The Book That Lies to You - House of Leaves Explained
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Finally after a month, the House of Leaves Explained video is out. I really hope everyone enjoys this video essay as much as I enjoyed making it.
House of Leaves is a horror novel from 2000, and it contains some dark stuff so this is a warning.
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I judge people by the books they love among other things.
This book is literally unreadable. It is full of unrelated irrelevant information.
It has few pages full of names, only names.
So, sorry...this book deserves to be classified as trash.
You're so cool dude.
@@Pugsr pin of shame him!
@@strawberrypuddin8919 you got it boss
@@Pugsr 😂😂😂
Yeah...I am proud to have better choices
@@nillieable well i'm proud of u for being mature enough to recognize that people have different tastes and opinions, that just because a piece of art didn't click with you in particular, it does have an audience somewhe- ohhhh wait no my bad it's the opposite mbmb
Beautiful analysis. My theory on the end has two parts: Johnny’s ending and Danielewski’s ending.
Johnny is writing a very long story called ‘House of Leaves” to his mom to comfort her. We know that she is receiving these chapters because of the checkmark. As his mother nears the end, he quits writing, accepting her fate as mentally unwell, and she happens to pass. This is the baby story. Johnny is the singer, his mother the child, and he is writing far too much, far too long, and this superhuman effort that stuns all, is all a way for him to grieve and accept reality, which he eventually does right before she passes.
Danielewski is writing about his father and mother. His mother was mentally unwell and his father had died for him at a young age. The story for him is also about accepting and overcoming a traumatic childhood, while dreaming for a world where solace and healthy love is on the horizon.
Ultimately, that is why it’s called “House of Leaves”. Leaves in the sense of goodbyes. It’s a book about those that go, grief, and finding joy in spite of the pain.
I've heard Mark Z. D. talk about his mother. He said she basically had a mental breakdown when his father left her and had to be institutionalized.
The final story is about how love can't sustain another person. You can't keep someone alive just be loving them. You need to let them go. Also, the last line is "the child is gone." You could take that to mean that Johnny's childhood is gone.
The Minotaur is real. When someone encounters it, and tries to understand it, the Minotaur devours them, and they become fictional. The house was real, until the Minotaur inhabited it. The Navidson family was real, until they found the Minotaur. Zampanó was real. Johnny Truant was real. Pelafina was real. And then they met the(ir) Minotaur, and tried to understand it, and now all that's left of them are stories.
Who's next? Danielewski himself? His agent? His publisher? You? Me?
And echo answers who.
I’m pretty sure the characters were fictional first, which allowed them to meet a Minotaur, not the other way around 😂
"I saw a film today, oh boy" is from a Beatles song though, it's A Day in the Life
Great video but yeah that bothered me so much lol
So glad someone else noticed 😭
the book literally says this too so idk how this guy missed that
I'm sure it was just a meta-commentary on the false info in the book (of if it wasn't, that's a good excuse)
Yes thank you I was about to say it actually fits really well.
When Johnny's mother was writting him the letters the words "nouvelle mere" was written in french meaning your "new mother"
And, given Danielewski's penchant for puns, it can give a false friend of a "novel mother".
HOUSE OF LEAVES CONTENT IN 2024 RAAAAAAAHHHHHH
Your description of Johnny's weird ramblings as anxiety attacks rings really true for me.
That is how I read the scene, because it is pretty much how I feel with my regular anxiety attacks
The house's labyrinth being more and more consuming if you enter alone but perhaps manageable with others feels like it's saying something about our minds themselves... a troubled mind alone will spiral in on itself if it is unchecked
True! And made me realise the house changed the most when those entering it did so with the intention of trying to unravel it's secrets. However those who were just curious and came and went faced virtually no problems
I have never written to a person I don't know online. But this perspective on the story, made me approach the story in a whole new way. Even though I have spent a fair amount of time looking at different interpretations of the story, This is the one that makes the most sense to me. I can finally put this story down, for now. So thank you very much.
Danielewski's sister, the musician Poe, has an entire album meant to be a spiritual companion, as well as working through her own trauma and the loss of their father. It's called Haunted, it's absolutely worth a listen through.
Seconded. Amazing album.
OMG I love Poe
I was so pleased to hear them on the Alan Wake 2 soundtrack!
Poe actually appears in Alan Wake 2. They recently released a DLC entitled Lake House that officially gives Poe a role within the Remedyverse.
My god. This must be one of the most beautifully done and thoughtfully written/spoken explanations of a piece of literature I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. Thank you for your video and thank you for enlightening me today. Your efforts have made me both depressed and hopeful. Thank you.
That's very kind of you, thank you
I have been listening to this intently for the past two hours instead of sleeping. This has to be the most compelling book I have heard of for a while. Thank you for sharing.
Sincerely, someone that maybe should’ve read it before watching, but enjoyed it so much nonetheless.
As a person who has experienced psychosis (and just finished the book), If I had to come up with a theory about the story of the mother and miracle baby, it's that it's about Johhny (the mother) learning to accept his trauma and love from his mother (the baby) and realizing that sometimes healing is letting go. Sometimes there is no right answer. That there's a lot of guilt people can hold on both sides of mental illness for what happens to the person experiencing it. One of the hardest things to accept from what I've been told is that it's not a person acting with mental illness, but rather the mental illness acting through the person. The mental illness can take on a life of its own and it can make people do strange things and act in abnormal ways, but for our loved ones we are still their child/sibling/etc whom they want the best for. How do you care for a person who might not want to get better? Who society sees as a monster that needs to be killed or locked away like a minotaur in a maze? I've heard of cases of noncompliance where people become homeless because they refuse to be compliant with treatment, but are also terribly difficult to live with. What a terrible choice it must be.
I also think the idea of mental illness stalks me as well. I'm compliant with my treatments and live a good life, but there's always the chance my symptoms come back either because a medication stopped working or something goes horribly wrong. I've been told I what I did while ill and those details follow me every day, a bit like a whisper that it's waiting just around the corner.
When Johnny started getting weirded out about the water heater coincidence... I was freaking out because my own water heater had just broke the day before.
