Page 709

A whole book summarized onto one page. Darkness, interactions, mythologies, nature, enlightenment- every topic compressed onto one piece of paper that can envelope all of it. Now the final words are as follows:

What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high.
But doesn’t reach the ground. Still it stands.
It’s roots must hold the sky.

This text is also preceded by a large black dot with “Ygg” just below it and “drasil” in vertical text climbing down to the aforementioned paragraph. To conclude everything, a large “O” is there. Now, you may be pronouncing this as “Oh,” but it is more than that. I believe it is simply a circle that holds in this light that is suppose to parallel the large black dot at the top of the page. Now, “Yggdrasil” represents the history tree known in Norse Mythology. This tree supports the world. Odin even hung himself on this tree to save himself (don’t ask me) which means that this tree can support a god. The paragraph speaks of this tree claiming it is a miracle. I believe Will Navidson referred to the hallways as a miracle as well. The height is probably an understatement considering that this tree cannot be measured just as the height of the Grand Staircase cannot be measured (partly due to the fact that the height changes frequently). The tree “doesn’t reach the ground”, and this is explained by the line that follows it: “It’s roots must hold the sky.” You’re probably like, “What type of assbackwards tree is this?” Well, that’s exactly what this is. This tree serves as a container for many “worlds” per say. Of all the worlds, the tree will somehow be holding up a world by its roots as the world gravitates to the tree within the giant universe.
In case I’m not making sense to anyone, Navidson belonged to a world that is on top of the tree. The hallway served as a bridge to another world which is like a parallel universe that Navidson reached by entering the very heart of the tree.
You know when you have a really good idea and when you try explaining it, you sound like a complete dumbass? That’s me right now. The dark dot on the top of the page is Earth, and the “O” on the bottom is a parallel of Earth. It may actually be Earth as well, but either way, Navidson changed on his way from one Earth to the other thus it can be seen as a different Earth. This shit is starting to get complicated like it always does. But, now we know why it’s called House of Leaves.
I also wanted to point out that the “O” on the bottom of the page drove you probably to say “Oh” in your head. This shows the power of the shape with light in it. This shows how a simple shape can have the power to make you say a statement like “Oh.” This may seem insignificant but imagine how much power one word has. “Fuck” can make somebody kill somebody else.

What do you think about my theories?
Am I taking it too far?

House.

There are many types of houses. Yet, in House of Leaves, every. single. one. of. them. is. blue. Yesterday, my fellow class and I had an epiphany. The word “house” is blue all throughout the book because the house is, as Navidson says, God. The house is God! I mean, how can’t it be God? It is both alive and not alive; it encompasses all and nothing; it has no beginning and no end; it is everywhere and nowhere. To add to this, the House inevitably gave birth to Navidson who plays an Adam character. If Navidson an Adam, then what is the forbidden fruit? Is it the hallway? Then Karen, being the Eve character, didn’t want Navidson to go into the hallway which would reverse the Biblical story in which Eve was the first to eat from the forbidden fruit. Throughout the book, Mark Z. Danielewski demonstrates how a story can be morphed because of the several layers of passage the media passes through. Therefore, I believe Danielewski is saying that the Bible is no different. God tells a human to write a book and from there perhaps it must be written because of the decaying of the papyrus then translated. Just as the House of Leaves is biased to favor men, Danielewski suggests the Bible is too. The interpretation of a human of what God told him, then whoever is rewriting it may misspell something due to human error, and lastly, some words or meanings cannot be translated and have all the same meaning. Eve told Adam not to eat the fruit, but Adam did anyway (?). Crazy theory. But, returning to the topic that was before this sexist rant, Adam eating the forbidden fruit simply led us to become imperfect which is the way it was always supposed to be in Danielewski’s view. Adam was always to have eaten the fruit. Our natural curiosity drives us to do such. So, can we blame Adam? Can we blame Navidson for going into the hallway? Can we blame Johnny for reading Zampano’s manuscripts? Can we blame anybody for anything? Obviously, everything is driven by some sense of curiosity. This is way too long of a paragraph to contain so many complex ideas. Or perhaps, it is too small (?) :O.
Another thing I was paying attention to was the names. Karen Green suggests envy.  What is she envious of? Perhaps it’s because she is not that important in light of Navidson’s success. Delial. Would Eve ask somebody to pass something onto a writer of the Bible to change the story so that she gets the blame and become infamous? I don’t believe it, but is Danielewski suggesting it? Holloway promotes being hollow just as his morals are or just his overall empty head in terms of considering consequences. He’s very hardheaded. Now, the only other significance in name is Billy Reston. His name suggests he is resting which describes how he is handicap. Daisy? Chad? Tom? Will Navidson? I have no idea. Since the book is so complex with everything else, did Danielewski overlook this, or is it just too complex for me to catch it?

