What is House of Leaves?
House of Leaves is the debut novel of Mark Z. Danielewski, and is an incredibly influencial book when it comes to horror. The storytelling is unique, with at least 4 levels of metanarrative, though the best and most well known narrative is that of The Navidson Record. The first level of metanarrative is that of The Navidson Record, the documentary being described in the text. The second level is the author of the analysis on The Navidson Record, Zampanò, who is describing the film and providing his own commentary, citations, and other tangential thoughts. The third level is the story of Johnny Truant, who finds Zampanò's notes after he passes away, and is the one collecting said notes into something comprehensible, and providing his own commentary on the text and how his life is going. Lastly, there are the Editors, who are publishing the book- they don't say much, but do provide some translations, corrections, and also provide the information in the appendices.
The story of the Navidson Record follows Will Navidson, his partner Karen Green, and their two children, as they move into a new home on Ash Tree Lane. This takes a turn, however, when a new doorway appears in the master bedroom, connecting the crawl space between it and the children's bedroom. More disturbingly, however, is when Will decides to measure his House, and finds something terrible- his House is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Things from there escalate, as the closet in their living room ceases to exist, and is replaced by an impossibly long hallway, stretching miles and containing a massive spiral staircase, leading downwards into the abyss.
While this is happening, we also follow the story of Johnny Truant, who has been collecting and transcribing the notes on The Navidson Record. Johnny first encounters The Navidson Record when his friend, Lude, convinces him to break into the apartment of his neighbor Zampanò, who recently passed away. In the apartment, under the floorboards, Johnny finds Zampanò's notes on The Navidson Record, and takes it upon himself to organize and transcribe the notes. As the story goes on, Johnny interjects throughout the text within footnotes with his own commentary, corrections, and updates to how his life as been going since starting this project- mostly about how it's been ruining his life.
Zampanò claims that The Navidson Record, a documentary film directed by Will Navidson, became a cultural phenomenon and the subject of many acedemic texts, which he cites extensively throughout his notes. According to him, there has been a lot of discussion on the content of the film, but also about the veracity of the content itself. Will Navidson remains firm on the film being 100% authentic, with no effects being added in post production. Zampanò also seems to be of this opinion, believing The Navidson Record to be true. Johnny, however, argues against this. Not on the contents of the film being fake, but on the existence of the film at all, insisting that no such film has ever existed, nor there ever being a photojournalist named Will Navidson.
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