R.Fitzgerald
Burned Man.
My copy recently got stolen, my second copy to get stolen, at least it'sspreading the word... anyways... what is everyone's thoughts on this book? Author was... Danielewski? Anyway, anyone read it?
-Ray
-Ray
House of Leaves
- Thread starter R.Fitzgerald
- Start date
eleventhvolume
Active member
Read it a couple (three?) years ago. Loved it, though the plot could have been a tad more complex for my liking. I don't think he's done anything new since, has he? After reading it, I wondered whether there were other books that explored the fictive/textural/typographical thing like that, but haven't encountered any yet. There's the early 20th cent. French (?) art exploration of text and form which, as I'm sure you can see from my feeble attempts to describe, I'm 99% ignorant of, but other than that I'd be very interested to learn of similar endeavours. ATB, C.
R.Fitzgerald
Burned Man.
Forrr sure, myself also, I have always been curious about other similiar texts, anyone know anything about the early 20th cent. French art exploration of text and form?
-Ray
-Ray
iirc some of the Beats explored typography in a similar way, mostly in poetry and not prose, though.eleventhvolume said:
...also didn't the (french) Dadaists experiment with this?
...some of the early poems i've read by the Russian Futurist poet Mayakovsky (sp?) experiment with letters in a Konstruktivist style.
eleventhvolume said:
I imagine Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" should fit the bill pretty nicely then. Typographical experiments and ingenious mucking about with language and design from the 18th century. He leaves blank pages for the reader to fill in character descriptions, represents certain text and actions with symbols among much else...also helps that the book is laugh out loud funny and immensely quotable.
jenks
thread death
just seen bit of the winter olympic opening ceremony (as prog as ever) whic took great delight in the whole turin/futurism thing - ended with a ferrari doughnutting on ice!!
as to house of leaves - i gave up after 40 pages, thought it poorly written and i never give up - don't tell me i'm going to have to dig it out again.
oulipo - loads of tricks with texts
as to house of leaves - i gave up after 40 pages, thought it poorly written and i never give up - don't tell me i'm going to have to dig it out again.
oulipo - loads of tricks with texts
jenks
thread death
arcaNa said:
this sounds like so many recent projects
quin something about ten years
faber's crimson petal and white
sarah waters' stuff
the dark clue - very good novel about turner using the idea of a late victorian exploring early victorian world
can't think of anything beginning with h though
vernoncrane
garrett dweller
"espantapajaros" by Oliviero Girondo has a fair bit of messing about formally...
http://www.library.nd.edu/rarebooks...ic/southern_cone/girondo/espantapajaros.shtml
and is available in a slightly less pricey edition from Amazon....
Danielewski has done more stuff.. a new novel, provisionally entitled "That" is due out soon and he published a poetry and mixed media piece in colaboration with a dutch photographer (i think) "T50YS" a while ago... any more info on his avtivities can be found at...
http://www.houseofleaves.com/forums/
http://www.library.nd.edu/rarebooks...ic/southern_cone/girondo/espantapajaros.shtml
and is available in a slightly less pricey edition from Amazon....
Danielewski has done more stuff.. a new novel, provisionally entitled "That" is due out soon and he published a poetry and mixed media piece in colaboration with a dutch photographer (i think) "T50YS" a while ago... any more info on his avtivities can be found at...
http://www.houseofleaves.com/forums/
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Looking for a thread on this, I was surprised it got so few responses first time round, since it seems to be something of an out-of-control cult on the internet (the number of threads on the messageboard devoted to it is pretty staggering).
I'm most of the way through it, and I'm still not sure what I think. The plot is a little simplistic, as someone said, although with everything else that's going on maybe this is somewhat of a blessing. The typological stuff is definitely unsettling, adding to a very real bleakness that seeps off the pages, which might be its greatest strength and weakness. At one level i think it's clever and admirable, and at another I'm not sure I want to read through to the end - madness has rarely been so well evoked.
I'm surprised that the similarities to Bret Easton Ellis's Lunar Park (released later) haven't been mentioned by more people.
I'm most of the way through it, and I'm still not sure what I think. The plot is a little simplistic, as someone said, although with everything else that's going on maybe this is somewhat of a blessing. The typological stuff is definitely unsettling, adding to a very real bleakness that seeps off the pages, which might be its greatest strength and weakness. At one level i think it's clever and admirable, and at another I'm not sure I want to read through to the end - madness has rarely been so well evoked.
I'm surprised that the similarities to Bret Easton Ellis's Lunar Park (released later) haven't been mentioned by more people.
D
droid
Guest
I know I shouldn't even think this, but Id love to see a film version.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Yeah, I was searching to see if there'd been mention of plans for that. None that I found.
I know motivations are often very obscure, but given that he took ten years to write the book, I'd be interested to know if the way that the author came at the book was in creating something avant-garde and seeing where that took the story, or in trying to represent particular emotions/experiences through multiple narratives/typographical tricks etc.
I know motivations are often very obscure, but given that he took ten years to write the book, I'd be interested to know if the way that the author came at the book was in creating something avant-garde and seeing where that took the story, or in trying to represent particular emotions/experiences through multiple narratives/typographical tricks etc.
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
I imagine the basic plot/idea was followed by the realisation that the content could be explored/expressed typographically too. As a writer first and foremost, he wouldn't have been thinking in terms of the visual for some time...I'm guessing...
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
That's what I'd hoped, especially with the follow-on novel/epilogue to the original novel involving the sequence of letters from Johnny's mother in the asylum*. But i found that his father is an avant-garde film-maker, so perhaps playing with form is hardwired into him?
* which are disturbing, to say the very least
* which are disturbing, to say the very least
you
Well-known member
started reading this, slowly beginning to get under my skin and I find myself lurking the MZD Forum a bit..... The last book to make me philosophically double take in the most horrific and eerie manner was tariq Goddard's A picture of contented new wealth.
The part about the lost 1/4 inch really freaked me out, turned the lights out and felt afraid of whatever I didnt know was out there......
The part about the lost 1/4 inch really freaked me out, turned the lights out and felt afraid of whatever I didnt know was out there......