
Back to the main narrative, we're finally beginning to find out what Holloway and his team have been up to. Seems they actually got to the bottom of the staircase and decided to explore further. Holloway's exploration seems to be getting more frantic as well, desperate to find something down there maybe. Maybe it's a reflection of how weird this is getting, but one of the footnotes has been boxed off and is floating towards the top of the page. The footnote itself seems too rambling and generally unimportant to be granted such detail and separation from the rest of the footnotes. Regardless, all Holloway's search finds is more empty corridors and more empty rooms. I really shouldn't be as tense as I am right now, I mean I just scared myself accidentally knocking something over on my desk. I'm going to come out of this a quivering wreak, aren't I? Just as you were getting to know me too. I've just turned the page and the layout's gone insane: the boxed footnote from the last page is there but in mirror-image, the footnotes are at the side, there's a new boxed footnote; it's just all over the place, but somehow still recognisably structured. Well kind of. The footnotes aren't even self-contained anymore. Please excuse me if I begin crying, seeing as I've realised I just have to backtrack quickly. Maybe that's the point. And that bloody boxed footnote was still completely pointless! I don't think I'll bother with the side ones either, seeing as that looks like a list of names again and the ones on one side are upside down. This is one screwed up layout, as you may have guessed from the barely coherant rantings I've just subjected you to.
In the main narrative (which is thankfully still pretty much recognisable) we've moved from the house's structure to the question of occupation. Specifically that of "who is the true occupant of the house?", which in turn brings up the idea that the house's original owner might still be there, a concept which is somehow vaguly terrifying.
On the way back up, Holloway and his team, having left some caches of food and supplies on the staircase to ensure they had stuff on the way back, find that their second cache has been destroyed by something with claws. Oh dear. In light of this, Holloway decides to explore some more, securing his status in my mind as a Grade A moron; if there is something destroying your stuff and obviously doesn't wish you well, why explore more or try to follow it? When his assistants say they're going home, he doesn't seem to take it well; then again, he's probably gone just a bit crazy now so I suppose it makes complete sense to him. While his assistants are smart and head back, he storms off by himself. Good riddance, I hope he gets lost. At least he hasn't gone postal, although knowing me and knowing this book I'll probably eat those words. Anyway, there's no sign of Holloway coming back, so it seems he has gotten lost. Yay. Never mind, he's back and has managed to shoot Wax. I should've known. Instead of helping Jed get Wax back to the main house, he wanders off again, hopefully for good this time. And he's back again, shooting at the assistants again. They run, understandably, but get lost in the process, hence the SOS signal last chapter. Somehow this links to Johnny's recollection of meeting a ghost;don't ask me how, I'm not all that sure myself. This leads on to meeting Ashley, a girl who keeps calling and seems to know him while he doesn't have a clue who she is. Fun. If very weird.
Back with Jed and Wax, things don't seem to be doing too well for them. Wax is in shock (the clinical version, although I would imagine the original version is there too) which I'm really not surprised at. This leaves Jed with medical duties, which can't be an easy job, especially when they can hear the evidence that Holloway has gone completely off the deep end. And I've lost track of the footnotes now. Hell, I'm just making do now, it's far too confusing to be made like this by accident. It diverges into comparing the current situation to mutiny, which is an interesting use of the word, although you can't really say that Holloway didn't deserve it. This has branched off from a discussion about how similar the Navidson Record is to Hollywood produced horror/ghost stories. Somehow, I'm kind of losing track now. Anyway, the main difference seems to be that the use of familiar actors, techniques and CG creates a sense of disbelief, reassuring the audience that it's all just entertainment, which the Navidson Record doesn't do. But, with the proliferation of CG, it's becoming more and more difficult to determine whether a picture is real or not, an idea that does make a bit of sense, even in my numbed state. This leads on to whether the film is genuine or not. Again.
Johnny chips in with a story of another one night stand, this time a girl that he scared off by screaming weird stuff in his sleep. Eerie, if vaguely funny at the same time; maybe the chapter's been too long to maintain tension for. And the girl in question seems to have contacted the editors about this bit, asking where Johnny disappeared to. Hold the phone, what the hell is this? That was a bit out of the blue. How can Johnny just disappear, I mean, he's one of the main narrators.
The chapter ends with whatever is making the growls beating at the door that Jed and Wax are behind. It's the last clip that is seen from them. But then, if that's true, how did they get the clips? In any case, I'm kind of sad to see Jed go, I thought he was sweet.
Anyway, I might read another chapter tomorrow (later today), but I may well need a recovery period after that.

Signing off,
Nisa.