NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire & House of Leaves

[Jasper Fidget]

I tried this book a couple of years ago (based in part on your enthusiasm
for it), and while I liked its ideas and structure, I thought the writing
seemed a bit immature.  I seem to recall it also gave birth to a song (or a
whole album) by his sister...?  I wonder if there's also an actual film
somewhere....

Jspr Fdgt

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of The Great Quail
> Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 12:06 PM
> To: The Whole Sick Crew
> Subject: NPPF - Preliminary - Pale Fire & House of Leaves
> 
> Jasper writes,
> 
> > _Pale Fire_ is an "involuted" (or "self-reflexive") novel -- a novel
> that
> > contains the details concerning its own origin or composition. Anyone
> got
> more?
> > _Pale Fire_ is a fictional academic work -- a work of mock scholarship.
> > Some of Borges' stories come to mind.  There must be others...?
> > And it is a work that contains another work: this makes one think of
> > Elizabethan drama, especially _Hamlet_.
> 
> There's actually a very recent novel that meets all these criteria: Mark
> Z.
> Danielewski's "House of Leaves."
> 
> Clearly inspired in part by "Pale Fire," the book passes itself off as a
> genuine set of annotations by one Johnny Truant, who has organized and
> annotated the unpublished book, "House of Leaves," written by a Borges-
> like
> figure named Zampano. The subject of Zampano's book is actually a film
> called "The Navidson Record," about a house that is bigger inside than it
> is
> outside.
> 
> The actual novel "House of Leaves" is therefore a series of nested
> stories,
> narratives, and annotations.
> 
> http://www.houseofleaves.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi
> 
> http://www.themodernword.com/review_house_of_leaves.html
> 
> --Quail