Carp...

NINA THE KILLER 🎀

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HOW TO READ : HOUSE OF LEAVES

A small advice post on how to read House of Leaves, a notoriously confusing book.

01 , 100% read the introduction.

Going into the book, for some reason I got the impression that the introduction is just a foreword by the writer, talking about "blah blah the book was fun to write." However, the introduction is VERY crucial. This technically isn't a spoiler since it's the very beginning of the book.

02 , Lose the impression that Mark Danielewski wrote the book.

Yes, obviously he did write it, but to avoid confusion the reader should disregard that. In your mind, pretend that the key author is Zampano, and the annotations are from a version Johnny Truant stumbled upon. It sounds simple, but it avoids a hell of a lot of confusion.

03 , You're supposed to be confused.

Yeah. It's an intentionally extremely confusing book, so that only certain parts make sense later on. Many people read it multiple times over, so just trust through until the end.

04 , Read all the annotations.

Though they may seem incredibly long-winded and mean absolutely nothing, a lot of them are extremely key. Some people choose to avoid them and only read Zampano's works (which is fine too!), but for the best understanding I'd read the notes. Generally, don't bother with small citations to news articles. However, it is worth checking the annotations every time. For example, in chapter one there is a reference to Dante's Inferno written in Italian. There is a translation in the annotations!

05 , Most of the difficult layouts have small keys.

As the book progresses, the layout becomes increasingly confusing. If something is impossible to read, you're probably not supposed to read it. For many of the layouts that wind around the page, there will be small arrows guiding you. Just trust that the author will not make it impossible.

06 , Only pick up the book when expecting a long session.

House of Leaves is VERY much not just a "quick read." You wanna sit down for a hell of a long time for it and to make sense of it all.

07 , Again, read everything except from when told to check the endnotes.

Although, you can probably skip that 3 pages of names.

08 , You're supposed to feel anxious.

The writer is exceptional in this genre and creating emotion. When paragraphs are long-winded, it's intentional to make you feel as though it draws on in a ramble. When the statements are quick, you're supposed to be a little dazed. You might find yourself feeling lost with the annotations, but that's pretty much the point.

And most of all - enjoy!

It's very much a "push through" book, but don't read it if you find yourself absolutely bored to death. If you hate long books, House of Leaves might not be your cup of tea. I personally loved it, and so do many others.

fly high

local man has no fucking idea how to use tags

"being trans is a phase!" "my trans phase!" ok but I need more people to talk about the cis phase. I know I'm NOT the only person who had a "cis phase" before going straight back to being trans

So many things I would have done

But clouds got in my way

no I'm kicking my feet too now for helios. the schmoopsie

feels so embarrassing to b hyperfixated on your own oc like the smallest thing that reminds you of them has you giggling and kicking your legs and smiling goofy in public but it’s like sorry everyone i was thinking about shmoopsie from my brain again. yeah the one like max 10 ppl know about

to date me you must defeat my 7 evil groomers that ruined my ability to show affection

Poragative is such a good word. Progateeeeev. My protagative. Prodagiv. Proragative. Prog. :)

"omg alex kralie my bbg!! I love him!!!!" not me. I want that twink obliterated.