Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ThatCommanderShepard OP t1_j602vuu wrote

Oh man Danielewski is another tough one for sure. I have house of leaves but I’ve never taken the plunge, I hear so many conflicting things

2

pineapplesf t1_j6055ad wrote

I loved house of leaves. It's a pretty good critique of postmodern media. I would argue it's not merely deconstructive but attempts to posit solutions without a return to modernity.

I think Danielewski gets a lot of misplaced hate for making postmodernism not only accessible but enjoyable. It's quite a bit more optimistic, empathetic, and kind compared to other lit fic. His books have a naive earnestness which is distinct from the sort of distanced cynicism of Don DeLillo or Will Self. The backlash against him feels very similar to the backlash against Bruno Latour and I suspect it's for similar reasons.

You can certainly not like Danielewskis style, which includes so much multimedia it can come off as gimmicky, but I think it's hard to argue that he's not effective with it. His Familiar series was super interesting and I'm sad that it was cancelled.

1

ThatCommanderShepard OP t1_j608icd wrote

Oh! Speaking of multimedia I don’t ever see people mention this but his sister who performs under the name Poe is a musician and has an entire album inspired by House of Leaves. Apparently Danielewski even wrote many of the lyrics

1