Jackson Ossea on the Form of House of Leaves and the Potential Bridge for E-Books

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When reading Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, it becomes clear that the author was quite interested in toying with the idea of the traditional, paper-bound form of the book which every reader is familiar with. House of Leaves creates its unique experience for the reader through its use of footnotes, page and letter formatting designed to create the effect of claustrophobia and cognitive deterioration, and even the use of colour in the font. The idea is that employing these tricks allow the reader to better empathize with the main character(s), transforming the idea of the book beyond something which a reader passively absorbs into something which the reader becomes further immersed with through the way in which they physically engage with the object.

            For the sake of this discussion let's use the Dictionary.com definition of a book: "A handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers." For the sake of specificity, let's also include that the text is always printed in such a way that the reader can always read it with clarity.

           The first way the book’s form affected the way in which I, the reader, experienced the work was Daneilewski’s use of footnotes. The prologue of the book is told from the perspective of one of its main character, Johnny Truant. The main text of the rest of the book is in the form of a fictitious academic text regarding an equally fictitious film entitled The Navidson Report which was written by someone known throughout the book as Zampano. The footnotes were composed by Truant, and used any time the text reminds him of his own deteriorating life.

            House of Leaves was certainly not the first book I ever read which used the idea of multiple narrators but it was the first – and so far only – book to do so through the use of footnotes. Most of my experiences with footnotes are when an academic is citing their source or briefly expanding on an idea before their argument soldiers on. Here, Truant’s footnotes often go on for pages allowing the reader to further experience the character’s deteriorating mind and increasing fear of their surroundings.

            The effect is created from the use of language within the footnotes. The Navidson Report is supposed to be an academic text and Zampano’s diction reflects the writing that such a word would require. The footnotes are mostly informal, filled with colloquialisms and metaphorical writing that is much more expected from fiction. The effect of the footnotes comes from their unusually long length as well as their juxtaposing language.

            The other one of the Danielewski’s tricks which play with the traditional conventions of reading the book is the way in which the text is formatted. To simulate how Truant and other characters are increasingly frightened of their situation, the text removes itself from the confines of the horizontal lines. There are pages which are intentionally printed upside down, diagonally, and in the direction of the spiral; forcing the reader to physical turn the book around in their hands in order to properly read it.

Before House of Leaves, the most I had ever touched a book while reading it was turning to page to continue the narrative was to turn the pages or refer to the author’s notes later in the book. The idea of physically turning the book in order to experience it was an entirely new experience the book. Combined with the lengthy footnotes, Daneilewski’s novel was the first book which required more than just passively absorbing their words.

The edition which I read was a traditional print book, but it has been argued that the way in which I experienced House of Leaves was a precursor to the way readers would experience e-book years after Danielewski’s book was published.  Bruce Chanen’s thesis is that novel’s use of footnotes and unconventional use of text, forcing the reader to go back and forth between different sections of the book, mirrors “the navigation of digital space, whether hypertext fiction or the World Wide Web.”

Now that I’ve read a number of e-books which use footnotes, I’m not entirely certain that I agree with this notion. Partly because one of Danielewski’s other tricks is his use of different coloured text and many e-readers does not project any colour, but also because the process of going back and forth between different sections of an e-book is much different than going through the same procedure with a print book. With an e-book, the process of clicking on a footnote and the e-reader revealing the contents of the footnote is quite instantaneous. Chanen is correct with their assertion that the book requires the reader to take a non-linear approach to the book, much like the way current students use digital technologies to conduct their research. But the experience requires physically engaging with the book as an object, an idea which the e-book is trying to remove.

Still, House of Leaves was a unique experience for me as a reader because the way in which the book was composed and designed requires the reader to do more than slouch in their seat and occasionally turn the page.