@@3Xero3 damn the book is giving you an echo I guess
My favorite part of HoL is how fucking DENSE it is- this was a great video, very thorough, and it doesn’t even begin to touch on all the themes about the nature of fiction and reality. Like the name of the book itself- books are sort of houses made of leaves, right? I like your analysis of Johnny’s word vomit as panic attacks, and I agree on some level, but I also see those moments as a kind of poetry, and a response to seeing something you can’t grasp or describe properly, something that’s too big and abstract to be coherent about. And then the stuff around whose reality is valid, and if it even matters- even if all of this situation, including Zampano, is only in Johnny’s head, he is still feeling the effects of the story- it is not literally true there’s a monster trying to kill him, but he lives his life as if the monster is real. Also this is kind of an aside but if I remember correctly the pelican papers make some allusions to the possibility that zampano is Johnny’s biological father, which is interesting whether you think Johnny made zampano up or he’s real.
Anyways great video, I’m gonna have to pull out my copy again
I really appreciate that. And I love to see other people’s takes. Thanks for the comment!
@@Pugsrfr man this video bangs🎉🎉
I definitely think that the book itself is the house of leaves. It fits with how it represents all the reality warping.
Truly the Dark souls of all books
Okay I just fucken choked on my marshmallow
So I read this book about 20 years ago (I was a nighttime security guard in an office building, and I'd read it at work... made doing rounds an adventure), and I think I have a new theory. I'm sure someone's come up with it before, but I think it's possible that the *real author* (not Danielewsky) is *Zampano,* and *Navidson* is the baby, and this is the story of the baby's birth. Hear me out.
I've heard theories about Zampano actually being Johnny's father before, that it's in the book somewhere that Johnny realizes it or.. something, I don't care enough to look it up at the moment. But at the very beginning of the book, Zampano is torn apart, perhaps the moment he and his wife learned the baby couldn't live, and while his wife sat and sang, he checked out. Unable to bear to be there, checking in only every so often as his life fell apart completely. He's nowhere in that last story, having to hear it told to him by the doctor. After days, he must have thought she was *insane,* sitting there and singing to this dying baby, somehow prolonging its life and his pain. The longer it goes on, the worse his own pain and scars, his sense of abandonment by her and anger at the doctors he feels failed him, became. She won't let the baby go, or maybe they can't let each other go, and until she does, Zampano can't.
The minotaur is his wife, who he must feel is wondering where he is, judging his absence, but also Navidson's wife, who loves him unconditionally, who leaves his side for a moment (goes to NY in the book) to talk to the doctors. The door, the dark hallway to a life of pain, is the baby's childbirth, the men around him who disappear from him one by one his doctors (except his brother, the doctor who keeps talking to the baby and his mother). The sound of the minotaur from the baby's perspective would be the screams of his mother as she gave birth, the hallway expanding and shifting and contracting around him, the hole Tom punches in the wall her water breaking, the gunshots the machinery, but the door disappears behind him and, with time now of the essence, he can no longer leave. She has a C-section and he's conscious for a very brief time, only to be swept back into unconsciousness from his condition. As he does she cries the tears that she needs to cry for him, and now without hope, she goes back to his side and sings. The walls that had contained him having fallen away, he only floats in blackness, and there is music. He floats there for a time, and then there is a light.
But we don't hear what happens after the baby flatlines. Perhaps Zampano can't handle it right away, and has a meltdown, finding himself unable to be close to her. She is overcome by grief combined with postpartum psychosis and, as he drifts farther and farther away, unable to bring himself to be present for her, she eventually kills herself. The light her baby sees is his mother coming to join her son.
Zampano had become "Johnny Truant," the father who couldn't be there for his wife and child who wouldn't be. At the end he sits on the beach, thinking back on everything and finally letting go, remembering the story the doctor told him.
I read this before watching this video. Don't know if it'll help but I'll try to finish the video. I think what you said sounds amazing though
This sounds very well thought out but it does strike absolutely no cords with my interpretation
How could Zampano be Johnny? if you’re assuming Zampano was a dad and Johnny wasn’t a dad.
@@cubonefan3 Clarify? not sure what Johnny not being written as a dad has to do with it.
i haven't read the book, so i might be completely wrong, but the story of the mother and her baby at the end reminds me of johnny's relationship with his own mother - only johnny is the mother, and his mom is the baby. perhaps he constructed this entire impossible, absolutely insane story in order to entertain her, to perhaps give her something to latch on to, but at the end of the day, no matter how much he strained himself, he could not force her to survive. so after all of that effort to deal with his grief and perhaps turn it into something more manageable, he knew it was time to let it go. it may not make sense for us, the readers, but it does for him. that's my take on it, anyway.
it could be. That's a good take, you could be on to something.
Explains the note in the beginning. "This is not for you"
A few thoughts on names in the book ... Johnny Truant: 'Truant' meaning absentee, as young Johnny was to his hospitalised mother (at least in her mind), plus I always assumed 'Lude' was short for Quaalude, a hypnotic sedative drug, commonly misused in the 80's/90's, more properly used in psychiatric treatment, perhaps including Johnny's mother.
Also, in the appendices, all instances of Johnny's surname, as well as his father's surname, are blanked. The editors even mention that this was done because Johnny specifically wished that.
Didn't his mother in one of her letters literally say "Johnny is truant" during one of her episodes? I'm almost sure he took it as his pen name as a way of "paying tribiute" or however you want to interpret it. Man, how scarring it has to be to get a letter from your hospitalized mom where she basically tells you "thanks for not caring for me".
It might also be pun on "lewd", because he FUCKS a lot.
It could also be a play on "homo ludens" which means "creative human being". If it fits, maybe?
I’ve no words.
I read this back in high school on a recommendation from my dad. I remember not getting it but being very interested in it. I even made a “HoL Grail” notebook that I’d jot down interpretations and “secrets” scattered within the book. Including (mainly) the letters from the mom. (Including the capital letter letter about the moms perceived SA)
At the time being a young(er) man, as I said before, I didn’t grasp the concept. As it is a VERY far reaching concept for a novel. Upon watching/listening to you explain this book in more detail pieces like a puzzle started fitting together. Implications that flew over my head hitting me like a brick thrown at my face.
Now upon gaining clarity that was once nonexistent, this video brought me to tears. Similarly to Johnny Truant; and as I’ve said previously, I’ve forgotten pieces of this story, heck, I forgot I finished reading the book as it felt so incomplete, so disjointed to me at the time.
