Description

McCaffery asks about the circumstances of writing House of Leaves. The environment is very noisy. Danielewski tells about writing “Redwood” on the bus to Los Angeles when his father Tad fell ill. Danielewski talks about its literary background. He had an idea about a “house that was 1/4 of an inch bigger on the inside than the outside,” but did not know for three years that his characters lived there. McCaffery says Tad was a filmmaker, and Mark discusses Tad and family life. McCaffery thinks that Danielewski had to find “the language” for the book. Danielewski says, “I was without doubt raised on large myths,” and McCaffery asks about Danielewski’s study of Latin. He left the William Morris Agency to study Latin. He discusses deconstruction. McCaffery asks about “experimenting with typography on the page” in House of Leaves and Danielewski’s book Pale Fire. McCaffery discusses the use of footnotes and computer word processing. Danielewski talks about how word processing influences writing, and affords indexing. McCaffrey mentions reader and “levels,” and Danielewski talks about the reader’s experience. The second tape begins with Danielewski talking about reader experience. Danielewski talks about cinematic effects in prose. McCaffery asks if Danielewski worried about design elements while writing House of Leaves, and what the editing process was like. Danielewski discusses the meanings of “closed” and “open” in style and content. McCaffery asks about the poetry “written by” characters in House of Leaves. Danielewski answers by talking about writing poetry on a trip to Paris.