#will Navidson house of leaves

[mostlikelymortal]

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

Or: “What does it take to support someone with severe mental illness?”

(This post contains spoilers for the entirety of the novel - proceed at your own risk)

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I’ve just finished my first read through of House of Leaves, and I was so struck by the final section (Johnny’s mother’s letters) and how it redefined the entirety of the novel that preceded it that I spent the next several hours pouring through the entire story, and this post is the result.

I’ll first say that this book in and of itself is a masterclass of horror and ergodic literature. Taken at its bare state, it succeeds in drawing the reader into a lull of discomfort, taunting them into deeper and deeper senses of confusion, frustration, and (at least in my case) obsession. I myself couldn’t FIND damn near half of the cyphers, let alone SOLVE them, but just the knowledge that they existed meant that MZD was issuing a challenge to the reader to dive deeper, to think more laterally and “four dimensionally” in order to eek out one more ounce of actual truth from the story. The chapters where everything “falls apart” (Chapter IX, etc) are equal parts enticing and nauseating, matching the sense of navigating the house perfectly. This book is more of a wild ride than anything I’d previously picked up in my reading career.

However, once you read the letters, whatever opinion of Johnny Truant you had previously is “brought into the light”, as it were, and you’re forced to reckon with the truer nature of the pages you’d spent days, weeks, months, or even above a year navigating. Johnny was FAR from a perfect person (nor was he anything CLOSE to a reliable narrator, even going so far as to laugh at the reader for daring to believe his words), but to his mother, he was one of the only anchors into reality that she could rely on. You learn so much about Johnny’s character and skillset in those letters, including 1) the fact he was incredibly loving towards his mother and understanding of the issues that plagued her, sticking with her as best he could until the end and 2) she had spent many of his formative years drilling him in the study of language, the classics, and even taught him cyphers as a way of communicating when reality was a bit more difficult to believe. And that’s when you as a reader can put the final puzzle piece together and understand the novel as a singular argument, namely that in order to truly care for someone experiencing severe mental illness, you have to truly try and understand their fragmented reality, step into the darkness with them, and calmly yet compassionately and patiently love them in a way that their symptoms cannot misconstrue. And the three stories of Will Navidson, Zampano, and Johnny Truant exemplify the different approaches people take towards interacting with this group of people, and especially, how so many people perform that task WRONG.

Johnny’s descent into paranoia, mania, hallucinations, obsession, and compulsion is reacted to in half a dozen ways by more than half a dozen characters. Some of it is marginally helpful (consider; the shop manager giving him simple monotonous tasks to ground him and plenty of leniency in his ability to come to work on time; his many run-ins with women who appreciate his company and allow him not to be isolated, even if the content of those run-ins were nothing more than base sex; Thumper, who listened more intently and empathetically to Johnny’s predicament than anyone else, though eventually failing to truly get through to him; and Lude’s, however shallow, friendship). However, given that Johnny never once has a truly “good”support system in his life, he can never truly get a handle on his symptoms, and they end up eating him alive, at least for the better part of the story. Lude, being the selfish type who could never truly empathize with this kind of problem, decided to lambast Johnny with distractions and fun in the vain attempt to get as much entertainment as he can before the end (I’m sure we all have had friends like this). The tattoo shop did all they could and truly wished Johnny the best, though in the end they cut their losses and replaced him (not something we can totally blame them for but it was a limitation on their ability to truly get to him). His numerous sexual partners (outside of Kyrie) all were shown to have some kind of genuine empathy towards him, but their brief and base meetings ensured that no true intervention could take place. Kyrie and the Gdansk man, however, represented another type of intervention for those with severe mental illness, being the kind that actively ridicule and hunt them for entertainment, a force that to this day haunts folks. And Thumper, who gets the closest to being an actual intervention and positive social support for him, ultimately fails at doing so, though it could be argued it was not her failing but a failure of the circumstance. All of these characters have varied levels of true connection to Johnny, but because those connections are rife with ulterior motives, they cannot truly help him in a way that ultimately matters. I imagine that folks with severe mental illness most commonly experience these types of relationships.

Zampano, while we don’t have a TON to go on regarding his actual life outside the few attempts Johnny has to speak to people he knew, is reticent of the times, when confronted with severe mental illness, that people instead choose to enable the hallucinations, mania, obsessions, and compulsions instead of actively trying to dismiss them. The women who interact with him in life are paid to research and document his break in reality. Every single one does so without question, and in doing so, perpetuates his symptoms further until his timely, or rather untimely, death. And while we see the bulk of the novel focus on Zampano’s obsession, that only reinforces how far the rabbit hole will go if their support system will allow it to.

