Nian Liu

"House of Leaves": Chapters I-IV

I would like to say that the beginning of the story was very hard to take in all at once. Mark Z. Danielewski starts off with talking about and comparing what people think about "The Navidson Record" and mentions that this film is something that isn't "uneasily contained." At first I didn't understand which perspective the author was telling the story from until later in the text where you begin to notice that the author mentions not seeing certain things because it wasn't shown on "camera". The author speaks in a narrative way but from time to time he would get out of his narrative form and speak to you in person which I personally felt was weird. When I read these chapters I visioned a black and white film with chopped up sound. I feel that its creepy how Will Navidson's son Chad feels like somebody's watching and waiting, because this scene in the book reminds me of the scary movie "The Shining". One thing I would like to change about the author is the way he excessively uses words to describe the things that he is talking about.


Questions:
1) Who use to live at the house before Navidson moved in?
2) Is there anything stalking Chad or Navidson?
3) Do you think the addition of the new doors and black interior closet space is a theme for Navidson and his obession in trying to capture every part of life?
4) If there isn't anything wrong with Tom and Will's tools then what could explain the extra interior fraction?