The reason I was brought to tears was the realization of the trauma Johnny experienced, and his journey dealing with it as you’ve stated. And unfortunately, the parallels I draw to my own life. As a child of a multi-generational traumatized family, so much makes sense to me as I’ve gotten older and having gained the wherewithal to comprehend what has happened not only to me as a child, but to my parents. My own mother and her mother. The stories my mother tells me about how her mother abused and traumatized her. How my own traumas at the literal hands of my own parents individually and collectively have affected me. How I’ve (whether intentionally or not) forgotten. It gets buried to protect you. Whether you want it or not. I don’t write this for sympathy but as a perspective.
(Unfortunately again) it’s amazing what our brains are capable of when it thinks it is in danger. The ability to compartmentalize is astonishing. I’ve been in multiple PHYSICAL altercations with my own parents. Some I was too young to fight back, some not. Similarly to Johnny, there are certain “triggers” that gain certain responses. Johnny and purple. Me and the smell of Whiskey/Scotch.
Funnily enough, through time and some inevitable circumstances (deaths) my mom has had to face her own. It’s brought her on a path of research and discovery. Of diagnoses and recollections. She will bring me her findings. For example, she says people in general are just living reaction to reaction. And they don’t even know it! And these reactions are the result of prior stimuli or happenstance.
What that also unfortunately includes is people who abuse. (And the abused as a result) They don’t even realize that they’re reacting to their own triggers. What’s worse is that even if you bring up the trauma to your abuser in a non-confrontational manner, they will most likely not remember it the way the abused remembers it, or worse disregard it. Even the abused will unintentionally forget the trauma as a way to cope.(Compartmentalization)
Now, sorry for the trauma dump, but it’s a segue into a theory of mine. The color “blue” whenever the word “House” is mentioned isn’t really a blue but a specific shade of purple. The purple that Johnny associates with his mother nearly killing him. When he pissed and/or shat himself, similarly to when he thought he did in the tattoo parlor. The “house” itself being a larger representation of trauma as a whole. It’s layered. The house “houses” the trauma. But deeper within its recesses, hidden away, an unseen passageway, leading to an ever-changing maze or LABYRINTH! Of which represents the complexities of the mind and comprehension of our own traumas. (And by extension, how to navigate it and how hopeless it can feel to find its source as it is ever-changing based on those within it)
I’m sure each character represents some individual aspect of Johnny, as this is Johnny’s story through and throughout.
As a final side note as I know this comment is LOOOOOONNNG. The throwaway line about Johnny looking like he was on meth (and as you pointed out) was a very good guess. As many people with mental illness or severe trauma tend to turn to heavy drug usage to cope with their feelings. Which is what Lude is most likely a reference to. (Since he dies of an OD) Also generally, upkeep and tidiness tends to be something neglected when undergoing mental health crises.
This book is perfect and Mark Danielewski obviously has done his research and I’m sure most if not all of this has come from his own experience. I want to continue but I will leave it here. Thank you for this amazing content. And to those who read this novel of a comment, I applaud you and appreciate you.
If you find yourself struggling. Find yourself a Thumper. Someone who cares enough to listen. Someone who cares enough to be there through the anxieties and depression. Someone who calls you to make plans even though they themselves have been neglected by you. Those people are the ones you want. They are there for you and they are showing they care for you. Stay strong and have a lovely day.
If you can't be a Thumper to someone else, don't bother Thumper. She deserves her own life & not to be a trauma dumpster.
Don't listen to people who warn you away from seeking help and kindness until you can "repay" or "earn" it. It may not always ballance: what some do for you, what you do for others, sure... but many people (healthy people) love to help, and can do so in ways that respect themselves and their own needs at the same time.
Give the potential Thumpers of the world respect/honor enough to be invited to play a role in your life.
Sometimes loving a person can look like taking on an unfair burden for them for as long as and to the degree that you get to have more of them in your life.
Asking for help - seeking it out - is an act of kindness for both you and the person who gets to keep you (and who gets to be trusted with you). We must ultimately mend the deepest wounds ourselves, but the fear that we cannot or do not deserve to depend at times upon the generosity of people will only ever be as true as the credence we give such a theory in our minds.
All I can say is I appreciate this
another neat piece of evidence that i didn’t see brought up here was in one of Pelafina’s letters: “…many years destroyed. Endless arrangements-re. zealous accommodations, medical prescriptions & needless other wonders, however obscure-debilitating in deed; you ought understand-letting occur such evil?”
a nonsensical phrase that, when ran through the ‘first letter’ code often used by Pelafina, says “My dear Zampano, who did you lose?”
as this letter is addressed to Johnny, i think it’s a very solid piece of evidence to connect Johnny and Zampano as one in the same, though the “who did you lose” part throws me through a loop.
My mom is Johnny’s mom. First with untreated and undiagnosed mental illness and now with dementia. I love my mother but have been times when I’ve had to cut contact for the safety and sanity of myself and my family. I do my best but I hold so much guilt for not being able to heal her, even though I never had that power.
This if very hard, I wish all the best to you, your family and you mom.
We had a similar thing with my grandma. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. She was convinced of "being a burden" and that everyone hated her (neither of which was true) and threatened with unliving herself for years. Nobody took her seriously after some time, and then one day she did it...
@@SMJSmoK
I'm really sorry if my reply seems callous in some way, but saying "unaliving" about a real person, let alone your own family member to describe committing suicide just comes off as horrid to me.
If you're concerned about the comment being deleted by RUclips's shit systems I understand to an extent, I've had to wrestle with that many, *_many_* times myself, but generally a comment won't get deleted for mentioning suicide. There are also other euphemisms beyond "unalive" like "taking one's own life".
My mother is not this incoherent, but she has lost control before and said some insanely nasty things about trauma I have gone through. It is indescribable to explain to people how much it hurts to have someone say they love you while they're hurting you, and for that person to be your mother.
