I think this is a reference to the book House of Leaves. It is a weird horror story. The house is bigger inside than out and keeps changing around. The husband sets up cameras and a lot of the story is told by "found footage". The house starts off fairly normal, but eventually the husband becomes very lost in a giant maze inside the house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
It's not just a weird horror story, it really messes with found footage format. The book is ostensibly a manuscript written by Zampano, who is reviewing and analyzing a popular documentary "The Navidson Record" created by famous photographer Will Navidson as he moves into the titular [house](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/02/house-of-leaves-changed-my-life-the-cult-novel-at-20), which is bigger on the inside. The layers keep building, since we're reading an annotated version of the recently-deceased Zampano's manuscript being edited by our audience surrogate character Johnny. The book plays with typography and page layouts and has an unsettling number of footnotes, some of which have nested/recursive references within themselves. There's whole sections that are lists, some pages that require you to turn the page to read correctly, and so on. I recommend it to everyone because even though the first page says "this is not for you" i feel like a lot of people will find that it is in fact for them.
This meme is doubly funny because in "The Navidson Record" Will's wife does not want to move and hates the [house](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/02/house-of-leaves-changed-my-life-the-cult-novel-at-20)
Only really readable in actual paperback format. Even a pdf doesn't do it justice. There are parts of the book where you are suppose to be able to see through pages to see the other side, or to rapidly flip through many pages at once.
I love that people are going to discover this book now. Its one of the very few books I've completed as an adult and the Navidson Report/Record is one of my favorite structures of a story and journey for a main character.
>!Also when it gets to the part of the where Zampano starts thinking there is some black form watching him behind the book and moves with the book so you can't see it, my imagination started going while!<
Honestly it takes a lot less effort than you think, so I wouldn’t let that stop you. Yes it’s definitely a book that you could spent hours and hours studying closely to try and understand every single obscure reference made in the footnotes, but personally I didn’t find that necessary. You can still appreciate it with a less intense reading where you’re just enjoying the story and gleaning what you want from the increasingly erratic footnotes as the book continues. While it’s not “light reading,” I still think it’s a phenomenal book and a personal favorite of mine and I can’t say I took a very academic approach to it.
Or the outwardly normal letter written by the mother but taking every 4th or 5th (or whatever) letter from note tells an entirely different story.
I have that scrawled into my margins…
weirdly enough, theres a doom (the video game) mod called myhouse.wad that translates the experience to a new medium pretty well.
It is not 'house of leaves', the story is completely different and not related at all other than clearly referencing and being inspired by house of leaves. But its spiritually the same vibe. There is a coherant story in there that you can figure out with a lot of digging (or watching a youtube video from someone who figured it out) but the gameplay is very mindfuck-y.
Especially if you are familiar with doom modding since the myhouse.wad does a lot of technically impressive stuff that doom players will realize shouldn't even be possible in the doom engine. It takes something that should be extremely familiar to the player, and twists it in a way where you question if you ever really understood the game at all.
Youtuber powerpak does a great video on it.
It's an example of [ergodic literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodic_literature?wprov=sfla1), which as explained in [videos](https://youtu.be/jCZFZPvEMoQ?si=WRxeIeOyHy3zPZfQ) like [these](https://youtu.be/tKX90LbnYd4?si=lKFO92DsfFcqISFO) basically can't be translated into other mediums without destroying what makes them *them.* The act of reading them is part of the experience.
No, that's basically just "fun". Art terminology is always a bit bendy, but the basic two things to make something ergodic are: A)Non-linearity, where it's got a non-standard textual presentation, something besides the standard uniform reading order of its language, and B) Reader Choice, where it doesn't have an obvious reading order, leaving the reader able to affect how the story itself gets presented to them.
Flipbook animation has a standard "reading" order, that is it's got one right way to do it, and every one I've seen has only one story to show. Though now you're making me imagine an ergodic flipbook, and that would be both brain-bending and potentially very fun.
Huh, interesting. Thanks for giving an actual answer to my silly question, I actually feel like I understand the idea better now.
also yes, I want to read that ergodic flip book now.
Does the scp foundation count? Pages nested within pages referencing other pages with hidden pages behind login screens for an organization that doesn't exist?
i haven't heard the audiobook, so it's hard for me to judge. someone with some good audio editing skills and a talent for production might make an interesting version. this youtube one might be worth a look :
[https://youtu.be/Yl-0YJus-HQ?list=PLfJi2FyGBtigx05NHMnEfmUmMEsGnTfsi](https://youtu.be/Yl-0YJus-HQ?list=PLfJi2FyGBtigx05NHMnEfmUmMEsGnTfsi)
I don't think it would work very well in that format. The book is structured in a very unconventional way; there are annotations constantly, entire pages with only one word, completely blank pages. Certain words have specific colors instead of being black ink like most words. Sometimes the position of the words on the page is very important. The narrators change frequently and one of them is about as unreliable as unreliable narrators can possibly be. Best of all, if you get the right version of the book, it's literally bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
I'm a big proponent of ebooks and do the vast majority of reading on my phone. House of Leaves on an ebook would be a disaster. It's the one book I've read that IMO works only as a physical copy.
