Barnie's Book Reviews #89

[loosechanj]

I finished the main text and most of the appendices this morning.

The whole Johnny Truant framing story went over my head. Was he freaked out by the subject matter in the book he was editing, or did he just go naturally crazy? I thought the implication was that the material was effecting him, but I suppose it was meant to be ambiguous.

The main "meta-story" of the Navidson record intrigued me, I love pseudophysics stories, but the oblique way the story was told left me a little unsatisfied, like watching R-rated soft core porn. I recently watched the movie 1408, and it's more direct treatment of the "haunted places" concept really riveted me and was a much more satisfying way of telling such a story. (I haven't read the short story.)

Some of the formatting tricks were annoying, but I thought they really did help the mood, especially during the Explorations. There are a couple stretches of 50+ pages which go by in mere minutes thanks to insanely sparse formatting, which really tickles the page counting dork in me.

I wish someone would really make the Navidson Record, it'd rock. The book is interesting, but not really direct enough to be really satisfying as anything other than a conceptual experiment.

Addenda:
Looking at the wikipedia entry I came across the term Ergodic literature. Interesting idea, that's the word I was looking for when describing Infinite Jest.

Comments

[teh-dirty-robot.livejournal.com]

The part that really affected me was when I was writing down the code letter from the mother in Whalestoe; it's horrifying subject matter, and I kept writing faster and faster without looking at the page, and the letters kept getting bigger and shakier--when I was done, it effectively looked like an insane person had written me a letter.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I care that much, the Truant story really fell flat to me.

[arachnophiliac.livejournal.com]

I'll agree that the Navidson Record itself was the most interesting part of this novel. It could be made into a really amazing horror film of "found footage" akin to the Blair Witch Project. I thought the most innovative aspect was the realistic manner in which the characters in the Navidson Record respond to the supernatural. Navidson does what an educated, worldly artist like him would do when he first realizes his house is unusual: he brings in the most brilliant scientist he knows to methodically study it. I also like the way the tension in the Navidson Record is slowly and methodically ramped up from the creeping uncanniness of the early spatial impossibilities to the harrowing explorations. I was traveling a lot on business when I read this and it genuinely scared me.

The Truant story was okay, but entirely too aimless, and nothing to get excited about. I appreciate the meta-statement Danielewski was making about the ambiguity of a "true story" and the nature of obsession. It just didn't interest me anywhere near as much as the Navidson Record.

[mitejen.livejournal.com]

I read that a few years ago, and I got so sick of the stupid punk guy character I just stopped reading his sections. Someone told me I missed a major part of the story so I might reread it again. It just seemed like the author's desperate attempt to aim the book at a young hip demographic rather than let the story stand on its own, but then again I skipped it. Would you agree that it's necessary to get the 'whole story?'