House of Leaves

Hello Lainons, I was just wondering if any of you chummers had come across this book before, I'd love to discuss it. No matter how many times I read it I always find something new. If you haven't before I ask that you approach this text with an open mind as it is very strange, the author has a habit of using visual metaphor in how he arranges his text I can't promise you will like it, only that you have never seen anything like it before, nor are you likely to ever again. Have fun, stay safe, and watch out for that shadow in the corner.

Unless I'm mistaken you can read the book here http://www.scribd.com/doc/175262839/Mark-Z-Danielewski-House-Of-Leaves-pdf-pdf#scribd

I got about halfway through it, lent it to a friend, and haven't gotten it back yet. great, I was just getting to the interesting part. I liked the usage of visual metaphor and other formatting stuff, I feel like he should try harder with his female characters, they don't do an awful lot outside of sex. >>2328 http://bookzz.org/book/1110061/03f198 maybe this one is better?

>>2329 The females (well, one of them anyway) take a much stronger role later in the novel

>>2330 Actually I suppose there's that bit with the Peakinese *shudder*

>>2331 I have a feeling I don't want to know about it I'm not sure how I feel about the gothic horror stuff he's been hinting at. on the one hand, yes, but on the other hand I like how its just the house breaking physics being the spooky part

been a long time since I read House of Leaves though I remember enjoying it. more recently I enjoyed The Fifty Year Sword, the sewn images are amazing and it tends to lean more on design elements than the narrative inventiveness of the earlier novel. also there is a massive forum dedicated to this and Danielewski's other titles where folk from all four corners dissect his books.

>>2338 That forum just went down a few days ago

I was reminded of it for the first time in a long time the other day during a long moment of black silence in a Chris Marker film (le joli mai). Read it in high school. I'm still interested in the concept of architectural horror and the palimpsest style layering of mythology, but I remember even then finding the writing to be kind of like YA pulp and gimmicky physical structure being more novelty than content.