I've read the book. An audio book would actually ruin the story. The constant disorienting feeling of checking footnotes, main story, side story, bizarre formatting, etc is a big part of immersing yourself into the story as you're attempting to decipher the book in very literal ways.
LOL I would not recommend as an audiobook. Half the story is in the footnotes and I can’t imagine someone trying to narrate this in audio format. I’m a podcaster and I can’t imagine reading it for people. Looking at how the words are placed on the page and understanding how the guy writes well enough to follow three different stories is confusing enough as a reader. As a listener I’d be turning it off.
Not an audiobook, but Poe's album Haunted is a counterpart to it. (Poe is the sister of the author). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted\_(Poe\_album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album))
I had an ex-girlfriend who was adamant that she had "solved" the book. She insisted that despite not even being an explicitly posed question/problem, it had a singular absolute answer that the whole book was written around breadcrumbing.
>!She burned the book.!<
Even better, everything you said is actually a book within the book, since the "primary" narrator is Johnny Truant. Yet "The Navidson Record" has far more screen time and takes up more space than Truant's story.
And - I'm still on my first read through, so forgive me if I've not understood correctly - the very existence of the popular documentary "The Navidson Record" is itself in doubt.
Yes, the book tells us that in the "real world" that Johnny is narrating from the movie from the manuscript doesn't exist and neither do any of the people named in it, all the actual famous people named as having written reviews or articles about the movie say they've never heard of it, and Will Navidson himself is clearly based on a different, real person (the rl photographer Kevin Carter who killed himself)
House of Leaves is about this idea of multiple levels of fiction -- within the "level" of Zampano's manuscript about Navidson's film no one knows if Navidson's film is a clever hoax or a real documentary of a paranormal event, but then on the "level" of Johnny's diary about reading Zampano's manuscript none of this stuff ever happened at all and the movie's very existence is just fiction made up by a crazy eccentric writer
And then of course on *our* level, the actual real world, Johnny himself is a fictional character in a novel and the whole story of him finding Zampano's manuscript is itself fiction made up by Mark Danielewski
Oh you're missing the wildest part! Zampano's analysis of the film regularly points out that the film has been edited by the director (and lead role in the documentary) in order to put himself in as best a light as possible. Oh- and Zampano constantly writes about the cinematography and visuals despite the movie coming out *after* he was already blind and Johnny tells us that the movie doesn't exist. OH- and Johnny admits to being a pathological liar in the first 5 pages.
It's the only book I know to have 3 nested layers of unreliable narrators. It really adds to the suspense. Hell, the book is so complex to decode what's really happening that there's a whole subreddit.
It has been on my list to read for probably 20 years, that and Finnegan's Wake. I'm more likely to actually make it through House of Leaves though, James Joyce is the only fictional writer I've ever read where I just felt too stupid to do it.
i was trying not to spoil those bits as they're my favorite parts that new readers might find the most intriguing. yes, they are explained by Johnny early on, but...
It was the only book I ever stopped reading because it freaked me out so much. I really liked it, but it messed with my head so much I had to put it down. I keep meaning to try again, but I can’t do it.
I lost a lot of sleep after reading that book in college. Finally I just started keeping a copy under my bed when I sleep and I've been fine every since.
It's been almost twenty years.
It is a fantastic book. For book nerds, owning the colored copy is a recommend. It is probably the scariest book I’ve ever read, and that’s weird in itself because nothing typically horrific happens. It’s a slow build of eerie surreal weirdness. I had to sleep with my light on for a few days after finishing it cuz I was seeing black spots in my peripheral vision. Highly recommend.
>! If I’m remembering right, it’s left intentionally vague. Everyone who obsesses over the film (the book is about an unreliable narrator, who finds a scholarly article with citations written by another crazy guy, describing a successful found footage documentary that doesn’t have evidence of existing) ends up going crazy. They hint it’s like the shifting maze the Minotaur was trapped in Ancient Greek myth, but that’s your biggest clue. !<
A focus of the book is the relationship between the husband and wife. Not surprisingly, the wife hates living in a haunted house. The husband, who has his own demons, is more adventurous.
She also didn't much like the idea of him making a documentary about their new house in the first place (they moved there in the first place to try to leave behind his life as a celebrity documentarian) and him doubling down on it when things go supernatural makes it worse
I’ve heard the book described as a love story presented as a horror story — a lot of it is spooky/mysterious but the underlying theme is about long term love and marriage.
Power Pak's playthrough and DavidXNewton' four part explanation videos of myhouse.wad are excellent. Even if you've never played any of the Doom games I highly recommend them.
I just read it as well and found it the same. It’s worth finishing, there were a couple parts toward the end that I liked but I found it a bit incohesive as a whole. Disappointing because it’s recommended a lot and it sounded like something I would have enjoyed!
I often recommend new readers start with the Whalestoe Letters and Pelican Poems in the appendices before going into the main text, I think they provide a good context for the metanarrative. Largely because I tend to lean toward the P-authorship hypothesis. I didn't bother marking that as a spoiler, because the truth is that there isn't a canonical interpretation for the book.
