started reading that book about that house...
I'll leave a little comment of what I feel so far about being 40 pages in and then reblog this again with more info once I'm further along!
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
I'm only about 40 pages in but that Truant guy is a real freak — "oh the horrors!!!"-ass footnotes
I think it's fun to interject using the footnotes of the document about the Navidson Record, and I think it's also fun that he's like:
1. "Yeah so I know there's a lot of foreign language here and that's alright, that's not for me to worry about; not my circus not my monkeys.¹ Did i tell you about this lady i fucked one time? Got real high at her place on like, substances²...You know, the first time she ever looked at me, her eyes were like those of a hungry fox, you know how those eyes tend to feel dark and hollow, but pointed like a laser on a target? Like you're, specifically, a grey and white bunny³ and they can see you in that forest, your home, the way your fur contrasts with the environment and you shiver in fear⁴ ; they feel it. They know it. Either way, this house, I wish it didn't have issues with the goddamn water heater. Zampanó could of fixed it before he croaked.
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
Yeah okay so this guy quotes Dante's Inferno...like a LOT and uh I don't know any Italian nor Latin but I had this lady I slept with translate it for me so it's okay for me to include it here in the foot note, there's also some German? This guy really read a BUNCH so...
WEED AND COCAINE!!!
Remember thumper in that first chapter? yeah...i miss her...her cute large tattoo on her tight hot body....sometimes i get horny when i see rabbits cause they remind me of her.
Eh I'll tell you more about this in chapter XXVIII"
I think, so far it's a fun read, even if the difference in the Document itself and Truant's Footnotes throw me off a little. Not a big fan of the script font, but what else can you do? Make it comic sans?
I think the Navidson Record is an interesting thing to read about, although I'm still a little...lost? I understand it's various recordings of the family living at the house, but is what we're reading a paper written by Zampanó?
Googling just "Navidson Record" says, yeah what we're reading is just an essay written by Zampanó about the film or film fragments, which is pretty good. I did come to the conclusion myself, but didn't want to assume, except i just should have assumed in this case.
Moving forward, I'll be a more cautious reader.
They've got me reading a fictional paper about a fictional film, whether it be fictional in-world, being up for debate within the book.
So far it's fun, don't see what Mr. Johnny Truant is so worked up about...maybe I'll get to that in the future....
I also love the Navidson Family Dynamic. Feels like home.
Chapter V to end of Chapter VII
So basically....
Here are my thoughts and notes ...and summary?
We get more backstory on Truant and he's kind of a loser. But it's not his fault. We get that bit of the correspondence between him and his mother, and we also read his father's obituary. Depressing stuff. We learn things about him that we don't know yet, chronologically.
Navidson goes into The Hallway again, on his own, even with his wife Karen's disapproval. It's a chilling description, things change, he comes around back in a circle to the penny he put at his starting point. He gets lost, doesn't know which way to go, only to find his daughter's silhouette at the entrance calling out to him because of a nightmare. Haunting.
Navidson calls his brother Tom and Reston, his friend who is a professor, to help him measure the house after spotting a discrepancy between the inside and outside: the house is ¼ inches larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Weird shit.
We have a bit where Karen and Audrey are building a bookshelf together, two gal pals. There's an issue with how the shelf fits into the wall (iirc) so they use books to make it even. At some point, after Navidson, Reston, and Tom are out of the hallway, they knock the books down. Karen screams. 🔹 Then we're presented a passage discussing Karen's childhood and maybe an explanation of her emotional and mental state, always being the perfect child and smiling despite it all. She never felt normal. They mentioned her practicing her smile in the mirror. Who else practiced their smile in a mirror (at a mental asylum)? Truant's mom, as we read in the letters she sent him. Interesting. 🔹 Karen depends on Navidson too much especially given the vibe of the house. It's a scary place to be alone in, and she feels alone.
His wife is mad as fuck. And I would be too! She told him not to go in there, to just live life with her and their children. We also get a glimpse at their marital problems, each having a book, each, about having or making sex better for each other. It's like Navidson is ignoring his family for this stupid, long-ass hallway.
The bit that is also scary is when Navidson asks his daughter what she wants to play and she says "always" which can also be a misspeak of the word "hallways". That was also creepy to read.
He put 4 colored locks on this door. We find our first typo: "kye" instead of "key" when he puts the red "kye" away. This might be important later.
Navidson decides to make a team to explore said hallway. He calls up Holloway Roberts (a macho man, afraid of nothing hunter), Wax (an explorer), and Jed (another explorer) to make the team. At first they don't believe Will, but when he opens that door...Holloway is finally scared of Something. They explore up to 3 times and are getting ready for exploration #4.
During the first three explorations there was a moment in which Navidson was jealous of Holloway interacting with his wife, Karen. Here, there's a footnote that brings up issues with masculinity, homosexuality, and plain ol insecurity. I knew we'd get there eventually.
Anyways, they get ready for exploration #4 Jed ends up alone with Karen. Something happens. Navidson says "it's alright, it doesn't hurt much". Later, Karen and Wax end up in the kitchen. They kiss. Twice. Navidson? "I betrayed her by going into the hallway, she only betrayed me too". Cuck central.
Between these paragraphs, we get Truant talking about some lady he kissed. They do drugs together, not all the money in the world could make her happy ($84,000 2-door car). We also get that backstory on his missing tooth and more detail about his abusive foster dad. We had read about Raymond (foster dad) during his Mother's letters. It was rough. He was 12, fighting in school, and his foster dad didn't see him as part of their family, but a guest. This guy fucking sucks.
I feel bad for Johnny of course.
So far it's been so creepy. I've been having nightmares that make NO sense. There are no bugs in this book, but my last nightmare had maggots in it. I don't know if there's any correlation. I left off at the end of Chapter VII. Chapter VIII starts with them getting ready to descend the staircase. Can't wait to get to that!
