Laura, you might as well not bother with the Johnny Truant bits, honestly. The Zampano part really is a ripping good yarn, horror-wise. Then again, you might not want to take the horror recommendations from a guy who practically muted the scary scenes in Alien (where the guy went after the kitty).
The whole scholarly edifice is actually completely unnecessary to the horror plot. I know that Zampano is supposed to be a critique of academia, but the critique doesn't have a lot of legs and easily gets overshadowed by the plot.
― c('°c) (Leee), Monday, 25 September 2006 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 26 September 2006 00:22 (seventeen years ago) link
I like books with ridiculous footnotes, though (cf: The Third Policeman). I only remember the one which was a list of significant buildings, because when I bought the book I lived next-door to one of them.
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 08:28 (seventeen years ago) link
But then the plot and my enthusiasm both just petered out. I skimmed over the letters at the end and I don't really care to figure out all the references anymore - I was reminded a little of the scene at the end of The Usual Suspects where you realise the whole thing is just a charade, based on irrelevant ephemera, and signfies nothing.
― ledge (ledge), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:45 (seventeen years ago) link
You all know Pelafina wrote the book, right?
― less-than three's Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Thursday, 26 October 2006 17:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 26 October 2006 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link
should I read this or is it a bunch of wank?
― akm, Saturday, 18 June 2011 06:10 (twelve years ago) link
mostly wank. someone should do a jefferson and abridge the mofo.
― i love the smell of facepalm in the morning (ledge), Saturday, 18 June 2011 09:09 (twelve years ago) link
You should read it - it doesn't take long. Though I totally agree with the people upthread saying the Truant bits are annoying.
― emil.y, Saturday, 18 June 2011 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
The bits with the house are genuinely creepy though
― Number None, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i never finished but it's the only book that i've read where i was actually like 'creeped' while reading
― all the pretty HOOSes (gbx), Tuesday, 21 June 2011 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
For the ILB crowd... a pilot script for a streaming version that didn't come to fruition.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w8ju058vnudefwz/HouseOfLeavesPilot_ByMarkZDanielewski.pdf?dl=0
― brain (krakow), Monday, 18 June 2018 20:18 (five years ago) link
I reaklly enjoyed it when i read it `15 years back. I think I read it summer of 2003 when i was reading pretty much non-stop. getting through things in a couple of days if not shorter then having to go back through them. think it may have taken me a bit longer to get through cos i did enjoy it.Picked it up from a charity shop after that and don't think I've looked at that copy.But did like the sudden labyrinth bits and stuff.
― Stevolende, Monday, 18 June 2018 20:48 (five years ago) link
I've got this on my shelf. love the idea but not sure I've got the patience to hold such an awkward book for any extended period of time
― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Monday, 18 June 2018 20:55 (five years ago) link
I enjoyed the pilot script and am glad he decided to share it. I'm sad that the show didn't go ahead given the promise of this glimpse.
― brain (krakow), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 10:55 (five years ago) link
For all its flaws (Truant being the biggest of them, general smugness a close second) I love it, and think about it most days. It gets as close to a rendering of the uncanny as anything I can think of and you can map all sorts of stuff onto the house and Navidson's experience of it: depression, the infinite nature of the self (our experience/navigation of it, at least), hermeneutics. I barely think of it as a ghost story.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 20 July 2018 13:54 (five years ago) link