Abstract
I begin my examination of the individual scale of home with Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000) because this novel poignantly examines many of the fears and traumas that the ideal of a singular and static “home, sweet home” fosters. This work of gothic horror takes up the haunted house motif but also imbues it with contemporary concerns such as the impact of virtual and remediated spaces and knowledge of home. Ultimately, it highlights the issue of isolationist ideas of home and how these impede dwelling for individuals.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
It would still be “mappable” conceptually in terms of the metaphor that I explore in this book. Accuracy is not elemental to and, frankly, impossible in a multi-scalar mapping of personal connection and experiences of social contexts.
- 2.
Martin Brick argues that personal experience is the focus of the novel, going so far as to describe Johnny “as parallel to the reader” (original emphasis).
- 3.
William Little mentions other connections to “house of blues” (195) and the phrase “out of the blue” (179), which comes up in the novel with some frequency. Although he does not elaborate on their relevance, both associations can be tied to the notion of home and its potential for trauma (rather than safety and comfort) or the unexpected (rather than familiarity), respectively.
- 4.
For key links between the book and album, see Evans.
- 5.
Daedalus and Icarus, heroes of the other famous labyrinth myth, more clearly represent prisoners in this space. Even though Daedalus designs the labyrinth, he is not as significantly a home-maker within the space as is the Minotaur, who is more deeply tied to and in myriad ways defined by this place.
- 6.
Danielewski is not the only writer interested in the Minotaur in a reframed context. Jorge Luis Borges offers a similarly victimized as well as heartbreakingly naïve Minotaur in “The House of Asterion” in Labyrinths; Steven Sherrill depicts a more humanized, everyday sort of beast in The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break; Victor Pelevin “upgrades” the figure to the hub of the mainframe of a cyber-labyrinth through a horned virtual reality helmet in The Helmet of Horror; and The Royal Opera created a new, distinctly postmodern opera about the myth in 2008 (Haswell). While all of these Minotaurs shed light on the labyrinths of modern life, House of Leaves most incisively asks what home is for the secluded Minotaur and the Minotaur-like home-makers.
- 7.
The Minotaur in this last view mirrors the ungainly but oddly endearing character from the 1986 film, Labyrinth, directed by Jim Henson. Ludo, like a deformed child, is easily cast as a victim of outside forces instead of a violent brute requiring sacrificial youths.
- 8.
The manuscript has been circulated on the Internet (151) and Navidson reads House of Leaves while lost inside the house in his final exploration (465).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bida, A. (2018). The Labyrinthine Home in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. In: Mapping Home in Contemporary Narratives. Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97967-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97967-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97966-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97967-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)