It's a strange comment to say that "no one" understands that last story by Johnny Truant. There are lots of theories, and the most prevalent one is that the baby is Johnny, because Johnny Truant DOESN'T EXIST, and he vanishes from the story right there. And Johnny Truant doesn't exist because, right on the Copyright page, The Editors say straight out: "This novel is a work of fiction". And the whole thing is like that. Navidson disbelieves what is happening with the House but proceeds as if it real. Zampano admits the Navidson Record is probably a hoax but proceeds in his huge study as though this means something. Truant tells us that the movie DOES NOT EXIST, and almost all the primary and secondary sources cited by Zampano are fictional. And at the top, The Editors confirm it is ALL fiction.
Most fiction operates under the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. We know the story is fiction, but if the story is engrossing enough, we forget the fiction and fall into the story. So here we have in HoL as engrossing a work of fiction as one can experience, and yet there are FOUR levels of narrative screaming at us that all the levels below theirs are false! We are reading a novel yelling at us not to believe any of it. And yet, like all those narrative levels, WE persist, and read the book anyway. So WE are the very top level of the narrative. So...what was YOUR Minotaur?
Nothing against your analysis, but if that is true that is really dumb and a big ass waste of time
@@nicholasgeere5125 I think that final question, "What is your minotaur?" means to ask what it was in the book that you feared, or what you found within the fiction that came to life for you.
That’s so interesting
@@Icarus-I37 for me it came early in the book. It's the themes of self reflection, mental illness, and the feelings of self doubt that stuck out the most. As a kid I had a terrible fear of mirrors, I always felt my mind was going to play a trick on me and show me something in the mirror that I wouldn't be able to handle. While I knew it wouldn't be real, I was also aware enough of the fact that I would think it was real. So I tried not to look too deep into mirrors, and any room that had mirrors reflecting into mirrors would often send chills down my spine.
The part of the book where a hole is punched in the wall, where there's text in blue boxes and it's supposed to symbolize looking through the hole into darkness. That's not how I interpreted it at all. For me, that section was about self reflection, and it was trying to mimic the effect of mirrors. The text in blue boxes was flipped on the opposite page, just like how mirrors flip things around as well. In these text boxes we're being told what doesn't exist in this space. With each deeper reflection we are told that there is less and less there until finally we've gone as deep as we can and there exists nothing but darkness.
Mirrors are very much the same, if you put a mirror in front of another and stand between them and try to look as deep as you, each reflection gets darker and darker until there's nothing there. To me, after that section I couldn't help but interpret the book saying "if you keep digging deeper and deeper inside yourself, how long until you find there's been nothing inside you this whole time?" Not going into too much detail so I'll just say I've had a problem with self-destructive self-reflection in the past, mainly due to anxiety disorders so this section and then the rest of the book horrified me.
That would be my minotaur. that's what this book was to me. Fantastic book, would not recommend it to most people though lol
Bro really just described what “fiction” is.
loved this video. my only comment is that, when reviewing the date for Johnny's journal entries It seems like he forgot Lude is dead, but he didn't, he actually didn't know yet, the journal entry is just repeated. the section begins Oct 25th 1998, until Oct 30th 1998. there's then a break and it skips back to May 1998 and then the entries go on until it makes it back to the entry shown at the beginning of the chapter (Oct 25th "Lude's dead." then skips the Gdansk man and Kyrie stuff and skips to Nov 2nd). it really threw me for a loop because I also thought he was forgetting his friend's death until I noticed that, he actually doesn't even know he's dead yet according to the date of the journal entry. I love the way it was formatted but I wonder why that choice was made
Sounds purposely confusing
@cubonefan3 it certainly is lmao
A note on ergotic literature it's actually becoming more popular. Args fall under this sort of storytelling and so do things like most of fromsofts games, where you have to actively work and investigate to discover the story.
House of Leaves is mt favorite book. I think i remember hearing a quote from Danielewski about house soneone once told him "I don't think it [House of Leaves] is a horror story, it actually a love story," and Danielewski agreed. Interesting insignt.
I discovered House Of Leaves back in High School in the year 2005, read it right before I graduated in 2007 and I became dangerously obsessed with figuring out that book.
There was significantly less information on the book available online back then to, and certainly no Doom mods were around that referenced it.
It truly was and still is the most special book I've ever read for how deeply engaging and engrossing it actually is as a book.
It's unfortunate though, I've tried reading Mark's other books, and they're not really as interesting as House Of Leaves but they do interesting things with the concepts of how to physically read the story.
His very next book was the same story from two different perspectives of a boyfriend and girlfriend going on a road trip that you're supposed to read from the outside into the middle (if I remember correctly it's been a while)
Glad you finally got the video essay out and did the book justice! I found out about it through the band The Fall of Troy and their songs "You got a death wish Johnny Truant?" and "The Hol()y Tape". I always saw it as a story about love and loving someone that isn't well - and how that pain affects the rest of your life
Haha, I’m pretty sure I found out about the book the same way in high school. That song and Circa Survive’s “House of Leaves”! I remember reading it back then for the first time and really enjoying the story, but it was mostly at face value since a lot of the symbolism and deeper meanings went a bit over my head at the time.
Oh my God I was wondering throughout the entirety of reading this book "where have I heard the name Johnny Truant before?" I was obsessed with Doppelganger my freshman year of high school, so it's crazy to hear that, in a way, I knew about this book years and years before I actually read it
Great video! I just finished the book last night, and came to this to pick some more.
I think this is a great analysis. I recognized I picked up the book constantly after I finished it to unravel more and more. Even this video showed more and more I didn't see. One thing struck me though and that it's the fact that all of her letters happen around the 1980s, but if Johnny is to be believed, him writing the book happens much later in the 1990s as he starts becoming an adult.
Clearly he has repressed memories and fears of the past, jumping from place to place as a kid with a mother who sent him very horrible letters effectively detailing her mental decline as he was developing. While it's horror, I think it's a love story about letting go. Clearly, the start of this book is after his mother has died (Again, if you can believe Johnny). So everything he is writing about is almost like he finally has the courage to ACTUALLY respond to his mother in the best way he knows how, by creating a story, and dropping hints for her that only she will understand. The only problem is the key to understanding everything has died long ago. Which I think the parallels of Mark's life come into play. I think losing a parent or child is so difficult that for YEARS you're unable to cope or grasp the understanding, add the layer of mental decline of a loved one, you get to watch them deteriorate into a shell of their former self, and yeah, I can understand how that can take stronger effect on you to accept what has really happened, especially at such an early age in life.
