How Danielewski's 'House of Leaves' Destabilizes the Reader

Just in time for Halloween: some thoughts on revisiting Mark Z. Danielewski's 'House of Leaves' for the first time in almost two decades.
0:00 Revisiting 'House of Leaves'
2:26 Horror & Verisimilitude
15:11 Text & Space
20:34 Lacunae & Autocriticism
Sherds Podcast:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1ieoXQz...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
Instagram: @sherdpodcast
Bibliography:
Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Mary Shelley
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
Camera Lucida by (1980) Roland Barthes
'The Sandman' (1816) by E. T. A. Hoffmann
'The Call of Cthulhu' (1928) by H. P. Lovecraft
Cybertext: Perpsectives on Ergodic Literature (1997) by Espen Aarseth
'Il Pleut' (1918) by Guilluame Apollinaire
'l(a' (1958) by e. e. cummings
Sensations of the Retina (1978) by Bob Cobbing
Pensées (1670) by Blaise Pascal
Jacob's Room (1922) by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse (1927) by Virginia Woolf
'Matrix Pauoris: Material Dislocation in House of Leaves' (2020) by Luka Bekavac
'The Digital Topography of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves' (2004) by Mark B. N. Hansen
Interviews:
www.bookpage.com/interviews/8...
archive.org/details/markdanie...
archive.org/details/markdanie...
#markzdanielewski #houseofleaves #experimentalfiction #experimentalhorrorfiction #horror #horrorfiction #etahoffmann #hplovecraft #reading #booktube #booktuber #dracula #frankenstein #epistolaryfiction #bookreview #danielewski #readingvlog #concretepoetry #literarycriticism #literature

[@hassankassim8078]

I know this channel is just beginning, but this is one of the best and most unique book channel.

[@SherdsTube]

It means a lot to hear that. Thanks so much!

[@TheSalMaris]

Form and story telling in intriguing ways recommendations: Kenneth Patchen's The Journal of Albion Moonlight, and Peter Matthiessen's Far Tortuga.

[@SherdsTube]

Great! Both of these are new to me. They look very intriguing, thank you.

[@novelsandcrumbs3558]

Some thing's in writing as in life are like a rock, and some things are like a clock. You get to choose what is more reliable to wake you, as others find a good place to lay their heads.

[@Nuance88]

Incredibly well-done.

[@SherdsTube]

Thanks ever so much!

[@JoseLNieto-yk2rg]

This is another way of acknowledging that experiences are distorted when organized and put into words. It’s very difficult (perhaps impossible) for the writer to share an experience with the reader using only conventional, sequential text.

[@dre_mellalieu]

Oh I really could have used this video in 2000! 😂 Reading it was an unforgettable experience, and I loved it (though much of what you discuss was lost on me at the time). When I was young, I was obsessed w the Griffin and Sabine notebooks - the hidden messages, notes tucked into notes, interaction between reader and book. I also love Dali, Apollinaire, and Cummings- so this all fits. You might like Pure Colour by Sheila Heti…I don’t remember too much of form (maybe a bit) but it’s good and weird. The narrator joins her father in another dimension, I’ll leave it at that (another Canadian female author! She too won an award - I mentioned Sarah Bernstein in another comment - I feel more certain after each video that you’ll like Study for Obedience! Admittedly,
I know no one who liked it so it is possible that I’m way off! 😅)

[@JohnVKaravitis]

I wish I had time to dive into literature this deeply.

[@kieran_forster_artist]

I’m enjoying how although I can hear hol and hpl, you’re bringing something else to this. I’m in the middle of H of L….trying to extend it. It does have an ambient pressure and no doubt an echoing structure. I agree this at the source of its and the readers psychodynamic . Alludes not only to the realistic aspects of psychodynamic psychotherapy, but to the early proto existentialist phenomenologists…..human experience as primarily chaotic in desperate need of what u have called the reification

[@strawberryfeels6479]

This channel is so good! Please keep up the amazing work.

[@SherdsTube]

Thanks so much for saying so. Will try to keep the uploads a little more regular.

[@cassiel28]

@@SherdsTube it is not necessary to upload your work under datelines. The net is full of TH-cam's creators (some better that others) that keep feeding our emptiness every week. High standard literary appreciation takes time, effort and thinking.
I like your analysis and recommendations, if it takes you weeeks to upload, I will be waiting

[@SherdsTube]

I really appreciate these kind words. It's very comforting to hear that. You're right, I shouldn't fall into the trap of rushing to meet imaginary deadlines. Still, I've got lots of ideas, so there'll be more soon. Thanks again.

[@zpkspiano]

Awesome video! Excited to see more stuff

[@SherdsTube]

Thanks a lot! The next video will be out fairly soon.

[@nullset560]

I think it was Portis that said when in foreign countries everything you see becomes a portent!

[@SherdsTube]

Ha! I really like that.

[@kieran_forster_artist]

And that most famous hpl quote so appropriate

[@Markomacoma]

I enjoyed this video essay. It's stylish and informative. I wasn't aware of House of Leaves, and will now search it out. May I suggest Calvino's If on a Winter's Night ...?

[@JohnHopeART]

Another excellent episode! Thanks for the great work! I haven't read the book yet, but there was an excellent BBC Radio 4 drama based on the story, have you heard this? It's called ''Recordings Recovered from the House of Leaves''.

[@SherdsTube]

Thank you! My pleasure. No, I haven't come across that radio drama, so I'll try to seek it out. I've often wondered how this book would translate to another medium.

[@Karzahani742]

This video was a masterpiece:
You deserve 1 million subscriptions.

[@SherdsTube]

Ha! Thanks. That would be nice, but I don't see it happening somehow. :)

[@rickharsch8797]

America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots: a Diagnostic, by Phillip Freedenberg

[@SherdsTube]

Thanks! Very much on my radar. Will have to pick up a copy soon.

[@AleksandarBloom]

William Gass did some of that, but you already know about it.

[@BibberCore]

The Lost Scrapbook by Evan Dara does a lot of formally interesting things. Sometimes the scene changes midsentence..

[@SherdsTube]

Thank you. This is new to me. I looked it up and I'm curious to try it.

[@timkjazz]

The Ash Tree by M.R. James.

[@lucaslopesteacherandtraine3634]

I really would like to watch you commenting on Ligotti's work (if you haven't done that yet).

[@SherdsTube]

Have a look at my page. There's a video there on Ligotti & The Polish Avant-Garde.

[@mabeylane7163]

This video sounds like the pretentious scholarly articles this book is satirizing.

[@SherdsTube]

Ha! Yeah, it does a bit. Interestingly, though, that's one of the book's challenges - as I tried to suggest towards the end. :)