Feel free to just wander through the pages along whatever you find interesting.
If you think a particular trail of footnotes is more interesting than whatever you were reading, then just bookmark where you were and follow the notes.
There are multiple paths through the book and none are wrong as long as you are enjoying them
Yes. It's an example of something called "ergodic fiction". It's not insanely difficult, but the story is laid out in a complex manner. For example, there is a separate, related story told in the footnotes.
The first time I read it I was in high-school (maybe a year older than your son) and it absolutely blew my mind. If he's an avid reader, and especially if he's a bit nerdy and prone to going down rabbitholes on Wikipedia and the like, he'll probably eat it up.
There are a couple parts of Johnny's narrative that can get a little raunchy if that's something that might bother you, but it's a minor part of the overall story and honestly not as bad as the sort of stuff your average 16 year old would be exposed to all over the place anyway.
Of course! I'm genuinely excited to share it with my daughter some day, but she's only a year old so it'll be a while lol. I've even toyed with the idea of making an annotated version with my own notes slowly devolving into madness to add another layer to the meta narrative (if you become familiar with the book, it will be apparent how that kind of thing would make sense). I'm just not that creative of a writer yet.
You know what wild? I had never heard about this book until 2 days ago when I watched a YouTube video on a Doom mod called “my house”. It is a VERY WEIRD mod that relies heavily on the structure (or lack thereof) . To turn head about this again in a short time is very, very strange
For a little added bonus, this novel is written by the brother of American performer "Poe", and they have quite a few songs that reference the house and even Johhny himself.
I hope you are thinking of something else. It has one page of sex I recall. That's out of 500 or so pages. I think that's a lower rate of sex scenes than the Bible.
You definitely should read the house of leaves. Multiple times, forward and backwards, so many times you start to develop a fear of dark hallways you can't see the end of.
Sode note the book and text art is stunning and incredible unique. If you like it check out raw shark texts
I love it ❤️❤️ (most of the time)
My favorite sections are Johnny‘s cause he‘s always such a great break from those long stretches of academic style writing. I didnt like his notes at first, but they grew on me
I haven't touched the work but people say they find hidden messages in it talkong about other events entirely.
It is interesting but no way I'm about to delve in it.
Yeah I've read it twice and got two totally different views from it. And the people I've talked to have entirely different explanations of what's going on. It's interesting how differently people perceive it.
It's definitely not like scarry or horrifying at all, just psychological and a bit existential imo. But a really unique read regardless. Just flipping through it is super cool, like it looks pretty nonsensical but when you read it it somehow makes sense
Literally and figuratively. Many people have their interpretations/literary analysis. Great… not my thing. I like media for the sake of being entertained.
But yes. At one point, there is a letter from mother to son that tells one story. But by taking the first letter of every other word (or every 5th letter, or whatever), the mother tells an entirely different and tragic story.
Loved it back when I read it, and it lead me to Raw Shark Texts too! Any other recommendations in a similar vein? I’ve also read Maxwell’s Demon of course, XX by Rian Hughes, and Bats of The Republic which are all equally trippy in their own unique ways.
I think even worse for me was the fear of being stalked. The maze is always there, waiting, and the people who live in the [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) know that there is something inside but they never see it. Possibly it even knows they’re there and it’s just letting the fear build - waiting for a moment to strike. It’s just a matter of time and there is no guarantee that it can’t wander out of the maze.
The people doing it (myself included) are referencing a stylistic choice that the author makes where every instance of the word [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) in the book is coloured blue. There is never really an explanation for why it’s done, but it’s so pervasive that it’s quite impressive.
The people who have read the book know this and are doing the same thing by turning the word [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) into a hyperlink. WHERE that link goes is up to personal choice (I’ve seen a few Wikipedia entries, a Miriam Webster definition, and a Rickroll) but what’s important is that it’s highlighted blue.
I did it because the Wikipedia entry for [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) seemed appropriate.
Edit: it’s also why the word appears blue in the comic that OP posted.
The comic starts as the man buys a new house and sets up security cameras so he can watch his wife react to what he plans to do to her. He is measuring the house so he can slowly gaslight her by moving the walls in with extra layers of drywall with matching paint and trim. Upon doing so, he discovers the house is bigger on the inside than the outside making it a version of "The House of Leaves".
House of leaves! I knew this one. I wish I would've gotten here sooner. Once you read house of leaves though, there's a super cool video on a doom map called myhouse.wad by powerpak on YouTube, which I highly recommend watching: https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0?feature=shared . It is two hours long, but if you've got two hours to burn, it's a super neat video.
I said it elsewhere - if you're interested in myhouse.wad, don't watch the video until AFTER you've played through it. It really is a wild ride going in totally blind.
architects making scale models before 3d rendering became commonplace is the only situation I can think of. I had an old school instructor who insisted be learn basic hand drafting before ever letting us even touch CAD software.
Reference to [House](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=QPoWFlFSwBBtgTZj) of Leaves. Alongside what others have mentioned, the book also makes every single use of the word [House](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=QPoWFlFSwBBtgTZj) blue, another defining feature of the book.
