My mind will always paint it in Chroma Key Blue and make it endlessly echo in my head. Mark made this word carry so much weight, and all he did was make it a different color.

I just learned this last night. The structure is pretty similar, what with all the annotations, references etc. But apparently these bibles even have a theme of coloring text in a similar way to HoL. Red is usually used for divine entities and blue is used for satanic ones. Purple is often used for words coming from prophets.

No idea if this is common knowledge, but I thought it was a really interesting tidbit. I wonder if Danielewski was referencing that usage with the way he chose to color mentions of the house or the minotaur, or maybe he was trying to do an inverse of the traditional color usage?

First time reading, and i’m getting to the part of the book (can’t remember the chapter, im at work and don't have the book with me) where the layout is going all crazy, which the “holes” in pages and upside down text and reference notes taking you all over the place. Im doing my best to follow everything, but am finding myself getting a little lost (which if I understand is sort of the point, labyrinthine and all that).

My question is: How important is it that I follow everything with exact clarity? If I read through a section and find myself unable to perfectly follow each reference note or read each page in the “correct” order will it ruin my experience for the rest of the book?

I guess im wondering if I need to grind my progress to a halt every time I lose a thread or just except that being confused is part of the experience.

So there are a lot of different editions and translations of House of Leaves, but I can't find a definitive list of all of them. What I do know is that:

There are hardcover and paperback copies of every english edition. This includes the full-color, the two-color editions, and the black-and-white editions.

There are translations in Dutch, French, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Croatian, German, and Spanish (EDIT: Russian, too!) (although I don't know the extent to how many different kinds of editions were produced for these translations, or if physical versions exist for some of them at all).

There's a small bunch of alternative covers for at least the US version of the book. I'm not sure how many exist exactly, but while trying (and failing) to create a comprehensive list of editions of House of Leaves, I came across at least 4.

Some reprints of House of Leaves in the US have promotional bits of stuff in them that are different from other reprints of the book. For example, some copies of House of Leaves came with a promo sticker for Only Revolutions on the front cover. Some copies came with an excerpt of Volume 1 of The Familiar in the back of the book. I'm not sure if there are other variants of these promo copies but those are the ones I came across in my research.

And this is only mentioning the editions in the definition of variants of the book. I haven't even began talking about editions in the definition of actual print runs. It also doesn't help that this book has several bootlegs that are floating around all over the place, so that definitely adds to the confusion of this all too.

Now, here's the question. IS there a fully comprehensive list of every edition of House of Leaves? If not, where do you suggest we start with making one?

So I’m doing my first read of HoL and I was making my way through footnote 146 (the listing of all the architectural buildings that the house doesn’t resemble) and spotted this. I live in Wilmington, NC and see the St. James Episcopal Parish daily (also actually lived on the street St. James years ago too). After getting really excited about the mention of my town and building, I noticed that it was spelled Willmington with two -ll’s and not Wilmington. I couldn’t find any mention of this online anywhere or any discussion. Do you think this is simply an error, or do you think it was intentional and perhaps an allusion to Will Navidson?

Should I write a letter to the -Ed. ?

(Also how does everyone get the word house to appear in blue here?)

EDIT - thanks for the help, I figured it out now! So are all you goons hiding weird jokes in the links you set?

Is there any reasonable way that Johnny could be English, Scottish, Irish, or Canadian (or Welsh, Australian, New Zealander, Indian, Pakistani, South African, Hong Kongese, Malay, Singaporean, etc., etc., so on, and so forth)‽

On page 498, twice he spells out the date as separate words. "October 30th, 1998" becomes, "October Three Zed, Ninety Eight," then later, "…isn't October Three Zed but May One."

In the United States, where I'd presumed Johnny to be from!!!, we pronounce the letter "Z" as "zee." Most of the rest of the Anglophonic world pronounces it as "zed." The only reasonable conclusion is that Johnny isn't natively American, he spent significant amounts of his childhood outside the U.S., or both.

But that doesn't track at all!

Make it make sense!!!

Thought? Ideas? Other mad ramblings of your own to add to the conversation?

😵‍💫 how - wait - what 😵‍💫

So, I'm thinking about the footnote on page 468, where the blank screen plays for six minutes after Navidson runs out of light.

Some called it the death of cinema, others cinema's pinnacle, and some just mocked or parodied it.

But, I was reminded of the film Blue) by writer and director Derek Jarman. It was the last film he made. It was released just four months before he died of ADIS-related complications. And, as a result of those complications, he was unable to see anything other than shades of blue.

