In this journal, Hayden White attempts to argue against the poststructural form of textual analysis. WHite believes that postmodern texts like this House of Leaves, and Jean Winterson's Powerbook have abandoned the history that is essential to our marriage.
\nHe believes postmodern literature authors don't understand that the past is a place of memory and fantasy, which is where most literacy inspiration comes from. He believes that authors like Danielewski are more interested in the meanings that can come about by a reflection of the past, instead of the truth.
\nHe believes that postmodern authors think the past has no reality because it's best made sense by storytelling than building models
", "tags": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2010-04-23T00:06:39Z", "dateModified": "2011-04-21T14:50:17Z" } }, { "key": "G992K569", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 9437, "name": "Reading Technology (English 465)", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/reading_technology_english_465", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/9437/items/G992K569", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/reading_technology_english_465/items/G992K569", "type": "text/html" }, "up": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/9437/items/3FMC5T6A", "type": "application/json" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 130534, "username": "Edwerd", "name": "", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/edwerd", "type": "text/html" } } }, "lastModifiedByUser": { "id": 9094, "username": "briancroxall", "name": "Brian Croxall", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/briancroxall", "type": "text/html" } } }, "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "G992K569", "version": 1, "parentItem": "3FMC5T6A", "itemType": "note", "note": "In this article Barbara Kirshenblatt offers insight on the value of mediation. SHe believes representation is important to our understanding of the media, but mediation does not depend on representation. She says that all media is meant to be shown to thers, not just through representation. It should be shown through the unique ways in which it's displayed. It's the different placement of objects that bring the most important message.
\nShe uses House of Leaves as the perfect example House of Leaves is not just a representation of a book because the most important messages in the book come from the unique placement of words. She believes that House of Leaves is able to resist representation, but at the same timegenerate something of its own.
\nShe also says that in order to understand mediation one must understand the relationship between history and memory. Mediation is able to construct the mind's interpretation of history by changing topics and forcing people to direct attention to something else.
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\nHayles continues to describe other areas of remediation within House of Leaves, but I find the concept of remediation more interesting than the evidence she provides. House of Leaves is an example of remediation in a way that would make Derrida proud. With the technological movement of literature, Danielewski proves that print works are still update and fresh. His book is remediation at its best. There is no way that House of Leaves could be portrayed through any other medium. Danielewski’s work creates a necessity for experimental works in print and has created a new era for literature to move throughout the future.
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\nThe labyrinth also manifests itself within the relationship of Karen and Will. Navidson’s experience in the labyrinth parallel his relationship with Karen. As he ventures away and tries to return to the depths of the labyrinth, he is forced to confront the drifting away of his closeness with Karen and his attempt to regain intimacy in his relationship. Karen’s labyrinth is ventured as she edits navidson’s film footage, creating her own short works. Her love for Navidson is the primary catalyst to overcome her fears of the blackness in the wall of her child’s room. Their love for each other brings them safely out of their individual labyrinths. The uncertainty of the house helped them find the certainty found in loving each other.
\nThe labyrinth continues on through the jumbles of writings found in Zampanò’s trunk on napkins, envelopes, matchbooks, and papers. This labyrinth is one of Zampanò’s own creation and is passed on to Johnny Truant. Truant’s exploration through the labyrinth begins with these papers but is added to by the letters and poems of his mother. These letters make the reader aware of his past fears and scars that create his own self labyrinth. It brings up the possibility that House of Leaves may be the creation of Truant's troubled mind. There is a connection between the roar of the house with that of his mother’s cries when she is taken from him “sounding as if it would shatter the world, fill it with thunder and darkness, which I guess it finally did (517). There is no need for a physical beast within the labyrinth because each character has his own demons.
\nThe book becomes a tension between certainty and uncertainty, apprehension of ourselves, others and the world. The house is a labyrinth in itself, having no certain layout and continually changing. Even a compass won’t settle on north. Hamilton makes a connection between Danielewski’s labyrinth and those constructed by Borges.
\nRegardless of the House’s truth or fiction, the reader may still be affected by the house’s story, structure, and form. Labyrinth are historically man-made structures, so we automatically assume there must be a solution, regardless of its complexity. Hamilton discusses the diachonic (working within) and synchronic (bird’s eye view) methods of deciphering a labyrinth. Danielewski’s complexity throughout the storyline(s) as well as the structure and form render both of these methods useless. Hamilton uses the words of Borges to complete her thoughts: “the book and the labyrinth were one and the same.”