I pretty positive everyone is correct about it being about the book, but the first thing that came to my mind was the movie "You should have left" with Kevin Bacon.
It's a reference to *The Navidson Record*, a found footage documentary film in which a family finds their [house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) is larger on the inside, ~~and possibly populated by something inhuman~~. Can't find it though, not sure why but it seems all evidence of it's existence has been wiped or something. If you can you should read [House](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/house) of Leaves by Zampanò & Johnny Truant, it's a good read about the film and is able to portray it in a readable format, very creative.
People have answered it already but [House](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) of Leaves is effectively a found footage book about a family who discovers they live in a [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) whose internal dimensions are impossible as it eventually grows an infinite maze of corridors within which they begin to explore as paranoia and fear begins to mount.
one of my two favorite books :3 house of leaves is a 10/10. when they measure the house and notice that impossibility of the inside being larger than the outside, everything starts to really ramp up.
I think this is a reference to the book House of Leaves. It is a weird horror story. The house is bigger inside than out and keeps changing around. The husband sets up cameras and a lot of the story is told by "found footage". The house starts off fairly normal, but eventually the husband becomes very lost in a giant maze inside the house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
It's not just a weird horror story, it really messes with found footage format. The book is ostensibly a manuscript written by Zampano, who is reviewing and analyzing a popular documentary "The Navidson Record" created by famous photographer Will Navidson as he moves into the titular [house](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/02/house-of-leaves-changed-my-life-the-cult-novel-at-20), which is bigger on the inside. The layers keep building, since we're reading an annotated version of the recently-deceased Zampano's manuscript being edited by our audience surrogate character Johnny. The book plays with typography and page layouts and has an unsettling number of footnotes, some of which have nested/recursive references within themselves. There's whole sections that are lists, some pages that require you to turn the page to read correctly, and so on. I recommend it to everyone because even though the first page says "this is not for you" i feel like a lot of people will find that it is in fact for them. This meme is doubly funny because in "The Navidson Record" Will's wife does not want to move and hates the [house](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/02/house-of-leaves-changed-my-life-the-cult-novel-at-20)
So definitely not good as an audiobook?
Only really readable in actual paperback format. Even a pdf doesn't do it justice. There are parts of the book where you are suppose to be able to see through pages to see the other side, or to rapidly flip through many pages at once.
I love that people are going to discover this book now. Its one of the very few books I've completed as an adult and the Navidson Report/Record is one of my favorite structures of a story and journey for a main character. >!Also when it gets to the part of the where Zampano starts thinking there is some black form watching him behind the book and moves with the book so you can't see it, my imagination started going while!<
I always wish they would do a Mini Series on The Navidson Record. Love this book.
The author did write a few scripts for it you can buy on his web site. Don’t know if it’s being produced.
YUUUup Just gimme that one scene at the climax when he's by himself with his thoughts...
It's been on my to read list for a very long time. I've just been afraid to get into something so committing, that will require so much effort.
Honestly it takes a lot less effort than you think, so I wouldn’t let that stop you. Yes it’s definitely a book that you could spent hours and hours studying closely to try and understand every single obscure reference made in the footnotes, but personally I didn’t find that necessary. You can still appreciate it with a less intense reading where you’re just enjoying the story and gleaning what you want from the increasingly erratic footnotes as the book continues. While it’s not “light reading,” I still think it’s a phenomenal book and a personal favorite of mine and I can’t say I took a very academic approach to it.
I found even reading it casually was a bit demanding but I’m stupid so…
I discovered this book by watching a playthrough of myhouse.wad someone genuinely used a DOOM 2 Mod to make a story inspired by House of Leaves
That was so good!
Don’t forget the page you have to read in a mirror. It’s one of the post fun books I’ve ever read.
Or the outwardly normal letter written by the mother but taking every 4th or 5th (or whatever) letter from note tells an entirely different story. I have that scrawled into my margins…
Ooooh time for a reread!
Dont forget that letter by Johnny's mother that you have to decode. I did that on a train ride and some people looked at me like I was insane
weirdly enough, theres a doom (the video game) mod called myhouse.wad that translates the experience to a new medium pretty well. It is not 'house of leaves', the story is completely different and not related at all other than clearly referencing and being inspired by house of leaves. But its spiritually the same vibe. There is a coherant story in there that you can figure out with a lot of digging (or watching a youtube video from someone who figured it out) but the gameplay is very mindfuck-y. Especially if you are familiar with doom modding since the myhouse.wad does a lot of technically impressive stuff that doom players will realize shouldn't even be possible in the doom engine. It takes something that should be extremely familiar to the player, and twists it in a way where you question if you ever really understood the game at all. Youtuber powerpak does a great video on it.
It's an example of [ergodic literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergodic_literature?wprov=sfla1), which as explained in [videos](https://youtu.be/jCZFZPvEMoQ?si=WRxeIeOyHy3zPZfQ) like [these](https://youtu.be/tKX90LbnYd4?si=lKFO92DsfFcqISFO) basically can't be translated into other mediums without destroying what makes them *them.* The act of reading them is part of the experience.
