just marathoned this what should i think about it

Eh it could have been really, really good, but Johnny is an absolute garbage character and actually poisons the rest of the book by his presence. Danielewski never found a believable voice for him and he sounds like an inconsistent sophomore creative writing student. I don't care if this was intentional, it's just terrible and literally painful to read a lot of the time. His descent into insanity is unbelievable and lacks any impact, I just want him to fuck off and let me read.

Other criticisms: the novel is so long that it loses its novelty.

It's cool that the book "reads itself" most of the time, but it sometimes feels like all the interesting analysis is basically done for you, it's like having your cake taken when you read a whole section and the gears start turning, and then Danielewski throws in some really straight analysis. Again, I understand that that's an intentional conceit, but it doesn't make for fun reading.

Lastly it's just overwhelming and it doesn't go anywhere. AGAIN, this is intentional, but AGAIN, it's a weakness IMO. Its one of the worst parts of "postmodern" writing - the point is that, like, there is no point, but you can analyze it endlessly anyways! Once you have these suspicions its really hard to devote effort to a good-faith reading of the work. 2666 almost suffers from the same problem but it makes you BELIEVE that there is a centre, that you could find it, even if your search has to extend beyond the work itself. Danielswizzky attempts the same thing in House of Leaves but basically fails, IMO, by overstimulating you to the point that the illusion breaks down.

His characterization of Karen is shit, he tries to do some interesting gender criticism with her, Zampano is sympathetic to her, but there's nothing redeeming or interesting about her.

The ending is tacked on.

But it's a horror novel, right? It's trying to drag up our subterranean fears. So what's the fear here? I think its that the reading never ends. Typical pomo Derrida shit transposed onto a horror novel. What is a text? What is a para text? Who cares, because THE NOVEL IS READING YOU. Moreover I think it plays at our fears that reality depends on observation in a very real metaphysical sense. Quantumshit, so spooky.

Yeah, I dunno. I think its a pretty interesting failure of a book.

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>>8584502
these feels.. these feels are now my feels.

I was fucking confused the entire time.
I like how intense some parts of it gets though.

>>8584562

What did he meme by this?

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This is such a quality board

We discuss all sorts of things

Like women, white women, black people,
and we definitely will talk about free will, /comfy/ places to read, and why only white men write good books (tfw this is unironically true pic related)

Unfortunately we will not discuss contemporary works


Other than Blood Meridian - what happened in the jakes? Who is the Judge?

But no, House of Leaves
Is So Gay
I can't even

>>8584966
Fuck off cunt, kys

>>8584336
I liked the book in high school when I read it. Interesting concept, and had some really good parts, but I think it was a mostly a failed attempt at a pomo work.
Like >>8584502 said, Johnny was shit and really not needed at all. Or he could have been done better, he could have written an essay on the Navidson report instead of spelling the thing out in the margins along with his own shit stories.

>>8584502
I agree completely

>>8584502
Wow, an intelligent, cogent, meme-free post. Where am I?

>>8584336
The Familiar. Same author.

>>8584502
Gayyyyyy
>>8584966
Fuck yourself niggerlover

>>8584336
I thought that Danielewski cared so much about form/structure that he sacrificed substance. There are parts that are novel, but that novelty is in the structure, not in the underlying actual writing, which to me came across as suffused with banality.

I would argue that if you got rid of the whole ergodic trope and just transposed all the sentences into a normally structured novel it wouldn't receive any praise. And yes, I know that most people like it because of the form, but it's not enough for me.

What did you think about it Anon, was the structure enough for you?

>>8584336
Maybe come up with your own opinion instead of asking us to spoon feed you?

>>8587035
Are you actually a retarded person?

>>8585362
Don't think he should dive into the Familiar if he had difficulty with the HoL, tho.