\nThis essay is a good discussion of the labyrinth within Danielewski’s House of Leaves, but it doesn’t really answer any questions. It capitalizes on the fact that questions must go unanswered within this construct. Once one answer is found, there is evidence of the contrary. Danielewski really did create the unnavigatable labyrinth and the only answers will be more questions. The connections found in both the storyline and the theme only give way to other paths. There is never an exit, only more branches.
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\nThe 21st century has certainly been served a dose of reality. Everything seems to be over-the-top and “in your face.” Gonzalez ties the reader back the ideas of Baudrillard and the simulacra. The post-modernist writers have attempted to create real by making their works a way for the reader to insert themselves into the works. However, the article is critiquing by showing how shallow or empty the character, and thus the books become. Part of a novel is to leave room for interpretation. There is to be a sort of internal theater that is set on fire or into motion. The post-modernist authors are focused on making the reader participate in a virtual reality through the text, and then shock them with the “real.” However, the constant shock simply because a numbing buzz. The reader shuts off and is left to question whether to read in further or walk away. Depending what school of philosophy one comes from, a computer cannot feel and cannot think. Therefore, inserting yourself into a virtual reality, you almost certainly lose your sense of self and then disconnect from the book.
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\nWe then are brought to the realization of how they are being implemented into the libraries and being used by the scholars of our current time. Simply by using MARC records as well as what we have at Clemson, an A-Z list. By the ease that we have now searching for books through Google, library websites, and online catalogs it is pushing the drive of the eBook usage. Using SpringerBook he has found that the demand of the books has gone up each year. In 2007-2008 it increased from 25 million downloads to 41 million downloads. What is interesting is the fact that the predominant use of the eBooks are journals showing the academia world has had the largest impact. But 80% of the usage is only being generated by 20% of the content. Showing that only selected material has been offered through the SpringerBook.
\nWhat he concludes is that we eBook usage has gone up, but people are still preferring the presentation of print material. However, in countries where most print books are eBooks and are easily accessed they are very popular. When technology progresses and more are offered he believes that it is likely that eBooks will eliminate the print reading.
\nSeeing the numbers on this matter has me concered, but I agree. The Kindle has already made reading much better than of a computer. As technology progresses I am sure it will be second nature to read off of the top eReader.
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\nFirst Hamilton shows us how House of Leaves incorporates Labyrinths. By going through each character, house, hall, and the book itself Hamilton clearly shows that Danielewski has developed an intricate use of language. What Hamilton does though is clarify the differences in types of labyrinths that we can “perceive.” One of the labyrinths affects the metafictional and the other affects psychologically. After discussing this she details how the characters in House of Leaves must go through their own psychological labyrinth before they can challenge the labyrinth of the house.
\nBut the question of the story comes into questions with Johnny and Zamparo. But Hamilton lets us know this is not the problem. Whether it is real or fake it is still a labyrinth, like the mysterious hallway of the house. Although it is not static like most other labyrinths, being static that we have encountered from authors such as Borges. But as you can get lost in a physical being lost in the open is just as overwhelming and something that he creates in the final chapters.
\nThis correlation in the ways Danielewski creates his labyrinth and the way he uses space as fear, he shows that House of Leaves truly engages and traps the reader into their own Labyrinth of what to follow, what to believe, or what to read. Which is why Hamilton thinks Danielewski’s work is so great, he creates multiple labyrinths within a single story that overlap and eventually get the reader.
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\nHayles’ essay covers many of the topics we have been discussing in class concerning House of Leaves – maybe even going more in depth with the ideas. In particular, her discussion of the techniques in Chapter 9 and 10 of the book were very similar to what we went over in class. I also found it helpful that she referred to the works of Derrida and Bolter and Grusin, all of which we have read in relation to “remediation” and “the book.” Applying those ideas to House of Leaves is a convenient way to make some clear connections between the materials we are given to study in class. It was really beneficial to read this outside source; it almost seemed like commentary that slowed things down in order to help me grasp some of the meaning behind Danielewski’s bizarre text. I was interested in Hayles’ implication that Danielewski’s novel is innovative in that it proves the way in which print media can survive in the digital age. While reading, I never understood (or perhaps cared to understand) the kind of impact that this book could have on the future of books as we know it. Looking back through the text after reading this essay makes me realize just how classic and genius this book is, and it becomes much easier to understand how easily House of Leaves could go down in history for being revolutionary.
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