(Full) House of Leaves

Present... Geof, Mike, Vin, James Regrets... Dave What a glorious sight; four hulking copies of House of Leaves, three caffinated beverages, two pirate shirts and... (you know the rest, sing along). Vin presented his fully fleshed theory on the central truth behind the characters in the book. No surprises, but his evidence was very well supported and will make a nice way to try and get a little extra mileage out of some of the (not so) minor characters. In deference to James, I will not mention some of the other things that were discussed. To hell with it. James, spoiler alert... Vin contends that everything comes down to the relationsip between Truant and his mother.. The realities of all the other characters are called into question in this vision. They can all be generalized into a formula where one person represents Truant (or an aspect of) and another, Pelafina. It all works rather smartly . Especially when looking at the Minotaur as Pelafina and Truant as Theseus.. We have not yet heard what his exact analysis of this relatioship is, but when we do, I' m sure that Freud would be proud. An excellent analysis of the story, but doesnt touch on what I see as the main idea within the book (which I am sure it could by the way). Geof points to the descriptions of the house showing it to be a labyrinth, through which twists and turns there is no escape. Analysis is futile because the truth is deliberatly and indelibly smeared beyond recognition. I guess that is almost right. To be fair, Geof is only a short way into the book after a multi-year sabatical with no nourishing discussion. Go Geof! Simplicity. The big joke of House of Leaves. The House, whatever it may be or represent, cannot be navigated on its own convoluted terms. Only by rejecting the complex and obfuscating can you escape, which is exactly what both Navy and Karen manage to do in the end. It also explains the non-effect on the cat and dog from earlier. One of the big questions for me is what about Tom and Lude? How do they fit into any of these ideas? What is their role in the house in the grandest sense? Twins literally and figuratively to Nav and Truant. So what? anyway... Now the bad news. I am almost certainly out for the QT duration until at least July. Having a Tuesday committment between Monday and Wednesday evening rehersals can no longer work for me and I have no plans to reschedule the day. I will try and make most of Saturday gaming, however, so I don't quite plan to dissappear entirely...yet We should really have a chat about Mother's Day plans.

Comments

rainswept said…
"The House, whatever it may be or represent, cannot be navigated on its own convoluted terms. Only by rejecting the complex and obfuscating can you escape..."

?ah, so much easier to say than to achieve... how to obtain the rejection

.
.
as you pointed out on Tuesday, the idea dovetails with my own attempt to put my questions down for awhile

the House must have been gnawing at me as it travelled from hand to hand

the House is so rich in what that one despairs of why
rainswept said…
a note

(ix) "This is not for you."
:::
(350) "...a letter...that's meaningful to you. Maybe only to you."
:::

(517) all, culminating in the last line
rainswept said…
oh, here is the 'skinny' on the various editions of the book, courtesy the internet archive

http://web.archive.org/web/20000830071436/http://www.helicon.net/paracelsus/houseofleaves/
rainswept said…
http://www.bbcanada.com/8218.html

!Yikes
rainswept said…
Instances of the word 'leaves'... still nothing in Zampano, but a total of three (thus far) in Truant

line 5 of footnote 318 on page 350 (let's create a notation strategy = pagenumber(footnotesignifier)lineinnote)

p350(318)5 my favoutive of course

p297(...)71 g.b. found this one

p42(50)11

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