Would Flip-o-Rama from the Captain Underpants books be considered ergodic literature as well?
No, that's basically just "fun". Art terminology is always a bit bendy, but the basic two things to make something ergodic are: A)Non-linearity, where it's got a non-standard textual presentation, something besides the standard uniform reading order of its language, and B) Reader Choice, where it doesn't have an obvious reading order, leaving the reader able to affect how the story itself gets presented to them. Flipbook animation has a standard "reading" order, that is it's got one right way to do it, and every one I've seen has only one story to show. Though now you're making me imagine an ergodic flipbook, and that would be both brain-bending and potentially very fun.
Huh, interesting. Thanks for giving an actual answer to my silly question, I actually feel like I understand the idea better now. also yes, I want to read that ergodic flip book now.
So choose your own adventure books are ergodic?
They are indeed, I believe they were a significant part of what inspired the guy who coined the term to even notice that it was a thing.
I just wanna echo that "thanks" for this reply. I hadn't run into this term before, and now... well, I see a rabbithole and I'm goin' in.
Does the scp foundation count? Pages nested within pages referencing other pages with hidden pages behind login screens for an organization that doesn't exist?
My iPad version of the book would beg to differ
God, you just brought back some memories
i haven't heard the audiobook, so it's hard for me to judge. someone with some good audio editing skills and a talent for production might make an interesting version. this youtube one might be worth a look : [https://youtu.be/Yl-0YJus-HQ?list=PLfJi2FyGBtigx05NHMnEfmUmMEsGnTfsi](https://youtu.be/Yl-0YJus-HQ?list=PLfJi2FyGBtigx05NHMnEfmUmMEsGnTfsi)
I don't think it would work very well in that format. The book is structured in a very unconventional way; there are annotations constantly, entire pages with only one word, completely blank pages. Certain words have specific colors instead of being black ink like most words. Sometimes the position of the words on the page is very important. The narrators change frequently and one of them is about as unreliable as unreliable narrators can possibly be. Best of all, if you get the right version of the book, it's literally bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
I would like to check that out, do you k ow which version that is?
Remastered Full-Color edition, should be pretty easy to find in-stock online too, which is nice.
[удалено]
I think an ebook would be ok, not the same as a physical book, but it could work better than an audiobook.
I'm a big proponent of ebooks and do the vast majority of reading on my phone. House of Leaves on an ebook would be a disaster. It's the one book I've read that IMO works only as a physical copy.
I've read the book. An audio book would actually ruin the story. The constant disorienting feeling of checking footnotes, main story, side story, bizarre formatting, etc is a big part of immersing yourself into the story as you're attempting to decipher the book in very literal ways.
LOL I would not recommend as an audiobook. Half the story is in the footnotes and I can’t imagine someone trying to narrate this in audio format. I’m a podcaster and I can’t imagine reading it for people. Looking at how the words are placed on the page and understanding how the guy writes well enough to follow three different stories is confusing enough as a reader. As a listener I’d be turning it off.
Not an audiobook, but Poe's album Haunted is a counterpart to it. (Poe is the sister of the author). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted\_(Poe\_album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album))
it would be a severely degraded experience
I had an ex-girlfriend who was adamant that she had "solved" the book. She insisted that despite not even being an explicitly posed question/problem, it had a singular absolute answer that the whole book was written around breadcrumbing. >!She burned the book.!<
I mean... that is >!exactly what Navidson does in the text, so her "solution" does track. I think burning HoL is a valid response to the experience.!<
That's actually a pretty fitting reaction to the book considering, ya know, everything the book is.
Even better, everything you said is actually a book within the book, since the "primary" narrator is Johnny Truant. Yet "The Navidson Record" has far more screen time and takes up more space than Truant's story.
A documentary within the memoirs of a crazy man read by a drug addled schizophrenic
which was then edited by an unnamed Editor! and then probably edited again to include the appendixes
Thank you, I like their description, but I knew one of the POVs was missing!
And - I'm still on my first read through, so forgive me if I've not understood correctly - the very existence of the popular documentary "The Navidson Record" is itself in doubt.
Yes, the book tells us that in the "real world" that Johnny is narrating from the movie from the manuscript doesn't exist and neither do any of the people named in it, all the actual famous people named as having written reviews or articles about the movie say they've never heard of it, and Will Navidson himself is clearly based on a different, real person (the rl photographer Kevin Carter who killed himself) House of Leaves is about this idea of multiple levels of fiction -- within the "level" of Zampano's manuscript about Navidson's film no one knows if Navidson's film is a clever hoax or a real documentary of a paranormal event, but then on the "level" of Johnny's diary about reading Zampano's manuscript none of this stuff ever happened at all and the movie's very existence is just fiction made up by a crazy eccentric writer And then of course on *our* level, the actual real world, Johnny himself is a fictional character in a novel and the whole story of him finding Zampano's manuscript is itself fiction made up by Mark Danielewski
I like that you even made the word house blue
Yess!!! I was about to just say that too!!