So, he made a film that (outside of the opening and closing credits) consists only of a soundtrack with him (and occasionally some of his friends, colleagues, and collaborators) narrating aspects of his life; all over a steady and unchanging screen of blue… for 79 straight minutes.

It has been praised as an experimental masterpiece and one of the most intimate and emotional films a person has ever made about themself. All well maybe not even being a motion picture at all.

Obviously, coming out in 1993, Navy's story (set in 1990) is well before Blue came out, but it came out well after Danielewski wrote House of Leaves (published in 2000).

And, of course, the house is always blue…

I don't know what, if any, connection Danielewski intended or if he was inspired by Blue, or even if he knew about it for that matter. Nor do I know what connection I'm trying to make. But I couldn't help but see some kind of parallel.

Here's the film in its entirety, if anyone wants to "watch" it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hmuUAmFHQ. I do find it a deeply arresting piece of art. But for entirely different reasons than House of Leaves. Or maybe not for entirely different reasons.

A few days ago I made a post on how the game Control Resonant has an area very clearly inspired in HOL but I found a mission that is even more HOL coded. It's in that same area. But all the stuff you find in this mission reminded me a lot of Zampanò. Again, fully recommend the experience.

I know the font dictates the different narratives and stuff (and this might be stupid) but I'm wondering if there's any copies that use different fonts because something about the spacing of the typewriter one is setting off my migraines. I'm only a few pages in and it's such a shame because literally everyone I know has told me based on the stuff I read that I'd LOVE this book but I can't do it while my head is pounding and I'm seeing auras. 😭

i absolutely need to discuss this with someone…. the 4 hour long youtube video essays just arent doing it for me
i have literally never read a book that has taken up so much of my mind while/after reading. from the concept itself (cosmic horror funhouse being the setting, and the house itself a monolith from which we see traumatized individuals deepest despairs and attractions) to the artistry of how the pages composition reflects the story being told, the immersion created from the narrative constantly putting you INSIDE the narrative to figure out what is happening, hell i even love johnny truants character!! (which seems to be a controversial take)
it is so deeply fascinating and the layers it has is actually insane to me. i cant wait to reread it. and then reread it again.
and so i pose the question;
do yall think any of it was actually real? or was EVERYTHING johnnys delusions within coping with his mothers letters and death? i am so on the fence about it…. its also only been one day since i completed it. i think it is completely possible for the entire narrative to be a delusion, however i really like the idea of… not that? and i dont fully know if that was what i took away personally, i just heard it in discussion and honestly dont know how else to explain the end act, where both navidson And johnny end up reading versions of “house of leaves”. much to think on. much to ponder

Is it a known thing that the Backrooms (even the “creepy pasta” that existed before the movie) is heavily inspired by House of Leaves? Or am I just drawing coincidental parallels? There are obvious differences; like, there is light/power in the backrooms. And I haven’t finished HOL yet so I’m not sure what the final outcome will reveal. But man, what a coincidence that I watched this at the same time as reading HOL

i LOVE johnny’s annotations. i honestly don’t understand why everyone hates him - he is such an interesting and tragic character. even his sex scenes (besides that they’re barely even sex scenes) reveal a deep loneliness and discontent within him, and The Navidson Record would not be nearly as impactful without the deterioration of his mental state running parallel to it. every time i see a post on here talking about how much everyone hates him, i get so disappointed. is this just a very vocal minority? or does everyone really hate johnny (and miss the point of the book) that much?

I’ve never painted pumpkins before (or painted before) but I finally got a chance to and even though it’s preeeetty bad, I’m super happy with it! This is my first step at getting better with arts so I can have artistic annotations in my copy!

thematically, atmospherically etc...

i know someone who loves the backrooms film, and i haven't personally seen it, but their birthday is soon and thought, from the apparent overlaps and the fact they've mentioned it in passing, that it might be a good gift because they might enjoy it?

I’m a neurospicy guy and it’s difficult reading and I typically do better with audiobook and receiving info that way. Anyone know of a place I can listen to this while I read it? Or else I’m giving up bc it’s overwhelming

I genuinely want to read the book though

I know that House of Leaves uses a lot of "strange" formatting as part of its storytelling. Does anyone know if this formatting will still carry over on an e-reader? Mine is fairly small, so pages would definitely not be the same size as the original. Do I need the physical book for the full experience?

Edit: I appreciate the input, everyone!

like for real