KATG Book Club: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

[arcatacat]

wtf is a nutty bat?

[36D]

Originally Posted by jessnyc

ah fuck! how did i just see this now?! how many pages do i have to read in two days?!


/me runs to b&n

70 pages in two days...you can do it! or you can catch up by next time

Originally Posted by arcatacat

wtf is a nutty bat?

Apparently it's similar to an "old bat". Whatevs. Stu likes pink.


and by that I mean pussy, stu! I swear!

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by 36D

70 pages in two days...you can do it! or you can catch up by next time



Apparently it's similar to an "old bat". Whatevs. Stu likes pink.


and by that I mean pussy, stu! I swear!

Not including the appendix.

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by rajjy

Lol

My fave post.

The second page before last of chapter 5 you are referred to the appendix of his mother's letters, which is like another ~100 pages, but reads pretty fast.

[36D]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

The second page before last of chapter 5 you are referred to the appendix of his mother's letters, which is like another ~100 pages, but reads pretty fast.

Yeah, I just got to that

[36D]

You can read an excerpt of the book here, on Random House's nifty widget:

http://www.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin/buy_landing.php?isbn=9780375420528

[36D]

Originally Posted by rajjy

Stop it Dee! You're killing me!!

My 3rd fave post.

Edit: I'm so disappointed that wasn't meatspin.

I'm glad I amuse you...




And dude. I would never meatspin something that is book-related. Do you know me at all??

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by rajjy

Lol

My 2nd fave post.

Are you high, sir?

[DWarrior]

Since it's not Friday yet, I'll post discussion in white.

What condition did his mother have, seems like a potpourri of mental problems. What triggered it? Who pays for the institutionalization. How do you ever get let out after strangling your kid?

Do the footnotes Zampano makes that are just basic citing have any meaning? Like when he just cites someone's essay. Also, does the long list of photographers on pages 64-66 have any meaning?

There is speculation that Zampano has never seen the film, but did he make up sources and quotes (forgot if that was mentioned)?

John's supposedly well-read according to his mother's letters, and he sometimes has very eloquent/high moments. Why does he use "would of" all the time?

[36D]

I'll discuss But not in white.

Originally Posted by DWarrior

What condition did his mother have, seems like a potpourri of mental problems. What triggered it? Who pays for the institutionalization. How do you ever get let out after strangling your kid?

I was thinking schizophrenia while reading her letters. I'll steal a bit from wiki on this one (sorry wiki-haters!):

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

It appears to be caused from a mixture of genetics, neurobiology, and early environment. I imagine it would be paid for by the state..but I dont' know much about that. And she didn't get let out after strangling her kid...although I wasn't clear if that's why she was put into the institution in the first place or not.

Originally Posted by DWarrior

John's supposedly well-read according to his mother's letters, and he sometimes has very eloquent/high moments. Why does he use "would of" all the time?

Excellent question, although we are obviously not able to trust what his mother says. But I think one of my favorite things about this book is how Danielewski is so wonderful at all the different and varied voices of the characters. Zampano's writing is his research and is formal and educated. Truant's writing is raw - it's uncensored from his thoughts and feelings. And Truant's mother is jumbled and less than sane. Yet he jumps fluidly from one voice to the next without faltering.