House of Leaves: The Navidson Record, Chapter III
NOTE:For passages from Inferno, text in normal formatting are spoken by Dante, text in Italics are spoken by Beatrice, and text in Bold are spoken by Virgil.
What is the net morality of Johnny Truant's lies? They are lies, so they are inherently weighted toward immorality, but he very much blurs the line to between lies and storytelling by bringing up that most of the women he tells the lies too don't really believe them at all, they're just interested in the story. Think of how Lude was by the end of the Punching Bag lie: Lude knew it wasn't true, and yet, by the end, he was still just as rapt as the rest of the audience, waiting to see where the story would go. So, are these lies or entertainment?
Questions:
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?”
”Why Navidson? Why not someone else?
”Ma io perchè venirvi? o chi 'l concede? Io non Ænea, io non Paulo sono,” (But I, why should I go there, and who grants it? I am not Æneas; I am not Paul) – Inferno, Canto II. 31-32 <pp19-21>
What do the questions mean?
Moses is asking God why it should be him (Moses) to whom the responsibility of freeing the Israelites falls.
Z is asking why it is Will Navidson who is responsible for creating The Navidson Record and bringing wider attention to the mysteries of the TARDIS House.
Dante is asking Virgil why he (Dante) should journey through Hell and who has allowed it. Dante mentions that he is not Æneas nor Saint Paul, implying that he is is not as worthy as they.
Æneas: The hero of Virgil's Æneid, and epic poem that runs parallel to Homer's Iliad. Æneas is a minor character from the Iliad, a Trojan who escapes the siege of Troy, but Virgil took the character and made him much more important by making him the primary character of the Æneid. In the poem, Æneas travels with his fellow Trojan survivors to find a new home, which ends up being Latium, the village that would eventually become Rome, making Æneas one of the founders of Rome. Æneas's mother is said to be the goddess Venus. The pertinent part of the Æneid to House of Leaves is Book 6, in which Æneas travels to the Underworld via Avernus, a crater lake near Cumae in Italy. Whilst in the Underworld, Æneas sees the spirit of his father and is given a vision of the future Rome. In regards to him having permission to descend, Æneas is guided by the Cumaean Sibyl, the priestess who presided over the Apollonian Oracle at Cumae.
Saint Paul: One of Jesus's disciples. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul mentions having known a man (implied to be himself) who was transported to “the third heaven”/Hell. I'm not certain if it's intentional, but there is a possibility that Dante's comparison of himself to Paul (declaring himself unworthy of the journey to Hell) is meant somewhat ironically, because Paul spends the rest of 2 Corinthians 12 saying that this experience does not not make him better than any other man.
By Way of Answer:
“Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” (Exodus 3. 12)
“It is no accident that the photographer become a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer.” - Dorthea Lange
“L'anima tua è da viltade offesa; la qual molte fiate l'omo ingombra sì che d'onrata impresa lo rivolve, come falso verder bestia quand'ombra. Da questa tema acciò che tu ti solve, dirotti perch'io venni e quel ch'io 'ntesi nel primo punto che di te mi dolve” (Thy soul attainted is with cowardice, which many times a man encumbers so, it turns him back from honoured enterprise, as false sight both a beast when he is shy. That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension, I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard at the first moment when I grieved for thee.) - Inferno, Canto II.45-51, Longfellow translation AND “Disse – Beatrice, loda di Dio vera, ché non soccorri quei che t'amo tanto, ch'uscì per te de la volgare schiera? Non odi tu la pieta del suo pianto? Non vedi tu la morte che 'l combatte su la fìumana ove 'l mar non ha vanto? - Al mondo non fur mai persone ratte a far lor pro o a fuggir lor danno, com'io, dopo cotai parole fatte, venni qua giù del mio beato scanno, fidandomi del tuo parlare onesto, ch'onora te e quei ch'udito l'hanno. Poscia che m'ebbe ragionato questo, li occhi lucenti lagrimando volse; per che mi fece del venir più presto; e venni a te così com'ella volse; d'inanzi a quella fiera ti levai che del bel monte il corto andar ti tolse. Dunque: che è? perché, perché restai?” (Beatrice said she, the true praise of God, 'Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so, for thee he issued from the vulgar herd? Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint? Dost thou not see the death that combats him beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?' Never were persons in the world so swift to work their weal and to escape their woe, as I, after such words as these were uttered, came hither downward from my blessed seat confiding in thy dignified discourse, which honours thee, and those who've listened to it.' After she thus had spoken unto me, weeping, her shining eyes she turned away; whereby she made me swifter in my coming; and unto thee I came as she desired; I have delivered thee from that wild beast, which barred the beautiful mountain's short ascent. What is it, then? Why dost thou delay?) - Inferno, Canto II. 103-121, Longfellow translation
What do the answers mean? - Fate.