I'm rambling, but basically what I am trying to say is I think everything you said in the video makes sense. my only color commentary here is, I think the story is about Johnny, or Mark, losing their parent at an early age, descending into madness, drugs or any vice for years, to avoid the fear of the reality of it, and finally, now that he has the chance to finally handle what happened to his mother responds to her to heal, in the best way he knows how, by writing a story to finally respond to her letters. To ACTUALLY respond to them. He finally forgives her, himself, or maybe both, and let's go, giving himself the strength to move forward. Which is where I think the story the doctor friend told comes into play, the child with the holes in their head, I think oddly enough the mother in that story is Johnny, and her going to the doctor to pull the plug symbolizes him finally letting go and reassuring his mother that he loves her whether she was able to understand that or not.
my brain is a constant battle between this book, Poe, and Remedy’s video games
It's not a loop, it's a spiral
I appreciate the use of the Tartarus exploration theme from Persona 3 as the background music for this retrospective; it fits the narrative for the book flawlessly.
the Beatles quote is from their song ‘A Day in the Life’ on Sgt Peppers- one of their best (and weirdest) songs. McCartney and Lennon both have similar but differing sections, Lennon being the “I saw a film today oh boy..” and “I read the news today oh boy..” while McCartney’s section is the more jaunty ‘woke up, fell out of bed’ section. That could set the precedence for the book in a different way as the diverging sections of the song could be representative of the diverging storylines in the book?
This must have been a daunting task before ya started man. I've been wanting a full breakdown for many many years now here on youtube because I find myself thinking back on this book all the time throughout the years and always wanted something I could bounce my own ideas off of. So thank you man!
When the doctor that managed mental institute *did actually change (as the original noting his retirement in the letter) his mother could no longer tell the difference between the old one and the new one, because she can’t trust her own perception
I read this book over a decade ago and it really stuck with me. Every so often something will remind me of it. Reading it was a full on experience - often frustrating, but never enough to make me give up on it. I swear, it felt like an actual accomplishment finishing it. Great video!
Something I always found interesting about the book was that Johnny's ramblings *weren't* nonsense. It closely resembles the ramblings of actual crazy people, where it sounds like nonsense unless you get the chance to parse through it (and have experience with that kind of thing).
For example, the last section in the book that you mention (late time stamp 1:21:48 ):
Of course there always will be darkness, something inhabits it, historical or not - It's alluding to how he's being haunted by something that may or may not be real, but haunts him none the less.
Like a cat, a panther with its mad moon gait, or a tiger with stripes of ash - Wordy, but referring to how that haunting may be small, medium, or highly dangerous by describing them as various felines.
Curve of the wrist or long lost romance section - Describing how all of those one night stands and flings may be part of what haunts him.
Vapor trail speeding west - Not 100% on it, but vaguely it is about his travels, running from things, but history repeating.
Images akin to a Voice - Everything he described are snapshots of his life, things he's lived through like he's following the guidance of something else.
Sweeps through all of us - Whatever he is listening to, it influences all of us.
Sweeps through you - Johnny's story now influences us as well.
This was literally posted a day after I started this book. Finally finished it and I'm now here to watch. Good video dude!
Ah another victim of a cool My House.wad video lol. One of my favorites is by a RUclipsr named Power Pak. It’s a great video, that was also my introduction to this entire thing.
I’ve still yet to read House of Leaves, but there is something so incredible about the Doom mod and how entranced people seem to be by the book it’s inspired by. Although I did side-step your warning, I can promise that I did it with reason as my adhd is probably going to cause me to struggle reading this book anyway. So thank you for this video and amazing summary bro. Being able to listen to something like this really can help me when I get to actually trying to read o7
I'd like to think this book is the result of someone who attempted to read Necronomicon or The King in Yellow playwright.
The Necronomicon is a fictional book made by someone who went insane simply creating it and contains knowledge to make anyone reading it brought to insanity thanks to its forbidden knowledge.
The King in Yellow is a play where Act I is relatively normal with attempting to read Act II inducing insanity making the play impossible to complete.
I'd like to think House of Leaves gives you a simulated glimpse into such insanity/madness.
i remember so so vividly, reading the whalestoe letters. i was in highschool in a literature class, and i was absentmindedly writing down the code... and i still remember how it felt to read those words. the shock and the fright of it all. i remember gasping aloud and not caring that id made a strange noise in a silent classroom amongst so many people. it was surreal, and truly a memory ill keep forever.
Fantastic work. I learned of the book the same way, I ordered the book while I was in the army with nothing else to do. It really got me through some times so I’ll always have a special place in my heart for it.
Great work breaking it down for a digestible video. Super hard to do in my opinion. I think the book isn’t too difficult to read but I’ve shown to friends who couldn’t even finish it. Actually everyone I showed it too couldn’t get through it.
Hey thank you for this intuitive analysis of the book. I recently purchased it and was reading. In addition I found a channel of a person reading it which is helpful while I’m at work. As much as I can make my own assumptions of a story, I love to hear other people’s thoughts. I think it’s very profound that the book is not only a story for Johnnys mother but also regarding the authors.
I have to say you really brought a lot of things into perspective. 😊😊
The Beatles Quote is legit, and pretty sure "Lude" is pronounced "lood" like quaalude or Ludacris.
Great to see you cover house of leaves, genuinely at 10/10 book
(Great review btw)
@@DoofeFlussferdaww I really appreciate that
"a big toe for you" gave me flashbacks to reading this book 15 years ago.... I do thin HoL needs to be required reading for critical thinking and how to write an essay purposes.
if I recall correctly, Mark's sister Poe did an interview with HoL's companion piece, her album Haunted, and I specifically remember her saying it was about the complicated relationship with their father. Memories change over time though...