Nothing Becomes Everything

It’s crazy how so much of nothing can actually become, in some way, everything. Since Navidson’s fall is so intensely long, it gives him a sense that he is floating instead of falling. The feeling can feel reversed because of long periods of experience. Thus, as Johnny Truant’s life converges on his solitary state, he realizes that he is not alone at all with his struggle against the text of The House of Leaves. In fact, after coming across a band he met (I forgot the name and where he met them), the book has been read by the band and also by several fans of the band in each city they travel to. Who knows how many countless others have read this book?! The truly daunting experience of all of this is that the book includes Johnny Truant’s notes. Yet, I don’t recall Johnny ever giving his notes to anybody. I may have missed something although it’s quite customary for this book to do some weirdass shit. Perhaps, throughout all of Johnny’s mental disillusionment, he has done something with them. I’m completely lost. For some reason, my mind is driving me to believe that he burned it all. I know that didn’t happen. Something else was engulfed by flames. I just can’t remember what. My mind is lost in the book just as those who enter the labyrinth of the House. Was this the intention of Mark Z. Danielewski?
I have yet to figure out why the book is entitled House of Leaves.  House is in the title understandably, but why leaves?  Leaves fall and drift to whatever breeze it is propelled by. The only relation I can see between the book and leaves is the experience Navidson has during Exploration #5. The House changed to accommodate the direction Navidson took like a table balanced on a focal point that will shift to whichever direction due to weight. So if the wind is to leaves as Navidson is to the House, does this mean Navidson has power over the House? If this were true, then why does it seem like he is completely powerless to the will of the House?
Another thing, say the Editors were in favor of the audience. I think this turns Johnny into the antagonist. Johnny corrupts the manuscripts of Zampano by dropping ink over (I believe it was) 40 pages. He calls it an accident, but perhaps he is possessed by some darkness that is driving him to hide some secrets. Now I have to question the Editors’ note on page 376 where they claim that the text was “inexplicably” destroyed when Johnny admits to its destruction just shortly after. Why did the Editors’ say it was “inexplicably” destroyed when they knew the reason? For suspense purposes? They’re not trying to write a novel; they just want to share their insight, so why do they do this? (Cause they’re weird as hell, that’s why!)

Media Interface Analysis

Or… as I would like to call it: “Another good reason why I should become a graphic designer.” :v

KINECT textography

“The Ring”? More Like “115 Minutes of Pissing in Your Pants”

I don’t know why all of my titles involve me pissing/shitting in my pants, but everything in this class is so scary and mysterious and crazy; I mean, it was bound to happen. I don’t handle to scary movies too well especially not when I’m watching it by myself. I’m also not good at handling blood, so Saw movies are definitely out of the question although my friends have forced me to watch two of them already. It involved me covering my eyes with my hands several times and flinching at the sight of fake, cinematic blood. Screaming like a girl may or may not have taken place. By the end of the movie, I’ll most likely be crying like a bitch lol.
Now, the main question I was asking myself all throughout The Ring was: Why would my Banana-Republic-loving professor ask his class to watch this horror film?
The conclusion I arrived to is that The Ring is filled with many of the same elements that are contained in House of Leaves. “How so?” you may ask. Well, does House of Leaves not contain some sense of universality? What I mean by this is that everybody has hallways in their house or at least doors. Doors are everywhere! In that way, the book can find some relation with everyone. The book can instill fear in everyone cause everybody closes and opens door, and the book increases the fear that one day, one time you may open that door and find not what you typically see on the other side as you do every day, but a long dark hallway that leads to this labyrinth of darkness. The Ring creates this same atmosphere of illusion. Everybody has a TV, and if you don’t, chances are that you have not seen this movie thus cannot be tricked. Sometimes, a TV does lose reception and fills the screen with grey static. This movie emphasizes on that rare event.

Another reason why we may have been asked to watch The Ring is the general  puzzling nature of it. House of Leaves is like a movie in a book in a commentary and so on. The Ring does the same. It’s a murder mystery hidden behind a movie that is hidden behind a story. Also, The Ring eventually has all of the pieces come together. Therefore, I suspect House of Leaves will be no different.

One thing that I saw in The Ring that reminded me directly with House of Leaves: that weirdass fly was just zooming by doing flips and shit, but wait… THIS CHICK JUST PULLED IT OFF THE SCREEN! Reality converged with the surreal which is exactly what I titled my previous entry which was written solely on House of Leaves. Besides that, I’m not exactly sure how the two are related. I guess that feeling that I may open a door and some creepyass darkness is on the other side waiting for me. This. Is. Some. Weird. Shit.

Reality Has Converged Upon the Surreal

Or is it the other way around? Little hints have always shown how Johnny Truant has been affected by the book, the darkness it ensues, the general evil of it’s mystery.

