"House of Leaves was about plot," says Danielewski. "It was a house that sat on a 'plot,' and it was about stories, just like a house is supposed to have many 'stories.' Only Revolutions is about character. It is a character – literally and figuratively – 'driven' book." It doesn't grab the reader as immediately as House of Leaves or have the previous novel's polyphony of perspectives. The book hurtles you straight onto the road and into the split-screen vortex of the folie à deux of its couple, without the framing narratives or scholarly apparatus. "It's getting out of the 'House,'" says Danielewski, "away from ancestors and progeny, which is what House of Leaves is about." The "This is not for you" injunction of his first novel is replaced in Only Revolutions with the phrase "You were there." If House of Leaves is a centripedal book – moving further and further into the interior of its uncannily oversized edifice – Only Revolutions is a centrifugal book, venturing into the great outdoors, embracing the road and the world that whirls around its archetypal teens.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Had enough Mark Z. Danielewski yet?
Of course you haven't. Here's a big-ass article and interview at Los Angeles City Beat. I haven't read it all yet, but based on this paragraph which caught my eye, it looks like it will be good reading:
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2 comments:
I, too, am highly susceptible to hype, and so went to Longfellow Books today to have a look at Mr. D's two books. I had intended to buy House of Leaves, and instead fled the store. Have you read this entire book? Is it truly worth the seemingly mammoth amount of time it would take to work through this?
C--
My lightning-round response is this: believe it or not, that book can be described as an old-fashioned page-turner. Of course, you could spend an age on it, if you chose to, but to simply read it like a book requires far less commitment while remaining quite rewarding.
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