It’s finally happened. After all this time I finally finished “House of Leaves.” It definitely should not have taken me this long, but here we are. The only problem is I’m not completely convinced I understand the book. Yes, I read everything, and yes, I paid attention, but I think the book is so heavy with plot, characters and deeper meaning that it mostly went over my head. To better understand the book, I’ve decided to turn to my good friend, Google. I am unsure why, but I was very surprised to find so many angry people voicing their opinions. I never would have thought book-lovers could be so hostile to each other but like everywhere else on the internet, people are brash.
Not only can everything in the book be interpreted differently by each person who reads it, but everything in the book can be interpreted differently by the same person rereading it. I can attest to this fact. The book is so large and confusing that details are often lost or forgotten because the author refuses to acknowledge them again for several hundred pages. Having reread the beginning of the novel, it was reintroduced to me one of the main characters, Zampanò, who was supposedly writing the study over a series of films was blind. This completely changes the way I viewed his sections of the novel.
While his sanity was frequently questioned, his ability to watch the films to write about them never was. This is one of the biggest debates being launched on the internet by readers. There were many different interpretations and beliefs, most ending in petty arguments. Ultimately, it was useless to look through the pointless banter to find an answer. Instead, I’ve created my own: it was never advised to believe Zampanò’s words, so him being blind made no difference to his part of the tale. His life became a reflection of the family he wrote about. Or the family was a reflection of himself. However you read the story and interpret it is how you’re opinion will be shaped.
This story is largely made to be up to the reader’s discretion. Each reader brings their own experiences and opinions into the book and this is what allows for such an overwhelming amount of theories for the book. It’s truly an amazing read and approach to a book. So, I was extremely disappointed to find so much hostility surrounding the book from its readers. Hopefully, through some more intense searching, I can gather the information I’m looking for.
