House of Leaves is complicated, partly because of the multitude of references Danielewski uses throughout. A degree in literature alone barely scratches the surface of some of the footnotes. He goes off into physics, foreign languages, and at least once he even speaks about organic chemistry. Understanding the reference to TNT at the bottom of page 144 helps give a better knowledge of the House and its nature.
The first things to be considered about this footnote are the obvious, at least for a science major: “nitration of toluene or C7H5N3O2- not to be confused with C16H10N2O2- in other words one word: trinitrotoluene. TNT…”. The addition of a nitro group to a toluene through nitration takes forever…the reaction is highly endothermic, requiring a large amount of energy to attach just one nitro group, and each additional substitution takes longer then the one before it. The whole process is reminiscent of sifting through the footnotes of the book, putting in all the time and energy to hopefully recover something explosive. This is Danielewski’s way of hinting that there will have to be a lot of work put in to get something out of this.
Deconstructing the footnote further reveals something even more interesting: “-not to be confused with C16H10N2O2-” seems innocuous enough, but when a little googling is done something explosive is discovered. That’s the chemical formula for indigo dye. It shares the same starting material as TNT, a nitrated toluene, but requires different reagents. It is interesting that from the same starting material a person can either create a valued blue dye or an earth-shattering explosion its almost like the chemical has the very human characteristic of duplicity but it can’t act like a person, it certainly can’t feel, well no more then a house can. Danielewski used this footnote to explain the two faced nature of the house and even give an insight into how it acts. Why is it important that specifically indigo is mentioned here? Indigo dye is the same color that the word house keeps appearing as throughout the text.
The rest of the footnote reveals more “TNT telegraphing a weird coalition of sense. On one hand transcendent and lasting and on the other violent and extremely flammable.” Being that this entire footnote comes from Johnny playing with names like “Truth and Truth”, and “Tits and Tail” it is like Johnny is playing with the very nature of the house and maybe even himself. The footnote itself originates in a group of red struck out words. Red words are linked to an angry feeling lurking in the house paralleled to the minotaur of ancient Greece, as the word minotaur only appears in red. So the house is filled with two different emotions on the one hand red with anger and on the other hand there is this sublime feeling to the house’s massive sorrowful dark oppression.
The colors red and blue, without their connotations are separated on the visible spectrum by about 550 wavelengths. There could not be two more different colors for Danielewski to use. He’s separated the house into two distinct feelings, melancholy awe and terror, simply by using color and a brief description of TNT. Scarier still when red and blue are combined the color purple is created. Johnny’s mom’s nails were purple and she is linked to the color. Many things can be drawn from this, far to confusing to even think about let alone write about: she’s got severe mental problems with many sides to her personality, like the house, but if keeping mind that she might just be made up by Johnny what that say about him? Really this passage just brings up more questions then it actually solves, as so much of this addicting book tends to do.
5 comments:
sources are mostly my chem book and some websites ill post them before final draft
From one bio major to another, I think its great how you picked up on this, and jumped at the chance to apply what we're good at to this class.
I like how you used "duplicity" to describe the chemical compound and the house. I understand that you're trying to make this connection between the two, but more may be needed...are you trying to say that the house itself
can also either be a valued discovery or a type of earth-shattering expolosion? If so, I feel like that needs to be clarified a litte, but can
also be a lead in to the next paragraph.
You also mentioned how ingido is the same color as the text of "house"
throughout the book...this is good, but maybe elaborate on what this blue color signifies (like as we discussed in class--blue is the ocean and sky, also representing the huge, undiscovered, and mysterious).
You also introduced a new idea in the last few sentences of the essay...about purple and Johnny's mother. I think its an interesting connection you made, so i'm not oppposed to you including it, but you definitely need to add some support and details to that claim if you're going to keep it. You seem to be drawing comparisons to the house with Johnny, saying they're both szicophrenic? If so, that may be enough material for a whole other essay, so it might be better to conclude yours in a different way--up to you though.
And once again just as a final thought, just read through the paper and fix a few of the run-on sentences, grammar and other syntax errors that I
noticed.
As a whole I'm really impressed that you discovered these hidden meanings in the book and I think you did a very good job interpreting it in your own way.
House of Leaves is complicated, partly because of the staggering amount of references Danielewski uses throughout. A degree in literature alone barely scratches the surface of some of these footnotes. He goes off into tangents on physics, wanders into foreign languages, and he even experiments with organic chemistry. Understanding the reference to TNT at the bottom of page 144, and understanding its connection to the color imagery within the book, gives deeper insight into The House of Leaves.
