House of Leaves: Difference between revisions

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<code><big>This is not for you.</big></code>

 

 

Okay, imagine that this family is moving into a new {{color|blue|house}} to jump-start their lives together. [[Dysfunction Junction|Will Navidson's a world-renowned photojournalist with lingering family issues, Karen Green is a former model with self-esteem issues]], and Chad and Daisy are their [[Creepy Child|two lovable children]]. Will decides to make this move-in a documentary of how he got his life back on track, and he mounts video cameras and microphones in different rooms of the {{color|blue|house}}. About a month after they move in, the family goes to visit Karen's parents. When they return, there's a new addition to the {{color|blue|house}}, a closet with a connecting doorway, between the master bedroom and Chad and Daisy's room. Furthermore, out of curiosity, Will measures the inside of the {{color|blue|house}} compared with the outside to find out something startling: [[Bigger on the Inside|the inside is bigger than the outside]] [[Mind Screw|by one quarter of an inch]]...

Wait, no, that's still not right. Okay, you're interested in what ''{{color|blue|House}} of Leaves'' is about, right? Well, this book is about that point directly behind your head. [http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215/sat7386/1212704298196.jpg Don't look.]<small>Ω</small> Don't take your eyes off this page, off the safe glow of the monitor, the comforting shapes of the letters making up this sentence. This is safe. What's behind you ''isn't''. Keep reading these words. If you stop to look behind you, I can't guarantee you'll come out of this ordeal alive, much less sane. Pretty soon you might find yourself [[Through the Eyes of Madness|doubting what is real and what isn't]]. Pretty soon you might start to have the nightmares. One day you'll wake up to find yourself an emaciated wreck who can't trust space and time anymore. Whether something is real or not doesn't matter here; [[Fate Worse Than Death|the consequences are the same]]. What you need to realize is that ''this is not for you''.

 

 

<small>141 [[Self-Demonstrating Article|Unless you want to be invigorated. No...That's- it's just not- can't be- right... Source please?]] 142</small>

<small>142 Via Google Translate From French: "Looking into the eyes of death is intoxicating."</small>

 

 

* [[Alien Geometries]]: Eventually Navidson realizes that, somehow, no matter how he measures, the inside of the {{color|blue|house}} is [[Bigger on the Inside|one-quarter inch larger than the outside. Then it turns into 5/16 of an inch. Then that 5/16 corrects itself.]] [[It Got Worse|Then everything goes to hell]].

* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: The whole of ''The Navidson Record'', or perhaps the entirety of the book, could qualify.

* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: The {{color|blue|house}}, especially behind that one door.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: We don't know if Reston is Navidson's ''best'' friend, but they already know each other for some years (starting from the incident that did make Reston wheelchair-bound), and {{spoiler|after the evacuation of the}} {{color|blue|house}}, Reston lets Navidson stay at his place.

* [[Breather Episode]]: The transcript of ''What Some Have Thought'' is considerably lighter in tone than most other parts of the book.

* [[Brown Note]]: Anyone who is ''vaguely'' connected to the {{color|blue|house}}, even the Sheriff who tries to find Holloway and denies seeing the hallway, has tinnitus, at the very least. It's also noted that experience with the {{color|blue|house}} eventually results in one of two extremes: either great personal improvement or, well... look at what happened to Johnny. There's an actual ''graph'' showing the effects of the {{color|blue|house}} on people depending on exposure... and "anyone" includes ''[[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You|you]]''.

* [[Casanova]]: Lude. Truant even spies on him, and there is an extremely large list of his one-night stands... which is then followed by a list of the various ways in which all of the people of the list might have had their lives ruined. The book is just messed up like that.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Karen's Bookshelf.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Page 100. In French, too.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: ''{{color|blue|House}} of Leaves'' is a book in the book. {{spoiler|Navidson burns it to help him survive his final trek.}}

* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Poor, poor {{spoiler|Jed...}}

* [[Documentary of Lies]]: The reviewers who theorize endlessly about ''The Navidson Record'', or are consulted about its content, take it entirely for granted that it's this trope. Except for [[Stephen King]], who wants to visit the {{color|blue|house}}.

* [[Doing It for the Art]]: The sheer level of detail and thought that went into every single page of this book marks it out as a triumphant example of the trope. According to one interview, Danielewski spent ''ten years'' writing the thing, spending about ten hours writing each day.

