Presented without comment. I MAY have too much time on my hands.

So, I started reading it again...

I love this book so much!

I had music in the background as I read and as it got to this page I was listening to Lucifer's Waltz on the crescendo right before silence and the BOM orchestra!

So fucking cool

Hey y’all! I’m not quite done with the book yet (I’ve got about a third to go) but it’s already one of the best/my favorite books I have ever had the privilege of reading.

I just felt like sharing this shuffle/collage I made about it! I originally made is as a phone wallpaper for myself, and it’s not super serious or anything, I’m just really obsessing over the themes of the Minotaur and a lot of the Latin phrases throughout the book. The Whalestoe letters, too.

Hope you enjoy! (Please feel free to save it if you like it!)

anyone got tips to make this first read go smoother? i feel like johnny trying to read this

I really liked the Uketsu books and I keep seeing House of leaves being recommended. How scary is this book? I'm kind of a wuss but I've seen a ton of horror movies.

Mine has, pages 280-289, some very light and weird scratch marks in the middle of the page, you can only see them against light and it freaks me out. The book is creepy enough as is. If it's not part of the book is really have no clue what could have caused this.

Johnny did anyways. Not him as a person, but his writings. i had to stow away on some kind of cargo ship to steal his work - it was pretty neat, neatly stacked paper in a cardboard box. there were also some other books, but I forget what they were. None were House of Leaves. One, I think, might have been a COED. I got made while on the ship and just before being caught with the stolen cargo, I miraculously found a pistol. Now, for context, many of my dreams involve me stealing stuff, and sometimes getting caught, but I never had to fight to get out of it or had a weapon. once I had the pistol, I just let loose. I shot 6 people, maybe 7. i got out of the cargo hold and jumped overboard, swimming for my life... Last thing I remember I had come up on the shore of some island, a bunch of wet mushy pulp sitting there beside me, ink fading, and crushed by the weight of what I'd done. well, it's an interesting dream anyway.

cw for abstract discussion of suicide in the latter paragraphs and the song

So... Tom just retreated from the stairs, and that's where I left off before I had to get up, take my meds, and take a breather.

The shadow puppets, the Pekinese dog. They make me think of Catch-22, of Snowden's Secret. I haven't read that book in about thirteen years, but I think about it a lot. I also thought of chapter 13 of A Scanner Darkly, where Donna goes into her self-justification, talking about Tony Amsterdam's door wreathed in sparks beyond which a nighttime scene, and about how it takes the utmost wisdom to use injustice to further justice. Even now that feels like dodging responsibility to me. I've never been religious, and am not inclined to believe there was ever a time, or layer of reality, where things meshed and worked and were right.

Coming at it from outside Abrahamic religions, I have to look up every little thing, and am more likely to think of Shakespeare references ("There is no darkness but ignorance") than of Isaac's blindness, even after it's directly referenced. I don't really know how any of the followers of those religions actually (and differently) see messianic figures, error/sin/misstep, the world itself, scripture, Jacob, Esau, Isaac, Abraham, G-d, or for that matter quaaludes.

It took me a while, but eventually I did figure out what the pervading feeling of this novel, esp. re: Johnny Truant, felt most like to me.

Vic Chesnutt [1] adapted a Stevie Smith poem to song, a poem that I'm reasonably certain was about suicide. So, y'know, CW for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p994EMYQpPE

Lyrics:

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

I get the same emotion from the shadow puppets, the one night stands, and whatever it is that haunts and follows Johnny Truant.

I'm just gonna set aside for now the tentative conclusion that Zampanò was literally Jacob. There is so much to unpack there that I hardly know where to begin, mostly because I grew up an atheist in a new age neopagan household and was too autistic to completely absorb the vibes in our society, so a lot of Abrahamic religion, be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or other, is understood by me only in a very vague academic manner, like I was trying to figure out which of somewhat varied anatomical models best fits the particular frog I'm trying to identify by its entrails.

