I really enjoyed House of Leaves, probably one of my favorite reading experiences ever. However, I do think he continued with the style of bizarre formatting solely due to its success in House of Leaves. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does become gimmicky in my opinion. For example, the same story told on the same page by 2 different people? Neat concept I suppose, but largely inconvenient just as far as reading goes. With House of Leaves there was a purpose behind the formatting. Our narrator was going insane and the house itself was physically changing along w the formatting too. For Danielweski's other work, I find it hard to believe the formatting has a legitimate reason to be included if not for the fact that it is MZD's "style." Sacrificing a lot for style
Thats a super valid argument and I definitely agree that he continued it because of it's success. I still enjoy it though. I like the experimentation and am willing to go on his wild ride. Have you read Only Revolutions? Because the narrative is very different from a conventional novel and reads more as poetic stream of conscious novel.
I'm sure it's fun to read his other works! I haven't read anything else by him, although my friend read Only Revolutions and gave it a lukewarm review which made me not pick it up :/ What's your usual taste in books? I'm more or less a fan of post-modernism and 19th century lit, when the novel became the swaggiest thing in the written world. And poetry, looots of poetry
If your a fan a poetry I recommend Only Revolutions. It's written like a beat poem. If nothing else its an interesting application of poetry to a novel. Unfortunately I havent read much since I entered college, Used to be a heavy reader in High School. I read a lot of Vonnegut. Looking to get back into it.
ah really? College is when I took my reading up a notch! Although I'm also an English major so that may be why..... I'll look into Only Revolutions, I do like me some beat poetry :)
fair enough, my schoolwork is reading and writing, but that's why I picked it. Then again architecture is probably a bit more practical/marketable outta college lol
Just knock down a building or two, then they'll need you for sure! but for real that sucks, sorry to hear it