Finding my way out again

I am forced to conclude that everything in this book is specifically and purposefully designed to create hopelessness (read: empty of all hope.) It creates a path so convoluted that you are lost in a maze of words, ideas, and images so dark that you are swallowed by it. And when it shifts to show you a shred of light, it shifts again to steal that light (meaning) away from you again. In short, this is no light (oh the puns) bedtime reading.

So the theme of this blog: What's the last word for this half of House of Leaves? In all the references to darkness (emptiness) in both The Navidson Record and Johnny Truant's infinitely more lyrical (entertaining) footnote stories we find two men trying to balance the darkness without (the house, Navidson and Karen's dwindling relationship, Truant's one night stands and drug experiences) with the darkness within (Navidson's complete obsession with fame and danger i.e. the House within the house, and Truant's need for one night stands and drug use.) Both men skate around the real and instead confront puzzles with no answers. If there are answers they must come from the darkness within both men. I think the most moving part of this book is when Zampano writes about standing outside or inside the labyrinth. Do we understand the maze? Or are we feeling our way blindly through it? I think both men are completely unnerved by their shift in perspective. One minute they comprehend and the next they question.