Monday Musts: Some Lovely Things to See
One of the best things about dorm life is that, while you have to deal with early morning fire alarms and frat rushes, laundry thieves and loaded schedules, you do get exposed to an incredible amount of amazing literature, music, art, foreign films and rare pop-culture. I've decided for the next few Mondays to post about these "Musts." So here we go - two items of note to start us off!
OUR HOUSE IS A VERY, VERY, VERY FINE HOUSEHouse of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is maybe the most frightening and incredibly intricate books I've ever read. Danielewski sets up three narrative strands through breaking the "fourth wall" at various levels. The story is narrated through editorial footnotes by Johnny Truant. He is compiling the work and notes of his neighbor, an old man who has recently passed away. The notes, ranging from medical reports, scientific research papers, film strips and personal journal entries, detail the chronicles of Navidson, the man who lived with his family in the House of Leaves. All three characters are haunted by this thing that haunts the darkness, though "the creature" is never named or revealed in definite terms.
The thing about the story is that while it goes crazy near the end and you actually have to turn the book upside down to read some of the notes, it all works together to form this amazing reading experience. The premise is that there is a House, and in this House, there is a door. The problem is, this door is on a perimeter wall - a wall that has nothing but the outside world behind it. If you look out of a window on this wall, you would look into the backyard. But when you open that door - you don't step into the backyard. You step into a hallway as black as death where no echo returns. If you want great character driven story and something that might just scare the sock off of you, definitely give it a look. It's one of the best books in my stash.
IF YOU'VE GOT A BONE TO PICK...It's sort of an Everyman story, but I love the "save the world" theme that crop up subtly throughout the book. Generally that trope annoys me, but Smith pulls it off. His characters and story are never cliche and better, they never suffer from the "guys in tights" syndrome that overwhelms most traditional comics. While the story is sometimes dark or heavy as the load of the hero becomes almost too much to bear, Smith never fails to give you a line or two so that you can crack a smile and ease the tension.
Hope you enjoy these. Next week I'll probably be talking about some music, movies or anything else I run across in my stash later this week. Have a wonderful Monday!
So say we all.
Bri
6 comments:
I read The House of Leaves about 6 weeks back.
I really enjoyed the central story; I liked many of the typographic tricks. I liked the conceit of 'this is a series of critical essays on the evidence of something that really happened'
But I absolutely hated the secondary footnoted story; it bored me, and made the whole thing feel very self-indulgent and pretentious.
The House of Leaves is quite a unique experience, as a book, and worth a look if you want to see some novel tricks played. But I won't be reading it again!
Bone, on the other hand, I really like - I have the full set collected as one big book somewhere.
Apparently, there's a sister book/short story of some sort that details the rest of the footnote storyline (but then again, this may be one of the false sources set up for this book.)
I sort of thought the "footnote story" was rushed and a little contrived at the end because Navidson's POV was so dominant. I think Danielewski could have done something amazing with the idea - but I overlooked it's shortcomings for sake of the main story.
Either way, if there had been some sort of follow up for how Truant's story ended I would have felt a little better about it. I still liked the weirdness of the design and I had to read it again for Navy's story. :)
I've always wanted to read Bone. Actually I bought one at my daughter's school book fair. She's 4 so it wasn't for her, it was for her 30 year old mother. LOL.
I've never read a graphic novel--this sounds like a good place to start.
Hey, woman, we miss you posting on the 1K a day group! I know you're crazy busy, but we can crack the whip if you need us to.
glad you are sharing, because you are so right. our nearby university (the one with the BFA/MFA in creative writing) is an awesome source of culture for us.
that is especially important for us homeschoolers
The House of Leaves is a extraordinary book and writing project. I liked all of it, and bought several copies, autographed from Amazon, but my sons have deprived me of all copies but the paperback.
I believe it was first published on the Internet. I thought it was amazing and have read it several times. Form is important here.
But then again, I love books with footnotes. See Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Lots of footnotes.
The author's sister is Poe, who is also a very interesting artist.
Danielewski's last book was even more experimental.
Smith's Bone was awesome. ((G))
Great post.
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