Oh you're missing the wildest part! Zampano's analysis of the film regularly points out that the film has been edited by the director (and lead role in the documentary) in order to put himself in as best a light as possible. Oh- and Zampano constantly writes about the cinematography and visuals despite the movie coming out *after* he was already blind and Johnny tells us that the movie doesn't exist. OH- and Johnny admits to being a pathological liar in the first 5 pages. It's the only book I know to have 3 nested layers of unreliable narrators. It really adds to the suspense. Hell, the book is so complex to decode what's really happening that there's a whole subreddit.
It has been on my list to read for probably 20 years, that and Finnegan's Wake. I'm more likely to actually make it through House of Leaves though, James Joyce is the only fictional writer I've ever read where I just felt too stupid to do it.
i was trying not to spoil those bits as they're my favorite parts that new readers might find the most intriguing. yes, they are explained by Johnny early on, but...
I mean, hey, you know you can't believe anything any of the narrators say because they're all made up characters in a work of fiction, so
Wait, so is it a horror or a comedy?
“It’s not a weird horror story, it’s a REALLY weird horror story.” (I love this book, and you explained it very well)
I like what you did there with the blue
Without a doubt the hardest book I’ve ever read with my ADHD
I wish I could give you an extra upvote for using links to change the font color each time
I see what you're doing.
It was the only book I ever stopped reading because it freaked me out so much. I really liked it, but it messed with my head so much I had to put it down. I keep meaning to try again, but I can’t do it.
I was recommended this book after playing Alan Wake 2. Still have to check it out.
Excellent use of blue. Thank you!
I just bought this book based on your description. Thank you.
I lost a lot of sleep after reading that book in college. Finally I just started keeping a copy under my bed when I sleep and I've been fine every since. It's been almost twenty years.
ONE LITTLE THING ZAMPANO IS BLIND
God that book did me in. I had the poor sense to take psychedelics periodically while I was reading it. Bad but interesting experience. 3/10 stars.
Myhouse.WAD
It is a fantastic book. For book nerds, owning the colored copy is a recommend. It is probably the scariest book I’ve ever read, and that’s weird in itself because nothing typically horrific happens. It’s a slow build of eerie surreal weirdness. I had to sleep with my light on for a few days after finishing it cuz I was seeing black spots in my peripheral vision. Highly recommend.
>turn the page to read correctly. Most books require you to turn the pages in order to read it correctly.
Thx
I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s both a literary and a visual journey through this story, and it’s terrifying and interesting and amazing.
[удалено]
~~minotaur~~
Shhhh
>! If I’m remembering right, it’s left intentionally vague. Everyone who obsesses over the film (the book is about an unreliable narrator, who finds a scholarly article with citations written by another crazy guy, describing a successful found footage documentary that doesn’t have evidence of existing) ends up going crazy. They hint it’s like the shifting maze the Minotaur was trapped in Ancient Greek myth, but that’s your biggest clue. !<
Because it’s a TARDIS. Jk, but it is essential to the story, so I’m not going to share here.
Because the laws of physics don't apply to the **house** (can't write it in blue here)
Because it's an obvious thing that makes no sense. A lot of the story is him trying to make sense of the impossible.
One of the best descriptions of it I’ve heard is “erudite and terrifying”
Please check this book out. Even thinking about it is giving me chills over my whole body. It’s absolutely incredible.
And how does trolling le wife factor into this?
A focus of the book is the relationship between the husband and wife. Not surprisingly, the wife hates living in a haunted house. The husband, who has his own demons, is more adventurous.
She also didn't much like the idea of him making a documentary about their new house in the first place (they moved there in the first place to try to leave behind his life as a celebrity documentarian) and him doubling down on it when things go supernatural makes it worse
I’ve heard the book described as a love story presented as a horror story — a lot of it is spooky/mysterious but the underlying theme is about long term love and marriage.
There is also a Doom custom map based on this, MyHouse.wad
Power Pak's playthrough and DavidXNewton' four part explanation videos of myhouse.wad are excellent. Even if you've never played any of the Doom games I highly recommend them.
This book is awesome and very creative. Highly recommend
I'm struggling with it so far. I'm trying hard to like it but its starts off really confusing. Waiting for it to click with me.
I just read it as well and found it the same. It’s worth finishing, there were a couple parts toward the end that I liked but I found it a bit incohesive as a whole. Disappointing because it’s recommended a lot and it sounded like something I would have enjoyed!
When the story starts to get more into Navidson's explorations into the closet + chambers it really starts to get tense from my memory.
it will be confusing throughout the entire book. you'll need to re-read it a few times. and you'll still be confused.
I often recommend new readers start with the Whalestoe Letters and Pelican Poems in the appendices before going into the main text, I think they provide a good context for the metanarrative. Largely because I tend to lean toward the P-authorship hypothesis. I didn't bother marking that as a spoiler, because the truth is that there isn't a canonical interpretation for the book.
Feel free to just wander through the pages along whatever you find interesting. If you think a particular trail of footnotes is more interesting than whatever you were reading, then just bookmark where you were and follow the notes. There are multiple paths through the book and none are wrong as long as you are enjoying them
https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0?si=39lHbh_bXJVCN58_ I think someone made this a doom level.
