GigPosters Book-Nerders discussion
DEC. Book O' teh Month: "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski
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Im not promising i can get in on this one. Still not through Suite Francaise, but ill try and join in on the fun.
Likewise. I'm totally excited to read it, but it may take more than a month. Not the 24 hours that it took Jay Ryan.
Alright y'all.I'm sure some of you are further along than I am, I'm only on about page 100 or so. But I'm going to post a bit about what I've read so far. And yes, the "letters section" IS heartbreaking, but also a very distinct kind of creeeeepy.
I'm totally into what's going on here, but I can't help but get kind of frustrated every once-in-a-while about the fact that these totally bizarre things are happening in this house, and no one is freaking out about it like someone WOULD when a mysterious hallway or whatever shows up out of nowhere. I mean sure he calls up his brother, he calls up the dude in the wheelchair, and then the team of explorers or whatever, but nobody is saying,"HEY WTF?!!?"
Anyway, I'm still utterly fascinated by the physical characteristics of the book. I can't wait to get to some of the totally F'd up pages (besides the "letters").
Oh, and I was telling my brother-in-law about this book, and he was immediately convinced to go out and buy it himself and he's since joined the book-club. So everyone, let's welcome NOAH to the group.
Hey, I'm Noah. Denny told me about this book last night, so I'm jumping in literally a day late, thankfully not a dollar short. I should be cleaning my apartment, but instead I will be finding/purchasing this . I'm glad I can procrastinate through literature now.
Ok fellas, i picked this up (what the fuck, its huge). Planning on jumping in this weekend. I havent read anything about it, or read any of the comments here, but just flipping through it, it reminds me of The Raw Shark Texts, a book that i would recommend to one and all.
Yes Dustiey. Do it.Heck, many of the pages (as you may know by now) have literally one word on them.
I'm on like... page 400-something. It's slowed down quite a bit, but like Suité Francaise, it seems like a natural part of the ebb and flow of the story or whatever. There was the hugely intriguing parts concerning the various explorations, and now is the analysis. But there are constant hints as to what is ahead. It's obvious that something horrible happens, and maybe I'm too dumb to realize what it is in particular, but I like not REALLY knowing what it is yet.
----- Response to Mike's thoughts that could be interpreted as spoilish -----
I have a hard time thinking of Johnny and Zamporó as the same guy. Even metaphorically. I mean, that's kind of "too easy," you know? BUT, I was inclined to wonder about Johnny's mom and Zampanó. Something there? Maybe. Maybe not. I dunno.
I got kind of bored reading the lengthy-ish section that kind of revolved around Karen. I'm sure there's something there that's interesting, perhaps under the surface or whatever, but she just seems kind of shallow and/or non-interesting in most ways.
Dang it. I wrote up this really long post with a whole bunch of topics I was curious about, but it didn't post for some reason or another, and now I don't remember most of it.
OH, what is with this alleged "First Edition" that circulated around via the internet? Is that remotely true, or is that part of the folklore created by Daneilewski? I almost prefer that it's NOT true. I'm still totally into this book. It's requiring a bit more patience at this point, but only because now we're dealing with things only slightly less dramatic than a staircase that magically expands to depths greater than the diameter of the earth.
AH, THAT'S what I was going to write.
I have to confess to being somewhat confused by the matter-of-fact blandness with which Zamporó addresses the details of the house's shrinking and growing, not to mention the appearance of NEW CLOSETS etc. It seems like everyone in the story is all,"Huh. That's odd, but NO BIG DEAL."
I think I'd be at least a little bit more freaked out than that. But again, I suppose that's just part of the deal.
OH, AND, I let myself read a bit of the wikipedia entry for this book (I was sort of afraid to at first, thinking it may color the way I read it now, but it didn't really), and there is mention of how it has been interpreted as a "satire of academic criticism." That is really coming to light, as we're in more of an analysis-phase post-exploration. I can't even see a footnote now in any other context without freaking out a bit.One more thing... I'd be interested to check out the companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters (ISBN 0-375-71441-3). This obviously deals with Johnny's mom. I say obviously like there is much that's obvious about this story. SPEAKING OF WHICH, Jay Ryan *really did* read this in 24 hours, which is frightening in it's own way, but I need to ask him "how" he read it. He mentioned NOT having read the letters from Johnny's mom yet. That's a pretty big chunk of pages. ???
Anyway... post some thoughts BOOK-NERDERS.
I'm halfway through my Dave Eggers book which is the first book I've read in well over a year. By brain feels cobwebby.I'd like to get in on the next read.
Having been inspired by Jay Ryan's post over at GP, I chose thusly:
"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski
Only one of us has already that I know of, so I thought this might be a fun one. And if you don't like it you can jump in the proverbial lake.
Hugs,
Denny