Short Notes on House of Leaves

There are a few things about House of Leaves I'm beginning to notice since beginning the book on Thursday, and most aren't so much the book as my reaction to it.

First, the footnotes are getting SO old. Some were really interesting (I'm thinking in particular about the one that directed the reader to the Whalestoe Letters), others were helpful, but once I got to the pages with the blue squares in the middle of the pages in which the footnotes listed, you know, various forms of housing insulation... I mean, come on. It's hard to work up the gumption to continue reading these weird asides and footnotes when all you're finding in them is a big list of semi-irrelevant things and on top of that, in order to figure out that they are mostly irrelevant, you have to grab a mirror! What gives, Danielewski!

At the same time, however, I'm totally in love with him for this book, and am totally going to keep reading every stupid word on every page. Danielewski is a mad man. Not only do we get layer upon layer of authors, but we're also given a ridiculous amount of references and footnotes to texts and authors that don't even exist [I've only read two authors that actually exist in the real world, maybe there are more]!!!! This guy had to make soooo much stuff up.

Another strange note about Zampano's use of second sources for commentary: I keep finding that they are putting my big theories about the book into words (and fairly eloquent words at that) and therefore totally discrediting my serious critical thinking. Which leaves me feeling real small just about every 20 pages, and totally foolish for even attempting.