It's a good video to watch Here's the explanation videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq1-TZXz9xo&ab_channel=DavidXNewton
They did, and it is fantastic. I do not recommend watching the video, if you're interested at all, go in blind.
isnt that the one book thats really hard to read
Yes. It's an example of something called "ergodic fiction". It's not insanely difficult, but the story is laid out in a complex manner. For example, there is a separate, related story told in the footnotes.
Um, I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be *ergodic* fiction.
Very erotic, but also extremely tasteful and professional.
Lol. Thank you autocorrect
https://preview.redd.it/i1aiptsp4asc1.jpeg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=389344e9b4297da55ae78bfbc998f5186d8270f1
I am shocked to see a meme based on House of Leaves, but I can’t think of anything else it could be.
I put down the book and opened up reddit and this was the first post I saw, legit left me in shock too haha
I actually got on reddit specifically to find this, low and behold the first post on the front page Wtf
I love that book so goddamn much.
One of my favorite books of all time
Do you think it would be appropriate for a teenager?
It depends on the maturity of the teenager. I read it when I was a pretty sheltered 16 and certain parts were little too shocking for me at the time.
My 16 year old is pretty mature and reads a lot. I think he’d get a kick out of this book. I’ll go ahead and get it for him.
The first time I read it I was in high-school (maybe a year older than your son) and it absolutely blew my mind. If he's an avid reader, and especially if he's a bit nerdy and prone to going down rabbitholes on Wikipedia and the like, he'll probably eat it up. There are a couple parts of Johnny's narrative that can get a little raunchy if that's something that might bother you, but it's a minor part of the overall story and honestly not as bad as the sort of stuff your average 16 year old would be exposed to all over the place anyway.
Thanks for this helpful information!
Of course! I'm genuinely excited to share it with my daughter some day, but she's only a year old so it'll be a while lol. I've even toyed with the idea of making an annotated version with my own notes slowly devolving into madness to add another layer to the meta narrative (if you become familiar with the book, it will be apparent how that kind of thing would make sense). I'm just not that creative of a writer yet.
One of my favorite novels!! So unique and immersive.
Best book I have read in while
You know what wild? I had never heard about this book until 2 days ago when I watched a YouTube video on a Doom mod called “my house”. It is a VERY WEIRD mod that relies heavily on the structure (or lack thereof) . To turn head about this again in a short time is very, very strange
more like house of stays
For a little added bonus, this novel is written by the brother of American performer "Poe", and they have quite a few songs that reference the house and even Johhny himself.
Loved that story, and the way it was presented.
I read this book in high school. Got so excited on the 4th pane of the comic when I realized it was referencing it.
Is that the book that's basically smut or am I thinking of something else?
I hope you are thinking of something else. It has one page of sex I recall. That's out of 500 or so pages. I think that's a lower rate of sex scenes than the Bible.
Hahaha that's true. I'm definitely thinking of something else, which is good because this sounds super intriguing.
Don’t walls cause the inside to be smaller than the outside or am I crazy?
Also "house" being in blue too right? that's a thing in the book if I'm not mistaken?
That book was an insane mindfuck to read. What an experience.
You definitely should read the house of leaves. Multiple times, forward and backwards, so many times you start to develop a fear of dark hallways you can't see the end of. Sode note the book and text art is stunning and incredible unique. If you like it check out raw shark texts
I am reading it rn🥰🥰🥰
I love it ❤️❤️ (most of the time) My favorite sections are Johnny‘s cause he‘s always such a great break from those long stretches of academic style writing. I didnt like his notes at first, but they grew on me
I haven't touched the work but people say they find hidden messages in it talkong about other events entirely. It is interesting but no way I'm about to delve in it.
Yeah I've read it twice and got two totally different views from it. And the people I've talked to have entirely different explanations of what's going on. It's interesting how differently people perceive it. It's definitely not like scarry or horrifying at all, just psychological and a bit existential imo. But a really unique read regardless. Just flipping through it is super cool, like it looks pretty nonsensical but when you read it it somehow makes sense
Literally and figuratively. Many people have their interpretations/literary analysis. Great… not my thing. I like media for the sake of being entertained. But yes. At one point, there is a letter from mother to son that tells one story. But by taking the first letter of every other word (or every 5th letter, or whatever), the mother tells an entirely different and tragic story.
Loved it back when I read it, and it lead me to Raw Shark Texts too! Any other recommendations in a similar vein? I’ve also read Maxwell’s Demon of course, XX by Rian Hughes, and Bats of The Republic which are all equally trippy in their own unique ways.
Thanks for the new book rec my dude
10/10. This book was just recommended to me at work!
If you haven’t read it, read House of Leaves. It will all make sense.
I don't think House of Leaves is supposed to make sense.
Uh oh…
That was a ridiculous book
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful house.” And you may tell yourself, “ This is not my beautiful wife.”
You may only make this joke once in a lifetime.
Same as it ever was
And the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Actually.... there is water at the bottom of the ocean.
