Hot take: I reread House of Leaves two years ago, haven't read it since college. Weirdly found myself not enjoying it as much. Some cool ideas yeah but honestly felt like it thought it was smarter than it was. Perhaps that's cuz "meta" fiction is way more common now so it feels a bit trite, I suppose back then it was more fresh. Also some of the characters felt shallow and I didn't always buy their motivations.

But that's just my opinion I guess shrug-outta-hecks

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I thought the whole Johnny being incapable of walking two feet without a beautiful woman offering him sex was going to be revealed as a bit of unreliable narrator. But no, I guess sleep deprived starving tattoo assistants losing their grip on sanity are just hot as fuck.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

was that not the implication? i mean, certainly some of it probably happened, but i did just assume that johhny (drunk madman) was not having the greatest times regardless of whatever he might say.

i figured that the sickening, unnerving, body-horror esq way that the woman with the Pekinese was described was closer to what was actually going on. i figured all these girls were somewhere between absolutely average and just having the worst times of their lives, like johnny, but we were getting his tilted/exagerated perspective - only one of these encounters was actually confirmed to have happened (as much as anything is ever confirmed in this book lol).

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