* [[Erotic Dream]]: [[Fetish Fuel|Painstakingly detailed ones at that...]]

* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Gdansk Man.

** Of course, most of the troops deployed to Dien Bien Phu were from the French Foreign Legion...

* [[Fetish Retardant]]: [[Invoked|Used deliberately]] with Johnnie.

** Just to be clear, Johnnie (the woman) is an entirely separate character from Johnny (the commentator).

* [[Fictional Media]]: To a ridiculous extent that could pass as a parody or [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstruction]]. The entire book is a [[Fictional Document]] analyzing another unpublished [[Fictional Document]] ''commentating'' on a fictional film. Note that all of Zampanò's work is fictional in-universe, as well, to the great confusion of the editors and Johnny Truant.

** [[Fictional Document]]: ''The Navidson Record'', most of the references ([[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]], but also [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] when some of the references turn out to be [[Real Life|real]] books), the book itself.

* [[Four Is Death]]

* [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You]]: ''Neither'' fourth wall will. Johnny slowly goes insane as he reads more and more of Zampanò's notes. And many Tropers can attest to the fact that the book is pure [[Paranoia Fuel]].

* [[Genius Loci]]: A ''nasty'' one.

* [[Going by the Matchbook]]: One of the countless reviewers of ''The Navidson Record'' thought that he could locate the {{color|blue|house}} via a screencap of Navidson's matchbook. {{spoiler|Nope. It did merely lead him to a bar in England which Navidon has visited years ago.}}

* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Thumper, though she's just a stripper. She's still the most caring and dependable friend Johnny has.

* [[Hope Spot]]: When Johnny comes across his two doctor friends who take him in and nurse him back to health. {{spoiler|Except that was just a lie.}} {{spoiler|Or was it}}?

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Zampanò alleges that the Weinstein brothers left a particular sequence out of the theatrical cut of ''The Navidson Record'' because it was too self-referential. This, in a book where half the book is just one character commenting on the other half.

* [[It Got Worse]]: In the middle of, and right after, Exploration D. {{spoiler|Then [[It Got Better]] when Navidson survives his literal descent into madness}} during his last exploration, but looking through his notes will tell you {{spoiler|Zampanò is ''really'' considering otherwise}}.

* [[Kill'Em All]]: Averted; check the examples.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: {{spoiler|The house, if you read into the subtext. In context, it's outright stated someone tried to burn the Navidson house down after it was sealed off -- it failed.}}

* [[Leave the Camera Running]]: Navidson is described as doing this more than once, a notable example being {{spoiler|the 46 seconds following Holloway's death}}, which makes {{spoiler|his sudden disappearance as the}} {{color|blue|house}} {{spoiler|consumes him before the viewers' very eyes}} all the more [[Nothing Is Scarier|frightening]].

* [[Left Hanging]]

* [[Metafictional Title]]

* [[Mind Screw]]: The book will screw with you on every conceivable level.

* [[New House, New Problems|New]] {{color|blue|House}} [[New House, New Problems|New Problems]]: The inner story all starts when Navidson moves...

* [[New Weird]]

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: ''{{color|blue|House}} of Leaves'' is pretty much Exhibit A for this trope.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Johnny may seem like a vulgar druggie, yet he is actually quite an intelligent man. It is heavily implied in the book that he wrote the Pelican Poems during his travels in Europe.

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: Thumper

** The book is printed in four colors, although there are some variations between the different [[wikipedia:House of Leaves#Colors|versions]].

*** Normal text is printed in black, and the word "{{color|blue|house}}" always appears in blue, including in the title, copyright information, etc.

* [[Shout-Out]]

* [[Single-Issue Psychology]]

* [[Snicket Warning Label]]:

** The book's dedication, which says "This is not for you."

* [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]: As evidenced by Johnny's descent into madness.

* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: Well past the optical nerve.

* [[Time Abyss]]: The Labyrinth: the deeper you go down the older it gets. The oldest sample Navidson tests turns out to be {{spoiler|much older than the solar system itself.}}

* [[Totally Radical]]: Johnny Truant.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:Lit Fic]]

[[Category:New Weird]]

[[Category:Horror Literature]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]