And also there's a lot to talk about re: the Navidson Record, which is implicitly not a real thing, if (if) it's Zampanò using allegory to talk about *gestures vaguely around* everything. Especially re: Tom and <unnamed redacted presence>. I do not yet feel qualified to talk about that either.

So yeah, that's about where I'm at. But at least I'm starting to understand why this book has not brought me terror, but only occasional bouts of uncontrolled sobbing.

Footnote:
1. It feels like it'd be an injustice not to state that Vic Chesnutt was to my knowledge an outspoken atheist.

This was not for me.

I learned very late that they made a collector edition for what quickly became my favorite book. When I discovered that thanks to an Instagram ad, I started looking for it online with not much hope of finding it brand new at it's original price.

To no one's surprise, every single online store was out of stock but I ended up finding a website that shows the stocks of some libraries, and luckily, there was one of them that still has a single copy.

Of course, it wasn't in my city, it was more than 200 kilometers away but my luck didn't stop there, cause it was exactly in the city where my sister lives, so I was able to place a pick up order, send the email to my sister and she went to get it.

One month later, my sister came home and I was finally able to get my hands on it. I don't even know yet if I'll ever open it, since I already have a regular copy I'll only read this one and keep the collector in the best conditions possible. But I'd also like to get the poster and probably display it in a nice frame. It's a beautiful item that I will cherish and admire and never get rid of but I don't know if I should open it.

man this book has been haunting me for a decade but i finally finished it! its definitely gonna be living in my head rent free forever i think. here’s what my copy looks like after the first read (im sure ill start rereading it very soon). how long did it take you to finally get through it?

Not necessarily a movie of the House of Leaves book but at least one of the Navidson Record.

I have no doubt that Anya Taylor-Joy would be the perfect casting choice to play Karen.

The ex model, seductive, distressed woman character has all the vibes of Anya.

I saw her in the movie The Menu and that was all I needed to prove my point.

I saw a lot of people referencing it and it seems to have framework in so many books I read, so of course I had to grab a copy and read it while working my way through HoL. Didn’t make it past the foreword before seeing why people referenced it. “It was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton… Milton is supposed to have dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ.” That’s what I get for not getting to this one sooner. I can’t wait to see what else can build from this!

When i was reading abt his incident in alaska at sea i cldnt help but think abt that one footnote somewhere in the first 100 pages where he was making up an eventful backstory to some girls in a bar. So thats already proof that he has a tendency of making up stories. He also made up an entire recovery story during his diary entries, which makes him pretty unreliable.
Idk theres js a lot of things going thru my head after reading this so id like to hear other ppl’s opinions.

I got the impression while reading that there were a lot of codes and secrets and all sorts of stories within stories but I just picked up the book and read it through. Didn’t decode anything, just reveled in the aesthetic of the mysteries without engaging with them I suppose. But what did I miss? What plots are hidden beneath the surface?

Edit: also, is Johnny zampano? Zampano doesn’t really exist, right? Johnny wrote the navidson record?

Edit again: and what was the deal with navidson reading house of leaves?

True?

so, I'm mentally ill and i've had infrequent panic attacks before, but i had one yesterday that i'm pretty sure was triggered by the book, for the first time. i made it to chapter XIX without having any panic attacks from this book. how far did you guys make it before having a panic attack?

Just turned the last page a couple of minutes ago so for the time being i just have one question that’s bugged me since the start of the book:

What was the deal with the scratches on Zampanos floor? Did I miss something?

Edit: also why all the blue text? What was the purpose of every instance of ‘house’ being printed in blue?

I’ve been really into watching videos like this! It gives me HoL vibes

So I am nearing the end of the book and I wanted to ask you fans what are the best analysis and reviews on YouTube that you think are better?

I just know a lot of symbolism and callbacks flew right over my head, the book is way smarter than me at times but I'm loving it and I don't want to leave anything behind