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Mark Danielewski
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It took Mark Danielewski 10 years to finish his novel, House of Leaves. In contrast, it took him six weeks to become a Rock star. Somewhere, Lester Bangs is green with envy.
At first glance, House of Leaves looks like a chore: Text moves backward, upside down and diagonally, sometimes on the same page. Much of the story is in the footnotes and there's even an index. Add multiple narrators who often appear without attribution over the course of 700 pages, and you've got the makings of a marketing nightmare. Luckily, that hasn't been the case, at least according to the kids Danielewski has talked to while touring with his sister, Pop chanteuse Poe.
"It's been shocking, these teen-agers just tore through the book," says Danielewski. "What I've discovered is that with the rise of the Internet, it's easier for kids to navigate that kind of construction, and that's incredibly exciting to me."
House of Leaves tells the story of a house with strange, behavior-shifting hallways that extend for miles, and stairways that drop into nothingness. Everything within the house is filmed by its inhabitants for a documentary film, The Navidson Record. Later the film is analyzed by a blind man, Zampano, in a manuscript found by L.A. Johnny Truant. Confused yet?
Actually, for all its postmodern posturing and formal experimentation, House of Leaves works just fine as an old-fashioned horror-adventure story. Danielewski's visceral prose style effectively places the reader into the action. You'll find yourself unable to put it down for lengthy stretches.
Music lovers have already received a taste of Danielewski's novel, thanks to his collaboration with his sister on the single, "Hey Pretty." The song, on Poe's CD, Haunted, has been a Modern Rock radio staple since its release last fall.
Naturally, Danielewski jumped at the chance to reprise his spoken word role on "Hey Pretty" for Poe's current amphitheater tour with Depeche Mode.
Speaking by cell phone from a tour bus in drought-stricken northern California, Danielewski sounds upbeat, despite the fact he's been on the road for six weeks.
"The crowds have been really enthusiastic," he says. "As a novelist, to be able to get up in front of thousands and thousands of people and read a portion of my book is a special experience."
The portion Danielewski is speaking of was lifted from one of House of Leaves' unofficial narrators, Johnny Truant. While listening to an early demo of Haunted, Danielewski had a thought: "Why don't I use this music as a backdrop for this erotic Johnny Truant passage?" Soon after Poe's husky chorus was added, and "Hey Pretty" was born.
"It's unique in that it's not just a writer paired up with a musician. My sister's CD influenced the book. I was listening to it while I was writing it, and she was reading sections of my book while writing her album," he says.
"We recorded (the song) in my sister's living room, and she shipped it to a guy she knew at a radio station in Oregon," continues Danielewski. "Six weeks later I'm driving around L.A. and I turn on KROQ, and there's our song playing. It was strange, man. It's cool that there's a fragment of a novel out there on the popular radio waves."
As for his new-found status as a Pop star, Danielewski's head is still firmly on its shoulders.
"I was just happy to have finished the book. This other stuff is icing on the cake."
Danielewski, a 33-year-old Yale graduate, is the son of an avant-garde filmmaker and a one-time actress. He was prepared for life in the public eye at an early age.
"My expectations (about fame) were lower. A part of that fantasy that fame can give you was disassembled early on. There was an awareness beforehand that all my dreams would not be granted," he explains.
Now that Danielewski has tasted success in the worlds of literature and music, could film be next on his artistic radar? "No, not at the moment. In fact, I've resisted all offers to adapt House of Leaves," he says. "Novels and movies are entirely different experiences. They're a completely different language. If you want to see the movie, you'll have to read the book." ©