I couldn’t help but notice that on page 165, along with many other pages, there are footnotes from The Editors mentioning how certain words or documents or information is missing. I’ve always been a bit suspicious of The Editors because of their mysterious and hidden nature. The question arises: are the Editors purposely hiding certain documents or purposely omitting information? Are they somehow involved to the novel in a deeper sense than simply “editing” it?

My theory is that the Editors have some connection to the house in some way. It is almost like they are trying to cover something up because of their direct influence with the events in The Navidson Record. Did they build the house or are they the cause of the darkness that began to engulf the house (or rather those who entered the hallways)?

One thing is for sure, this book continues to scare the shit out of me. Johnny Truant’s delusional state is started to creep up on me. I feel like I should be laying down measuring tape all around my room and trying to hide from the weird noises. Lude should really be more friendly and try to comfort Johnny poor, crazed soul. Instead, Lude is more worried about screwing more bitches and trying to beat his November record (which I must applaud him for, simply because of his ability to pull so many chicks despite his personality which seems to be very shitty).

Something that may go overlooked throughout the whole book is Holloway’s disappearance which only seemed important during the time that Navidson sent a search party in to search for Holloway, Jed, and Wax (the search party included Navidson himself). The worst part about his disappearance is what Sheriff Josiah Axnard said about it after he personally went into the hallways to search for Holloway:

[when speaking of the hallway he walked down] It’s not there no more. I checked. Nothing unusual there now but . . . but back then there was . . . there was a corridor on the south wall. Cold, no lights and goin’ on into nowhere. It creeped me like I never been creeped before, like I was standing in a gigantic grave and I remember then, clearly, like it was yesterday, thinking to myself “If Holloway’s in here I don’t need to worry. He’s gone. He’s long gone.”

The main thing I learned from the reading is that Tom is the man. His jokes were HILARIOUS! I love this guy. Plus, he loves alcohol as much as a college student (always good for social occasions). Reston is also a champ. He’s like some legless, muscly, guerrilla, champ. And, he’s black so you know he gots “ups”.

Karen… Karen is a hoe. This chick is gonna bitch about Navidson entering that god-awful place when he’s trying to save 3 other people. Like, really? This chick doesn’t even give a shit about her kids even though she’s just sitting by a static-filled radio for hours. I mean, turn that shit on full blast, spend some time with the kids, and if you hear something, rush back. It’s not like Tom is going anywhere anytime soon. Dammit, Karen! Then, you gotta go off and be some slut and take the kids to New York. You’re the one that kissed Jed in the first place! You wanted that relationship to fall apart. I’m gonna slap this chick right across her face.

House of- Holy Shit, I Just Pissed My Pants

This book is beyond anything I have ever read. It’s sooooooooooooooooooooooooo trippy (more trippy than any video I have ever seen).

And, when Navidson is running through the hallways during Exploration A, I feel like their should be some crazy dubstep playing in the background that amplifies the suspense (Such as: Skrillex- Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites).

Either way, this weird, trivial house continues to impress me with it’s ability not only to expand and change and do weird shit but to scare the living hell out of me. I’m not sure if it’s because I always read this book at night or because I read in my tinyass, enclosed room (or perhaps it’s a combination of the two), but I seem to get really involved with the book and gain some intimate connection with it.

After reading about 70 pages, I get up to take a break and was literally frightened for my life as I reached out for the door knob. I wasn’t sure if I was going to open my door only to reveal the usually hallway that my room exited into. Or, I was going to open my door to find some deep, unexplored hallway that engulfed all sense of light (even the idea of light). Blackness just spilling into my room. Scary. Effing. Shit.

I love how Johnny Truant was just doing his business in the back of the tattoo shop when he just froze and was like, “Holy shit, I just pissed my pants.” Turns out, he sensed the great “monster” that had stalked him before. Turns out, he shit in his pants too. Turns out, none of that was real. He was perfectly fine… or at least he was before he dive bombed off the top of the stairs through all of the tattoo into the air and crashed against the stairs several times.

Johnny Truant is such an interesting character. Despite his mental problems because of his messy past (thanks to his abusive, pilot father and his mentally ill mother who both contributed), he takes out all of his fury, emotion, (whatever you want to call it) through sex and all his sexual endeavor. I’m actually surprised that such a scarred person is able to pull so many chicks! Like… DAMN! Apparently, all it takes is for me to be traumatized by some horrible event or series of events to get sexy chicks. (I’ll work on that.)

Since I may be a post behind, I’ll go ahead and add what I think of the documentary entitled Helvetica. Awesome. The filmography is brilliant. Europeans really know how to capture an experience and place you into that moment (this is starting to iterate my recent discovery of the British show Misfits). I’m a big fan of film-making and typography and graphic design. Helvetica was so powerful. It actually made me doubt my major which I have dreamed of fulfilled for about 6 years. That shows how media is able to influence people in a grand way.

