Mysterious Monday

When I woke up yesterday morning, I realized I hadn't written my Monday review. I logged onto the site in a panic, thinking of quickly bashing out 500 words on Alien Nation or something, only to find the following post was already written out and scheduled for release.

I have no memory of writing this review.

After reading it over, it looks like something I would write, and it's decent enough, so I'm okay with posting it , with a few notes from present me in areas I'm a little confused.

You can thank XKCD for this review, since it was this comic by Randall Monroe that alerted me to the existence of House of Leaves. Since buying a copy in 2011, I've read through this tome of eldritch knowledge at least three times, possibly more. Untrue. Pretty sure I've only read it twice...right?

Johnny Truant is a tattoo artist who ends up making the worst decision of his life. Actually, I think his worst decision was not changing that name. When a friend's neighbor dies unexpectedly, Johnny helps him clear out the old man's apartment. Inside, Johnny finds hundreds of scraps of paper that he begins to assemble into the intended whole: a work of film criticism focused on a film called The Navidson Record.

That film is about the family of an award-winning photographer as he retires with his family to a quiet Alabama house. Presented as a documentary, The Navidson Record quickly moves from home life to horror as the impossible occurs. Oh, and from Johnny Truant's point of view, the film does not exist. If this doesn't make it clear, The Navidson Record doesn't exist in our world either. Wish it did though, the movie sounds cool.

I really don't want to spoil it, but this plot is even more layered than that. The line between fiction and reality blurs so heavily at times that in the end the exact truth of the events of the novel are impossible to ascertain for certain. Personally, I've always been fond of a multi-dimension theory, like the author of the book moved into Johnny Truant's universe, where the film didn't exist. But what really makes this book special is how it's layed out.

For the most part, the novel starts off fairly normally. After moving past Johnny's introduction, the novel is the text of Zampano's book with footnotes, from him, Johnny, and the book's editor. Johnny sometimes takes over with his footnotes, talking about his daily life and how it's being altered after working on this project.

But as the story of The Navidson Record continues to become stranger and stranger, the text formatting of the book begins to take on strange qualities. Footnotes are shoved into the middle of the page, endlessly listing furniture items, text starts appearing in very odd places, and as you can see in the image the actual text of the story has less as less room for itself. This is just one way that the text formatting begins to take on the qualities of the characters in the story, and it happens throughout the book. In a way, House of Leaves is like a typography graphic novel.

̶ T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶t̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶M̶i̶n̶o̶t̶a̶u̶r̶.̶ ̶A̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶(̶?̶)̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶t̶e̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶u̶t̶t̶e̶r̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶e̶r̶r̶i̶f̶y̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶N̶a̶v̶i̶d̶s̶o̶n̶'̶s̶,̶ ̶J̶o̶h̶n̶n̶y̶ ̶T̶r̶u̶a̶n̶t̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶e̶r̶.̶ ̶H̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶i̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶?̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶m̶p̶t̶y̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶,̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶o̶i̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶,̶ ̶s̶m̶e̶l̶l̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶s̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶c̶e̶p̶t̶i̶o̶n̶?̶ ̶F̶e̶l̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶,̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶s̶e̶n̶c̶e̶,̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶'̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶a̶m̶?̶ ̶R̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶.̶ ̶I̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶d̶r̶e̶a̶m̶s̶.̶

I'm not sure why, in this first draftish sort of thing, I didn't mention something interesting. Not only does this book really work best as a novel because of it's typographic style but also because, as a book, you can skip bits you don't care for on a whim. Honestly, while Johnny Truant's areas of the novel aren't bad by any stretch, they're not why I read the book. The story of the Navidson's and the critical analysis of the film are my favorite bits, personally

If I have to make a criticism of the novel, there are definitely areas that don't contribute very much to the overall story. Tacked on to the end are a series of letters that are full of mystery are raise questions, but aren't that interesting to me, honestly.

Honestly, I've barely scratched the surface of this novel. This book is so dense and full of meaning that I'd need a dozen editorial's to go through it all. It's a haunted house story, cosmic horror, romantic drama, fantasy adventure...this book is whatever you want it to be. If you've ever seen EverymanHYBRID, I'd heavily recommend this book solely for seeing the lines of inspiration they drew from it. If you enjoy genre fiction, stuff that bends your brain, or even just a horror novel this is the book for you. Last note here, this book is also great if you enjoy stuff like Ulysses by James Joyce or Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

#book #monday