God effectively tells Moses, “because I said so.” God also mentions that, as a token of being His servant, Moses shall speak to God again upon “the mountain,” though this seems like somewhat lousy proof, as it shall not transpire until after Moses has freed the Israelites.
Dorthea Lange (1895-1965) was a photojournalist that documented the consequences of the Great Depression. This quote seems to be her way of saying “I am a photographer because of who I am, the same reason anybody else is what they are.”
A) Virgil tells Dante that his seemingly self-decrying reasoning is, in fact, cowardice disguising itself as humility. Virgil mentions that this is not uncommon in man, and points out that it frequently causes one to turn away from what otherwise must be done. To alleviate this anxiety, Virgil tells how he was sent to Dante. [In between these passages is a bunch of repetitive nonsense that can be summed up by saying that when asked why she has travelled from her seat in Heaven all the way down to hell, Beatrice said that she was sent by Saint Lucia who was sent by the Virgin Mary to retrieve Virgil from Limbo to aid Dante is his journey through Hell.] B) Virgil says that Beatrice said that Saint Lucia asked her why she would not help him (Dante), even though he loved her so. Can she not hear how pitiful his lamentations? Does she not see the danger (death) that puts him on the precipice of that flood upon which even the ocean has no boast (æternity)? Upon hearing this, Beatrice said that she “work[ed] [her] weal and...escape[d] [her] woe” (a reference to the phrase “weal and woe,” meaning “good times and bad times”) more quickly than any before--she came down from Heaven to find Virgil (who she butters up by complimenting his way with words). After saying this, Beatrice broke down into tears and the sight of this weeping beauty—combined with her frequent adulations of his work—convinced Virgil to help Dante post-haste, whereupon Virgil rescued Dante from the beasts he had encountered earlier in Canto I. All of this can be summarised by saying that the answer to Dante's question is thus: You must go on this quest because the Virgin Mary and your beloved Beatrice Love you and worry for your æternal soul, should you continue on your current path through life. Z, however, summarises this entire response rather curtly, saying only that Virgil calls Dante “a coward and orders him to get moving because the powers above have taken a personal interest in his salvation,” leading to a far more simplistic answer of, essentially, “because Heaven said you should.”
Beatrice Portinari: (1265/66 – 1290) A Florentine woman that served as the inspiration for Dante's Vita Nuova, a discourse on courtly love with numerous love poems scattered throughout. She was the daughter of Folco Portinari, a famous Florentine banker, and married to another banker, Simone dei Bardi. Dante claimed to only have met Beatrice twice in his life (the occasions separated by nine years) but he was so infatuated with her that his love for her never disappeared.
Lude: It would appear that Lude's given name is Harry, though Johnny is unsure of the veracity of this and has never heard anyone call Lude by that name. Lude is also described as being a a bar-hopper and social butterfly, knowing all of the bouncers in Hollywood. Johnny mentions that “hollywood has always been mother's milk to Lude,” implying that Lude is the type of person who feeds off the excitement and fame of celebrity.