The first things to consider about this footnote are the obvious, at least for a science major: “nitration of toluene or C7H5N3O2- not to be confused with C16H10N2O2- in other words one word: trinitrotoluene. TNT…”. The addition of a nitro group to a toluene through nitration takes forever…the reaction is highly endothermic, requiring a large amount of energy to attach just one nitro group, and each additional substitution takes longer then the one before it. The whole process is reminiscent of sifting through the footnotes of the book, putting in all the time and energy to hopefully recover something explosive. This is Danielewski’s way of hinting that there will have to be a lot of work put in to get something out of this.
Deconstructing the footnote further reveals something even more interesting: “-not to be confused with C16H10N2O2-” seems innocuous enough, but when a little energy is added, in this case google, something explosive is discovered. That’s the chemical formula for indigo dye. It shares the same starting material as TNT, a nitrated toluene, but requires different reagents. Indigo dye is one of the oldest, and in antiquity most valued, dyes known to man. Indigo has been used for royalty, it has started small wars, and it has been around longer then there has been a history to record it. Incredible that from the same starting material a person can either create a valued blue dye or an earth-shattering explosion. The chemicals very nature is duplicitous, two very different forms from the same entity. Johnny’s footnote finishes with “TNT telegraphing a weird coalition of sense. On one hand transcendent and lasting and on the other violent and extremely flammable.” Danielewski used this footnote to give an insight into the multifaceted nature of the house; it is terrible, and regal, it is benign, and destructive, it is everything, and nothing. It is the Alpha and the Omega?
Getting back to the dye itself, why indigo? Catalyzed by the first discovery there is little energy required to discover indigo dye is a deep blue color, just like the color Danielewski uses for the word “house”. Blue connotates many feelings: sadness, sorrow, loneliness, the emptiness of the sky, the depth of the ocean, and deep darkness. All of the imagery associated with blue is open: the skies, the ocean, and the dark. Everything can be seen, but all of it cannot be understood, the ocean is still unexplored, as is the sky, and no matter how many times a rooms been filled with light, whose to say what lingers there when the lights are off. Linking the color blue, and indigo dye to the word “house” inextricably connects the house with things that can be seen, but never truly understood.
Now with that in mind, the actual location of the footnote must be drawn in to the argument. It is found amidst red crossed out text at the beginning of an oddly spaced gap in the paragraph, directly after the words Truth and Truth. If the red text indicates repression, and this footnote is only added by Johnny after he uncovers it, it then follows that the house’s very nature is being repressed, hidden from all who would seek it out. A final bout of energy needs to be expended on the footnote indicator itself. The symbol is a military marker that means: “requires firearms and ammunition”. If the repressed material needs to be handled with guns, then it must be hostile, thus the red color symbolizes something that does not want to be repressed but is forced into it. The house wants to be known, and it defies anyone’s attempts at repressing it, not even the TNT that Johnny calls for in the footnote could help against something so awful as the house. Holloway and later Johnny sought comfort in firearms, but they failed. Although temporary success is possible, eventually all attempts to repress the house and the feelings it incites will fail. Zampono failed because Johnny uncovered the red text, Johnny failed because he was unable to keep the house from eating at his sanity, and Holloway failed because the house opened him up to his own feelings of inadequacy that led to his death.
Now to tie it all together, the house can be many things given just the starting material of a normal house, just like nitrated toluene can produce countless products with the right reagents. The house is blue: out in the open for everyone to see, with endless empty hallways of darkness to obsess over; it has many people trying to understand it, but it declares itself unknowable to anyone who enters. The house is also red: filled with deep meaning right below the surface begging to be found; it has people constantly trying to repress that meaning only to claw its way past all lines of defense physical and mental. The house exists as the knowable, and the unknowable at once. Understanding the house entirely would require more energy then anyone has time to offer, but by understanding small sections completely a better picture of the house is developed.
And also as an apology for this being a tad late along with my proposal being late ill point out something cool about the footnote on 144. If you start from where the footnote symbol is and count periods and dashes, you get ... --- ... its done very delibrately and i was incredibly proud of myself for finding that. Thanks for the leeway ochem hopefully went well
Amanda - good response
Josh - This is a genuinely good piece. The best part, unsurprisingly, is where you're most focused - your discussion of the relevant chemistry is precise and enlightening, and your discussion of the indigo dye (while more familiar to me) is also quite good.
After that, you do a fine job, but you lose focus somewhat, especially by the end - you're trying to conquer the world in one short paper, and while you do have some success (which is impressive), you would have, in reality, accomplished even more by sticking to the TNT and the indigo itself - you might, for instance, have done more with the *history* as well as the chemistry of the two substances.
Genuinely good, and certainly your best work.
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