Finally, Will Navidson has perhaps the most healthy support system of the three, having a loving wife, two children, and a cadre of acquaintances who are skilled and capable in their own right. However, because they are unable to fully and properly step into his shoes, namely how they are unable to address (or even recognize) Will’s trauma surrounding the Delial photograph, they are unable to truly intervene on his mental descent in the house on ash tree lane. Karen, largely out of fear, refuses to step into the darkness embodying Will’s struggle to navigate reality, instead first distracting herself with friends and chores and later trying to intervene through faux-spiritual means (Feng Shui). Holloway represents the brute force approach to mental illness that pays no heed to the human being who is suffering, refusing to accept any detour on his pre-prescribed path towards a “solution” (no wonder his approach ended up being the most volatile). Tom, while assisting in SOME capacity during Exploration #4, and valiantly saving/caring for the children when things got too rough, was never able to truly get to the heart of Will’s issues, and therefore could not truly help him in the ways he needed. It is ONLY when Karen truly sees the man calling out for the things he loves, and the supports he needs, when the darkness allows her in, and upon embracing Will for the person he is, the issue (house) in itself disappears, allowing them both to walk forwards into the future.

This book is a thing of genius on so many levels, in a matter of composition, art, storytelling, and most importantly, as a plea to those who have people in their lives trapped in their own house of leaves due to severe mental illness. I absolutely will treasure it on my bookshelf for quite some time, I think.

(Also, just to be 100% on the level, I don’t think the book dismisses the VERY important support system that is medical/pharmaceutical intervention for severe mental illness, nor do I want folks to misconstrue my words as saying they are less than important. I am simply saying, and I think MZD would agree, that medical/pharmaceutical interventions can never be the ONLY thing that keeps people afloat, and that’s it’s EVERYONE’s responsibility in a social support group to help fight the fight with that person).

(Also, as another aside, I think the interpretation of the novel as being something Johnny either fully or in large part made up as a way to discuss the above themes is a valid one supported by the literature in some crucial ways. Way early in the novel, we learn he is incredibly apt at “making stories up”, after all, and we later learn that he worked, likely tirelessly, with the editors to publish the work. Just something else to put out into the discourse. And if it IS true, then that should elevate folks’ appreciation of the character that much more).

[smokin-symbiotes]

our house... in the middle of our leaves¹

¹This is a humourous riff on the lyrics to the song "Our House" by the English ska-pop band, Madness. "Our House" is considered a working class anthem, which contrasts the bourgeoisie lifestyle of the Navidson family.²

²Alright, while the music stuff is factually correct it's still a huge stretch to connect the song and the family this way. Sometimes a corny joke is just a corny joke.

[goosec0id]

“God's a house. Which is not to say that our house is God's house or even a house of God. What I mean to say is that our house is God.”

[mr-snailman]

picture that. in your dreams.

at long last: the house of leaves poster! I love this book so much. it is such a fucking pain in the ass to read at times but it's so so worth it.

notes:

why is fire so hard? why?

those are all my hands... more or less.

spent way too long squinting at blurry photos of hot oil scars for this

if I fucked up the stairs, no I didn't, blame the house

the God quote is my favorite but also wow there are so many killer lines I totally forgot about

johnny truant I love you will navidson I love you zampano you verbose bastard I love you too

[boopboops22]

A house is a black square that echos

[uncontrol-freak]

exploration #?

[bermudarhombus2]

i love house of leaves

[erodingsinner]

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE — S02E02.

HOUSE OF LEAVES.

[rose-above-dark]

Will navidson: I have to go after them. This house may be my grave but I can’t stay here on the porch sipping lemonade. I can’t understand it, i don’t know what this house really is, it won’t let me. I’m sorry Karen, may god forgive me Tom. I won’t let what happened with dahlia happen again. I can hear their knocking in the walls and it’s in the pattern of an SOS, my own will never be hear-

Johnny truant’s multi-page diatribe about being incredibly horny for thumper, trauma, and getting his prostate finger massaged:

[gobstoppr]

whenever the title cards were mentioned i imagined they were drawn on paper and held up to the camera.

[vexwerewolf]

Man found the fucking Navidson House

[fayzart136]

This is not for you.

[spellboundcities]

I've been on vacation for the past month so this is how I've passed the time

[infinitesimalvermin]

so happy with how this project came out :3 inspired by myhouse.wad and House of Leaves of course.

[emgy805]

this is house of leaves right

[nomgeonmunchie]

The Navidson House from House of Leaves