The Navidson Record

Borges would have written this in twelve pages. Danielewski writes the footnotes.

The Navidson Record is, inside the novel, a documentary. The Navidson Record is also, inside the novel, Zampanò’s book about that documentary. House of Leaves is Johnny Truant’s edition of Zampanò, with a preface that tells you the film cannot be found. Each layer swears the inner one exists. None of the outer layers can produce it. The house that is bigger on the inside than the outside is, among other things, a description of this bibliography.

The comparison with the Necronomicon is exact and unflattering to Lovecraft, who is being paid a compliment. Lovecraft cited a book into reality by never writing it. Danielewski writes hundreds of pages of the scholarship and still withholds the film. You can buy House of Leaves. You cannot screen The Navidson Record. The thing that escaped into our world is the commentary. The thing that did the damage remains missing, which is how you know it worked.

Do not confuse the typography with the book. The typography is how the house moves on the page. The book is the claim that the house was filmed.

On the readability rating. Zampanò’s study is the bulk of the novel — extensive, even exhausting. The film it describes is not reproduced, because in the world of the novel it may not exist. A monograph without its object is still a monograph. It is also a haunting.