Think-Aloud Protocol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNK-7Vref9A

Com-ic Get It!

Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” is pure genius. He is able to reveal what everybody subconsciously realizes but has never said. His truth and honesty throughout the comic is what draws the reader in. The Waldo-looking character also draws us in according to McCloud because of his slight universality to look like many people that we may relate to or understand.

I have already noticed in the classic Disney movies that there is much detail put into the background making it seem realistic. A cartoon character may hop and move in front of it, but the background remains still which causes a juxtaposition of the real and unreal.

Does anybody realize the flaw in the wardrobe of the narrative character in “Understanding Comics”? What is unreal about it?

Many of us probably subconsciously viewed him with a box-striped jacket when in reality, it was a grid system  that was placed within the frame of the jacket that very unrealistically demonstrates the jacket. Yet, this is all okay because the more basic the jacket may look (or any object, person, place) the more one may be able to relate to it.

Relating Scott McCloud’s situation ironic comic to the infinite comics article, do you believe Scott McCloud takes advantage of an infinite work environment? Knowing that “Understanding Comics” was printed on paper, does that prevent his comic from being “infinite”?

In my opinion, I believe Scott McCloud actually did create an infinite barrier because the first 10 frames or so are dedicated to the same panel view of a character next to a painting. McCloud’s character (who I am very close to simply calling Waldo altogether) points out the fact that the painting “next to him” is actually not a pipe, nor a painting of a pipe, nor is it a drawing of a pipe,  but rather it is a digital resemblance of a pipe (considering it is not the printed form). McCloud manages to create this comic without borders in a mental sense. He breaks the fourth wall and allows the reader to actually interact with the narrator.

You can notice that digital comics are very different from “infinite comics” because they do not utilize their possibility. Instead, it is simply a print comic replicated onto a computer screen. I’m sure this creates some common platform which can be used on a tablet as well, but as the sale of comic books decline, they should reinvent them. How do you think they should reinvent comics, or should they even exist at all? What do you predict to be the future of comics?

Throughout the years comics have been roller-coasting from incredibly well sales to drastically devastating sales. The new age of Comic Book Movies have saved them. Superheros depicted in television or film is nothing new. Many do not even realize that Green Hornet had its own TV series and even appeared in a Batman & Robin show to advertise it.  But, the advancements in CGI graphics has allowed overall appeal and draw from all audiences (whether you’re a comic hero fan or not).

This final article takes a step back to my last blog entry which relates digital comics with print comics. It mainly gives support to digital comics for several reasons including cost, the rapidity of its delivery, and its ability for experimentation.

The Fall of Paper and the Rise of the Technological Empire

It’s crazy to think that all books will eventually weigh the same because of the universal weight of the Ipad. Every book will be contained, or suppressed even, in a small space.
Craig Mod (in the following website: http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/) helps to show how the form and structure and layouts of books will become completely useless in the years to come unless they have what Mod said was “Definite Content.” This means the books has a certain layout that is unique to that book and cannot be mimicked onto an Ipad. House of Leaves is one such book that has a unique layout.
All throughout the book, unique and interesting features make the book impossible to publish onto an Ipad, not because of the layout because the Ipad can essentially put the book onto the screen. Instead, it is a matter of traditionally turning the pages and the suspense of what you expect to be reflected on the following page. It is that anticipation that drives people to read books. But, what separates “Definite Content” books apart from other is that there are patterns that can only be developed in a book such as create a puzzle that is spread over several pages. It’s difficult to describe, so I’m not sure if I’m making too much sense. Also, in the House of Leaves, Danielewski made a decision in printed hundreds of pages half empty. This probably costed the author much money  in terms of what he could have gained by combining such pages. This decision was consciously made because despite this cost, he knew it would help readers have a greater appreciation for what he has put into the creation of the book. If my professor had asked me to read it on the Ipad, I would have lost much respect for the “book” because of the loss of weight the book will carry which I mentioned in my last post and the sense of accomplishment in reading the physical book. Now, I can point at this giant 700-page book and tell all my friends “Damn right I read that behemoth of a novel!” and probably add another comment like “You Harry Potter nerds got nothin’ on me!”

I feel like this whole Ipad Revolution (not just the Ipad, but other pads in general such as the Blackberry Playbook and what not) is creating a reversal in terms of luxury. Now, everybody is envisioning the Ipad and all those other tablet items as luxury items especially considering that they reach over $500 in their prices. Yet, in the future, will books become the luxury simply because of their rarity? What advancements in ebook technology will cause it to prevail over their lesser evolved paper primates?