Johnny: Mentions that Lude is fascinated with the “fact” that Johnny went to Alaska to work at the age of 13 and by 18 had already slept in a whorehouse in Rome. It is extremely unclear as to whether these “facts” are true, or more of Johnny's lies. Johnny mentions that he has unsightly burn scars that cover his forearms from wrist to elbow—these scars have several lies associated with their origin, including one involving Johnny's initiation into a Japanese martial arts cult in Indiana. Johnny mentions that there is a real story about how he obtained the scars, but stops short of relaying said story.
At the time of writing footnote 25, Johnny says that it has been three months since he obtained Z's “manuscript,” and he mentions that such makes it late March. Following the timeline, that means that it was, more specifically, late December of 1996 when Z died.
Johnny mentions that he found the manuscript in a “black, unremarkable, paint splattered trunk.”
The Great Florentine: Dante Alighieri. (pg19)
Homer's rival: Virgil; known for patterning quite a few of his own works after Homer's while changing them to be less Greek and more Roman. It is suspected that Virgil wished to repeat Homer’s success but from the Roman point of view and with Roman patriotism. (pg19)
Hell's Cartographer: Dante Alighieri. (pg21)
Amaurotic: Afflicted with a total or partial lack of sight, esp in absence of a gross lesion or injury. In context, is referring to the lack of a “blind seer” character to aid Will on his journey through the TARDIS House (the “blind seer” is the part that Virgil played in Inferno). (pg21)
Dr. Ibn Van Pollit postulates that everything that Will experienced in the TARDIS House is a product of Will's subconscious—arguing that the TARDIS House itself is Will's psychological pain manifested. This concept reminds me of Silent Hill 2, in which it is eventually revealed that (SPOILERS FOLLOW) James Sunderland's entire experience in Silent Hill is merely a manifestation of his own, tortured subconscious (exempli gratia, Pyramid Head is the embodiment of Sunderland's violent frustration at the lack of sexual attention that his wife had given him, which is why Pyramid Head is frequently seen raping and then horribly killing Nurses). However, Z dismisses this theory on the basis that Will is not the first to be affected by the TARDIS House, nor the first to live in it.
Z mentions that the TARDIS House has had approximately 0.37 owners per year and that most of said owners were traumatised in some way shape or form. This begs the question, did Will know of this history when he bought the TARDIS House? Did he merely play into the classic horror trope of ignoring obvious red flags? Was the TARDIS House's history, in some way, obscured from Will? Or did he perhaps not even think to ask? (this last supposition is feeble, at best, because most states have a law saying that a realtor is not allowed to misrepresent the history of a building, even by omission.)
Z seems to believe that the history was what brought Will to the TARDIS House, whether consciously or not. Z thinks that Will was attracted to the potential danger, due to his work as a photojournalist.
Will Navidson: Will's father, Tony, was a St. Louis salesman and a violent alcoholic who would frequently vanish for long periods. He eventually died of congestive heart failure. Will's mother abandoned the family to become an actress and ended up living with various shoddy producers. She was last seen in an LA bar, after which she completely vanished. The effect that this abhorrent parenting had on Will and his twin brother Tom was to engender in them a sense of fleetingness. They treated anything that came into their lives as temporary. It is theorised by Z that this constant worry of abandonment—coupled with the natural human desire for consistency—led to Will's love of photography because it gave him a way to make fleeting things and events permanent.
Tom Navidson: Will's twin brother.
Z points out that, in saying why he wished to film his family's experience in the TARDIS House, Will characterises the TARDIS House as an “outpost.” Z postulates that this word choice is because Will wanted the TARDIS House to be his defence against the fluctuation of the outside world. However, I think that this is stretching things a bit, and tend to agree with Keillor Ross, who said that Will was “poking fun at the relative wilderness of this suburb.”
Z also brings up a potential reason for Will's hesitance to give up photography, even when asked to by Karen: to Will, “abandoning photography meant submitting to loss.”
Preadamite: Supposed to have existed before Adam Kadamon. In context, the word is being used facetiously.