Thank you for the video; as I said, I remember reading it a loooooong time ago so getting a coherent summery along with the theories was very nice.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me relive the experience of this masterpiece.
aww thank you
10:11 the quote is “I saw a film today, oh boy” which is from one of John Lennon’s verses in A Day in the Life. “I saw a film today, oh boy/the English army had just won the war.” It’s a reference to the film John starred in, How I Won the War
I really liked this video, great work! I would like to share some of my thoughts about this book. First, there's something I would like to point to: Appendix III - Contrary Evidence. In this Appendix the Editors show us proof that The Navidson Record was real. Johnny lies all the time and edits parts of Zampano's Manuscript. He lies about things existing or not all the time. For example: he says that a reference, "The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume XXVIII" did not exist, but at page 658 of Appendix III the Editors show us proof that it was, in fact, real. The same for the documentary, showing us a frame of the movie and even some art made in response to the film. Johnny used Zampano's manuscript to tell his own story, hijacking Zampano's tale as a way to tell his and Pelafina's story, painting it as not real, taking more and more pages of the book to talk about himself and express his feelings of anxiety, trying to make the story as much about him than Navidson and Zampano.
But at the same time, why would Pelafina mention Zampano in a secret code inside one of her letters? A coincidence? Maybe Zampano's name was another one, edited and modified by Johnny as a reference to his Mother? There's also the mystery of the dead baby at the end of Johnny's story. Not to mention the YGGDRASIL at the very end of the book, the Tree connecting many Worlds. Where did the House stand on? Ash Tree Lane. All the layers of fiction and reality are connected by the House, just as YGGDRASIL connects different Worlds. There's a chapter about Navidson's realization that the House is La Maison-Dieu, the God/House. The House is God, God is a House. Both unfathomable, impossibly old, unintelligible like a Maze.
But with all that said, it's all a Novel. A work of fiction. The only true interpretation is that House of Leaves is a work of fiction written by MZD. Following any other path leads you straight back to the Labyrinth, to House of Leaves. With that said, that's my interpretation of the story. I don't think it is completely incompatible with yours, besides the part about the fictionality, within the story's world, of both Zampano and The Navidson Record.
Other curious stuff I have noticed: Pelafina's color is Purple, as is the word Novel, the struck-through 'First Edition' and "what I'm remembering now" at chapter XXI. Maybe purple is anything related to Reality, beyond the book. The book is a Novel, 'First Edition' is struck-through to try to hide it, just like Zampano tried to hide his Minotaur. "what I'm remembering now" is also struck-through, probably meaning that the following passage relates to something that happened at Our World, Reality, something related to MZD perhaps?
Every time I try to talk about this book I start to ramble, I'm sorry.
Great video, first of all
I think that final bit, the story of the mother and the baby, is one of few things that actually happened, and the vast majority of what we're reading are the ramblings and coping mechanisms of Palefina, who lost her son and went crazy. I dunno if that theory lines up perfectly with everything else, but it's the only way I can justify that last story and just how impactful it feels when you read it.
My personal take on the story of the mother and her baby at the end is that the baby is supposed to be Johnny's young sibling who died, triggering his mother's mental illness. I think she had some kind of postpartum psychosis after the birth and the trauma of losing your baby right after its born caused her mental state to sharply decline
Whoa I like that theory a lot. That scene made me wonder if Johnny was the baby that died but there’s so many mentions of brothers throughout the book (Jacob and Esau, Navidson and Tom) that I could really see this because the case.
I have a theory she's hallucinating everything writing notes to someone who doesn't exist pleasing for help in code. She may or not be at the mercy of the director or a institution worker saying they are the director. I think she only had one child and that one died. The rest is her mind spiraling loose associations with literature and entertainment she likes. I think she was achedmeic and that's why sometimes uncharacteristically the characters have access to higher vocabulary, and connections, or word salad, and formal technical writing skills outside of hobby interest. I also think the poetry is kind of symbolic to how ones mind goes from highly technical to scrambled brief impressions that only make sense to the person experiencing psychosis and or schizophrenia. It's just a little personal theory, I think the companion book helped me reach that conclusion as it's a choice to only do a book of her letters. I feel that's very important and shifted my personal understanding of her tragic story. Though I'd love to prove it and put it together one day
A very very good piece of analysis. I originally missed a lot when reading the book, it had its mysetery, and still has, but your view provides a very cogent perspective.
I hope someday someone will manage to make a game that feels like HoL, game with a house inspired by THE house but where the game itself is the house. Where just like the book it does weird stuff like change genres or playstyles. Imagine a game about managing a science team exploring the house, but suddenly it changes to an FPS where you're in the house, or it changes to a movie. I really hope someday we will get games that rival HoL
Control is that game.
Check the “My House” Video about a Doom mod. It’s something similar that really pulled off the same uncanny and horror vibes
Naissance kinda will give you that, though it's more of the abstracted reality-melted void part of the book than the full spectrum of things.
Danielewski repeatedly shoots down ideas for adaptations because people only want to adapt the Navidson Record/house exploration part of the book and not every layer of it. i think your idea would work best if it was only inspired by the book and tried to do it sown thing instead of an attempt to recreate the novel.
myhouse.wad (the Doom mod which is also referenced in the video) is pretty much this. It also comes with a meta-narrative about its own creation and it's extremely well made.
I have a hypothesis about the book. I had a few personal details appear in the book as well (a birthday is mentioned and it's the exact same as someone close to me; a specific location is mentioned that I have a lot of sentimental attachment to). When I first read those two parts, it shook me up. Was it like that for you when Holloway was mentioned? Like, "No way that's in here, what are the odds?" My hypothesis is that there are so many details, some percentage of people are bound to identify with one or more of them. Nearly every state is mentioned, for instance (I haven't checked how many EDIT: just checked and every state is in the index). A lot of cities, dates, names, etc. So maybe this was intentional on MZD's part. Maybe it's another way of breaking the reader's psyche.
i already left one comment but i needed to comment again for the whalestoe letters. only a couple letters in and it gets me every time. first, for those who dont know, these were published in a book called the whalestoe letters, with some additional ones. the letters start off so innocuous, but each one fills me with more and more dread. i cant help but feel like there is a something a little oedipal? she put johnny up on such a high pedestal, almost like a replacement to the husband that she lost
Thank you for creating this video, I was really hoping you would. I'm just starting into it now, I hope I can finish it at once. Thanks again for uploading this one!
An amazing analysis of an amazing book! Your book deep dives are most definitely your best content. I would highly recommend you continue to create more videos about "horror" stories that also have a much deeper meaning. And that final story could be his way of reversing what had happened throughout the rest of the book. When he was little, it was determined she was sick and would have to be let go. He thought of her/sang to her the best he could by spending 10 years working on a book for her. Then when it was ready and he knew it was time to let go, she died?
