Nian Liu

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski
Chapter IX-XII

In these chapters, Holloway and his team finally reaches the bottom of the spiral staircase and finds themselves not relieved by achieving their main "goal" but rather even more stressed, finding even more corridors and small rooms. The team goes into desperation and the continuous growl continue to separate Holloway from Jed and Wax. As Holloway goes off to chase the untraceable growl, Jed and Wax continue to climb the spiral staircase. As they continue up, Holloway accidentally shoots Wax in the arm and this time Holloway goes crazy and leaves the two. Jed frustrated, scared, and hopeless carries Wax and Holloway who lost all sense of reality shoots at the two men which made them go into hiding. The house seems to be devouring not only their hopes and sense of time space and morality but their shoelaces, neon markings, and backup supplies. Jed sobbing and venting, he talks to the recorder and pounds on the floor, and due to this action it "echoed" to Navidson' s living room. The pounding sounded like a SOS and it hyped up Navidson Tom and Reston, so they went into the hallway after eight days of Holloway not coming back. The chapter goes on about exploring the maze in the house and as for Johnny Traunt, we learn a little more about his sexual encounters with various women. Johnny's life soon becomes a life lived in fear, where he is constantly hiding from something which he thinks is coming for him.
Questions:
1) How come it only took Reston and Will 20 minutes to get down the stairs while for Holloway it took hours and hours?
2) Do you think the drugs and Zampano's reading has effected Traunt's way in experiencing situations in his life?
3) Whats with the blank lines on the bottom of 118?