A House of Leaves?

There is something revealing about the boundaries we build and the boundaries we break. The walls we construct around ourselves, and the boundaries we refuse to respect, exhibit just where our priorities and personality lie.



Mark Z. Danielewski interests himself in how the physical can represent the incorporeal. Walls, limits, and boundaries set expectations; they are the framework upon which stories are crafted. When those boundaries are broken- when the rules of the universe are bent or frayed- the way we react will reveal intimate details about our character. Consider how the Parthenon has mythological figures carved into its roof, and how the grandeur of the temple is meant to signify the momentous power of the gods. Furthermore, the statue of the goddess Athena was built to be so huge that, upon looking at it, it seems almost impossible she fits within the constructs of the building.

Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves explores characters as they live within boundaries and as they fall out of them, fighting to understand a world with no rules or laws. The house in which the characters reside refuses to cooperate with the laws of physics and space time. It is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside; it grows and shrinks suddenly, without any changes to the exterior; rooms appear out of nowhere and enter into hallways that go nowhere.

The cosmic gravity of the situation is representative of both the inner turmoil of the characters and the emerging nihilism in Danielewski himself. Part of the inspiration for the novel was the death of his father after a battle with cancer. While death is a natural part of life, there will always be the lingering sentiment that dying, especially dying early, is unfair. ‘Unfair’, however, assumes that there is some ruleset the universe runs on that it somehow then breaks; but, there are no rules or motivation behind how time passes and what happens. The house in the novel contradicts our perception of 
what should be possible. It is generally assumed that houses must be the same size on the inside as they are outside, that they don’t move or grow around us as if somehow sentient. But, similar to how life and time move around us randomly, with no motivations or laws guiding it, the house grew anyway.

This ideology is similarly reflected in the development of the characters. The Navidson family consists of Will Navidson, a ex-war photographer; his unmarried partner Karen Green, who works as a model; and their two children. They move into the house based on a promise Will made to Karen to focus more on his family rather than his work. Some conflicts are immediately established at this introductory part of the book. Will feels guilt over his work as a war photographer, exploring war torn places and families but never intervening or physically helping. Is simply illustrating their struggles activism, or is he just profiting off of their turmoil? By moving in with his family, Will ends up actively running away from this question rather than tackling his own deeply-rooted issues. Throughout the novel, he consistently runs away from his own faults. By the time the house begins changing, and a door appears that leads into a mysteriously tall and deep hallway, Will begins to focus on that rather than his family’s struggles. Karen has a similar issue. Several instances where she cheats on Will reveal her fear of commitment. By not marrying Will, and by keeping letters of old suitors and kissing other men, she can run away as soon as things become difficult.

Both characters grapple with the seemingly sudden upheaval of their lives. Why their house? Why their family? Ultimately, ‘why’ doesn’t matter– there is no why. Eventually, they reconcile through facing their own faults, culminating in a climactic scene exploring the depths of the house’s winding and infinite hallways. The characters, and Danielewski, come to a conclusive decision on the entropic nature of the universe. They will fail and struggle for seemingly no reason; however, they must overcome their struggles to come out on top.

The house itself and its constantly changing hallways and rooms are physical representations of the inner complexities of the characters. Not only does it act as a maze-like boundary they must overcome, but the breaking of its own physical rules is representative of the relentless and unending human condition. The future is dark, deep, and unpredictable, just like the expanding hallways of the House of Leaves.





References





O’Reily, Christopher. “Mark Z. Danielewski.” BOMB Magazine, 1 Jan. 2013, bombmagazine.org/articles/mark-z-danielewski/.



“Five Minutes with Mark Z Danielewski.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 30 Nov. 2000,


www.theguardian.com/books/2000/nov/30/guardianfirstbookaward2000.gurardianfi rstbookaward.



Sims, Michael. “Mark Z. Danielewski.” BookPage, 23 Sept. 2022, www.bookpage.com/interviews/8044-mark-z-danielewski-fiction/.