Great job man. This is really well made!
I'm really enjoying your summarization so far, excited to hear your theories later on in the video
Could the last story be the real story? Could everything, even Johnny himself, be an invention of the mother - a future her son will never have?
Interesting take...🤔
I was thinking along these lines too!
I believe the last thing Johnny says about the baby and the mother is actually what happened. That the book is about the "what if" of the child having survived. The Navidson Record is an echo of Johnny's would-be life and Will Navidson symbolizes the yet-to-be-born baby. The five-and-a-half-minute hallway signifies the baby(Will)'s travel from womb to life.
This ostensibly makes the House her womb, and she is unsure if she somehow was the cause of the baby's poor health. The way she reconciled with this guilt was by envisioning her insides as a labyrinth--inside of which dwells the Minotaur. King Minos's relationship with the Minotaur is crucial here: he loves his child, but the guilt of its horrid existence causes him to hide it away. The Minotaur would very likely be consumed by confusion--its father loved him, but also hated the fact that he had ever been born. Quite a divisive relationship, not unlike the one between Pelafina and Johnny.
She (the Singing Mother) believes that life cannot exist inside her--perhaps in a similar way to how the House crushes and mutilates those that dwell within.
Remember the chapter on Echoes. The House(womb) is a labyrinth and an echo chamber. Johnny feels the echo of Pelafina's "attack," feels the Minotaur's presence on those occasions where he is triggered by Purple. We know that he is not actually being attacked, but is "remembering" the attacks P wrote about in her letters to him. Because this is the story of "what if" the baby survived, Johnny's feelings are directly linked with those of the singing Mother--that is, she is reconciling her feelings by projecting them onto him. So Johnny being attacked in the womb is an echo of the Mother's guilt for making him too malformed to live.
Then there's Purple. Throughout the book, only two words are colored- Minotaur in red, House in blue. When Johnny is confronted with the combination of House and Minotaur, the Purple truth that he never survived infancy, he is attacked. The Singing Mother believes that she is doing this to him, and he is misled by the Echo chamber into thinking that he's being attacked by the Minotaur when in reality he is the Minotaur being pushed away by King Minos (the singing mother).
This ended up being more of a brain-dump but thanks for making space to talk about this book.
Okay the story about the dog woke me up because I didn't mention it. The Pekinese symbolizes the singing mother's reconciliation of her decision to try to keep the baby alive. The part of her (Johnny) which would love and care for her baby(MinotaurPekinese), even drooling and malformed, couldn't consider getting rid of it. So it would seem to the Johnny part of her that the Johnnie part (who did not want to keep the baby the minotaur the Johnny the Zampano the House is the hallway the labyrinth
Bunnicula and the Celery Stalks at midnight goes hard though.
This sounds like an amazing book and you did an amazing job of covering it!
The part with the Pekinese dog makes me sick
It just shows how much the girls that Johnny sleeps with are like: he’s trying to make up for a lack of motherly connection
I really have to thank you, for this insight. This was a great video.
I myself came to the book last year via a video of a doom map, called My house. It took me 2 month to read house of leaves and with your video i am finally at the end of this journey, sad but hopefull.
As i had read it in the german translation the colours red for minotaurus and purple where not printed and these clues where missing. Which is very sad.
I hope the best for you! 🙂
This video is great, you did an amazing job. House of leaves is an incredibly dense work, and you managed to cover a lot of the mysteries in it. But I also wanted to say that the Wolf among us music was a great touch
“I Saw a Film Today, Oh Boy….”
A line from a Beatles song, A Day in the Life. So yes, they did actually say it 😂
Thank you for the great analysis, Pugs
thats the best video on house of leaves ive seen, congrats man
@@WobblesandBean wouldn't say arrogant exactly, but it was definitely lackluster
When I was in college, my favorite professor told us about a character that William Faulkner had used in two different novels, explaining to us that his death in one novel contradicted what Faulkner had said about his life in the other. She asked us how we could reconcile the two different versions, and gave us just long enough to start coming up with wild ideas. Then she said, “He’s a fictional character. He doesn’t exist. There’s nothing to reconcile.”
Cut to me a few years later reading people theorizing wildly about how all the weird references and coincidences and discontinuities of _House of Leaves_ could be reconciled if you solve the right code or whatever. I had to laugh. I personally think the book is Mark Danielewski playing a prank on graduate students and anyone else who likes to overanalyze texts.
One of my favorite books, and one I can almost never recommend casually. I have to know the person well enough to get a feel as to whether they'll appreciate it or not. I loved the book, and didn't always appreciate it, you have to put in a bit of work.
logged in just to comment. That was an amazing video. I'm usually prejudice against these "ppl talking while gaming" videos xD (im old and stubborn) but this one really changed my mind. Really enjoyed all of it. Very well written summary and interpretation. Really appreciate the respect you gave this book instead of treating it like a fad to farm views on. This makes me really wish I read more books growing up or involved in literature more. u have a new subscriber!
@@elliotj6896 thanks that’s very kind of you!
2 seconds in and i see the fear and hunger 2 soundtrack. Locking in: this is gonna be a good one
Wonderful book.. I have it in all 3 editions that I know of. One of my favorite features is in the full color edition, the word house is blue like a hyperlink, implying the infinity within and minotaur is in red everytime you see it so it really draws your attention when it's like on the next page from where you are reading.
A thought just came to my mind. So apparently all the crossed-out Minotaur things are in red, and all the word "house", whether combined with prefixes, on the book cover, the reviews, even in different languages-are in blue. If you mix red and blue, you get purple.
Also the color purple, in a way, doesn't really exist, as it does not appear on the light spectrum(not to be confused with violet, which does exist). So in a way purple is something entirely made up.
