Moments Before the Wind

House of Leaves - Approaching the End

I am approaching the end of the book, now - where it appears to be more about Truant than ever before.  Truant's font sized has changed into that of the omniscent 'editor.'  There is a bit of Breaking Through the Fourth Wall stuff going on, too; Truant addressing the readers who were hoodwinked into believing his lies. It also reminds the reader that with enough acadenic garbage hurled at them, any plot is plausible. Dreams and reality blur - a fictional music group ('Liberty Bell' - they're 'cracked', haha) has read The Navidson Report and it all slides, so you can't be sure if it is a dream/lie/hallucination etc. They even perform a cover of 5 & 1/2 Minute Hallway.

You would think that as the book concentrates less on sliding narrative and more on the fixed, then the book becomes easier to read i.e. no cross referencing, tilting the book, reading through a mirror.  But no...if anything, it becomes more painful, as Johnny suffers the realisation that things change and time moves on.

So what IS real? Has Truant actually killed the Gdansk Man and Kyrie?

( Mega Spoilers )

( The Navidson Children )

There is a sense that MZD has chucked in everything but the Belfast basin - Dante and Goethe dotted throughout, Homer's Iliad, poems from Robert Frost, WB Yeats, Ezra Pound (to name but a few). Even the Yggdrasil makes an appearance at the end.

More questions - is Zampano actually Truant's father? Is there really an ending? The cycles may have ceased for Navidson, et al., but everything a bit open-ended.

Quote of the Day
Truant's mother, dated November 7th 1982 - 'Does your new mother tuck you in at night and read you stories full of opal and jade?' (p.558).

Point of view tomorrow.

I Will Be