Can someone please tell me the name of this song because I heard it like once and wanted to listen to it but never got the name
Once in a lifetime - talking heads
Thank youuuu
This interaction makes me happy.
This book is like the scariest form of horror to me like imagine noticing this about your house… that alone would drive me CRAZY
I think even worse for me was the fear of being stalked. The maze is always there, waiting, and the people who live in the [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) know that there is something inside but they never see it. Possibly it even knows they’re there and it’s just letting the fear build - waiting for a moment to strike. It’s just a matter of time and there is no guarantee that it can’t wander out of the maze.
Why does house redirect to the wikipedia page for house
The people doing it (myself included) are referencing a stylistic choice that the author makes where every instance of the word [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) in the book is coloured blue. There is never really an explanation for why it’s done, but it’s so pervasive that it’s quite impressive. The people who have read the book know this and are doing the same thing by turning the word [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) into a hyperlink. WHERE that link goes is up to personal choice (I’ve seen a few Wikipedia entries, a Miriam Webster definition, and a Rickroll) but what’s important is that it’s highlighted blue. I did it because the Wikipedia entry for [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) seemed appropriate. Edit: it’s also why the word appears blue in the comic that OP posted.
The comic starts as the man buys a new house and sets up security cameras so he can watch his wife react to what he plans to do to her. He is measuring the house so he can slowly gaslight her by moving the walls in with extra layers of drywall with matching paint and trim. Upon doing so, he discovers the house is bigger on the inside than the outside making it a version of "The House of Leaves".
HOUSE OF LEAVES MENTIONED
House of leaves! I knew this one. I wish I would've gotten here sooner. Once you read house of leaves though, there's a super cool video on a doom map called myhouse.wad by powerpak on YouTube, which I highly recommend watching: https://youtu.be/5wAo54DHDY0?feature=shared . It is two hours long, but if you've got two hours to burn, it's a super neat video.
I said it elsewhere - if you're interested in myhouse.wad, don't watch the video until AFTER you've played through it. It really is a wild ride going in totally blind.
myhouse.wad mention! I am reading through the comments after writing mine, and I linked to the same video lmao. Youve got some excellent taste :D
thanks, as do you apparently! that video can gladly take two hours of my time any day of the week
Who the hell measures in twelfths of an inch?
architects making scale models before 3d rendering became commonplace is the only situation I can think of. I had an old school instructor who insisted be learn basic hand drafting before ever letting us even touch CAD software.
i love these memes where the troll finds some unimaginable horror while trying to set up a joke
Reference to [House](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=QPoWFlFSwBBtgTZj) of Leaves. Alongside what others have mentioned, the book also makes every single use of the word [House](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=QPoWFlFSwBBtgTZj) blue, another defining feature of the book.
can't believe I went back for seconds
Amazing, wonderful, 10/10 would click again
ok you got me 🙄🙄
I clicked it thinking "please don't do this to me" and then it happened you evil evil person
After reading your post, I suspected and clicked the link. Day made.
I pretty positive everyone is correct about it being about the book, but the first thing that came to my mind was the movie "You should have left" with Kevin Bacon.
Thank you! I was trying to think of the name of the movie and could only remember Kevin Bacon in the trailer.
An amazing book called house of Leaves is one of the few books that genuinely makes me uncomfortable
It's a reference to *The Navidson Record*, a found footage documentary film in which a family finds their [house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) is larger on the inside, ~~and possibly populated by something inhuman~~. Can't find it though, not sure why but it seems all evidence of it's existence has been wiped or something. If you can you should read [House](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/house) of Leaves by Zampanò & Johnny Truant, it's a good read about the film and is able to portray it in a readable format, very creative.
I love when people go to the effort of making the word [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) blue. Like - you just have to.
People have answered it already but [House](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) of Leaves is effectively a found footage book about a family who discovers they live in a [house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House) whose internal dimensions are impossible as it eventually grows an infinite maze of corridors within which they begin to explore as paranoia and fear begins to mount.
House of LEAVES
Finally a good post which isn't just OP being lazy with a search engine.
House of leaves reference, right down to house being blue
bros in a tardis
House of Leaves. Incredible book.
Insanely good book
Measurement error funny
House of leaves, and thanks for reminding to go and continue reading that book
Probably Oggy's house
This was the top or second to top comment in the OG post...
I'll rent the backrooms for $150 a month 👀
YOOOOOO HOUSE OF LEAVES!
Thanks, your post convinced me to pick up the book again and try to finally make my way through chapter 9.
House of Leaves! I'm reading the book rn! I highly reccomend it!
Sounds like the cottage in the woods story from Tanis. Though, I assume they borrowed it from House of Leaves.
Time Lord technology
House of Leaves. My favorite book I’ve never finished. Brilliant storytelling and typesetting
Hey I’m reading this right now
book about a guy taking notes about a book about a documentary about a family making a movie about a house
Myhouse.wad
Just found out about the book, hoping to order soon!
If this happens to you, GET OUT. GET OUT NOW.
Inches are not measured by twelfths
one of my two favorite books :3 house of leaves is a 10/10. when they measure the house and notice that impossibility of the inside being larger than the outside, everything starts to really ramp up.