The part after johhny encounters the gdansk man and the date changes from October to may is simply a flashback, it is previous journal entries that johhny wrote but it appears in the text out of order, both the dates being in 1998 as well as the large dash on the bottom of page 498 and middle of 515 support this, so no johhny did not forget that lude died, the journal entry that mentions him calling him just takes place before he found out about his death.
house of leave discussion AND der eisensrache?! this video is gold
55:55 I'm pretty sure theyre actually arguing about the part after Holloway shoots himself, where the camera watches "fingers of darkness" consume his corpse, about whether that was the monster or some function of the house
ough i keep noticing other small mistakes im sorry im too tired to systematically mention all of them
There's actually a more full book of Pelafina's letters, called _The Whalestoe Letters._
That video game line was too spot on im literally playing BreakPoint while listening to this video 🤣🤣
About that story Johnny told at the end. My interpretation is that its very similar to what Johnny's mom said about strangling him being an expression of love. An irreplaceable and often impossible gift is that of closure. I think the purpose of that story was to illustrate the grief of his mother dying without him being able to tell her goodbye
good to know i’m not the only one that read HoL because of the doom video
I read this when it was published and similarly became quite obsessed over its meaning or intent. I’ve picked it up twice since but only to read the Navidson material. Good to see it still has the power the grab people.
Hey
Just discovered your channel and i really enjoy your writing.
Hope to see your audience growing.
Also also
Would love to see more videos about horror books
@@lanni5 I’m thinking about it because I have one I wouldn’t mind doing, but we’ll see how this video does in the algorithm a bit first.
I also got into this thing because of videos of that doom mod and even playing it somewhat. I remember I was not able to finnish it. Much like this book first time I tried to read/listen to it. I have not been able to get a hold of real book version and I as you think the footnotes are crucial for undesrtanding this. So even if highly unoptimal and I know it will taint my analysis of it i am mixing watching these youtube analysis of the book while listening to the audio version on youtube. One of the analyses had this actual quote from some interview of the author: (sorry its a bit long and I transcibed it from youtube video. Have not verified if this actual quote.)
"Pretty soon you begin to notice that every level of the novel some act of interpretation is going on. The question is why? well there are many reasons but the most important is that everything we encounter involves and act on interpretation on our part. We believe that our memories keep us in direct touch with what has happened. but memory never puts us in touch with anything directly. It's always interpretative reductive complicated compression of information in house of leaves you are always encountering text where some kind of intrusion's taking place. The reason no one i repeat no one is ever presented with sacred truth in books or in life. and so we must be brave and accept how often we make decisions without knowing everything. "
That is something some fan explained to the author but author liked it so much to reproduce the idea in interview. It's almost like author is making postmodern point that everything is all arbituary/intepretation and nothing is real. The whole book is this maze and it's so easy to get lot in it and not see the point.
But the more I read I feel there is actually a story of Johnny trying to come peace with childhood trauma and trying his best to forgive her mother. Trying to make his life more meaningful and better. Maybe the ever extending corridor is somekind of metaphor for trauma and in the book navidson record. And we see how different types of people try to come in terms in trauma. Others it desroys. Others can be saved by love. Or maybe postmodernism is true and in the end I will not find any meaning or point to the book and its just these intellectual mindgames and well built maze or literary references and tricks by the author to just make it seem there is more to it than there actually even is. Would be kinda sad if author built this magnificent maze and never put any prize in the end of that maze if its even possible to get to the end as reader. Maybe its just full of deadends. Somehow i still tend to think its not that.
Zampano also had a relationship with the Minotaur
He’s also absent during the entire story
Could he be a stand in for Johnny’s own deceased father, his character made up of Johnny’s projected beliefs about his father and his blindness being a surrogate trait for absence
this is a great summary. as for the story at the end, i wonder if its a story that johnnys mother told him, before she was sent away.
3:10 Sounds like it's in reference to ergotism, which is a condition caused by ergot - a fungus - that makes people act mad and erratic. If I remember correctly, it's also hypothesised to be one of the main origins for werewolf stories since the ergot grows in monthly cycles.
I just finished this book and think this is the best walkthrough/explanation I've seen. I didn't dig too deep, but once I got to his mother's letters, I thought Johnny made up and wrote the whole story as well. Some theorize his mother is the author and Johnny has died, but that's not how I took it.
Honestly don’t plan on reading the book personally because I don’t have the focus to do so (properly could if I was properly medicated however)
BUT THIS VIDEO LEGIT HAD ME INVESTED TO THE POINT THAT I STOPPED WHATEVER ELSE I WAS DOING TO JUST LISTEN HOLY FUCK
10:04 the beatles DID say that, it's from their song a day in the life
I am a simple bullman. I see house of leaves video. I click.
Hey get back in your maze, bull!
your work and dedication is truly incredible, the amount of time and effort put into these videos are not at all wasted as this is personally one of my favourite videos of all time, and soon enough favourite books as well. im quite fond of odd slightly disturbing books, id read the book Earthlings by Sayaka Murata before Cows by Matthew Stokoe and theyre equally terrifying in different ways. I'd hope you check the book out in your personal time but its only a recommendation haha (*~300 pg's, don't worry I wouldn't recommend a fat fuckin novel lol). Thank you for this video, I really really hope you continue putting your heart into these videos as I can tell they're made with passion :)
ps. The visuals are not at all overwhelming, definitely nicer than a plain black screen + the script is extremely concise and something you should be proud of.
sincerely well done!
I just finished this book and now I am finally watching this video. I am speechless at that ending. I was admittedly starting to hate it and thought it was inferior to Infinite Jest, until that middle-the end of both the Navidson's and Johnny's stories.
I was 27 read the captain underpants books. This is the first book I read as an adult. This book redefined what a book could be for me.
Thanks man, really good video. As for me, I read this book like 3-4 years ago in russian, cause literature english is kinda hard for me. Learned a lot new from ur video cause, as u can guess, there are no codes in russian version.
Ordered this book yesterday. Getting it tomorrow. I’m not into reading and would prefer audiobooks, or film, but THIS one specifically caught my eye due to its convoluted and complex writing. I absolutely can’t wait to read this book.
Also, the concept of a house that is unbelievably expansive on the inside and simple on the outside is something that pops up in my own dreams and nightmares and I ABSOLUTELY love it. I can’t wait for this book to give me more dreams about massive, endless homes.
Your channel is one that I feel has been missing from my life, thank you.
@@AngelicNoose one of the nicest comments I’ve ever gotten. Thanks for making my day better.
@Pugsr No problem, your videos made mine as well 🤝.
The best video I have seen on House of Leaves so far.
Also not gonna lie I teared up a little at the end
This video was such a delight to find today! Thank you!
Im glad you enjoyed it!
The most beautiful video I have ever watched in my life.