Books to Seek Out
The fractured narrative, the narratives within narratives, the changing points of view, all create a believability that would have been lacking using a traditional narrative structure. Of small import but of great glee to the reader: Danielewski leavens his story with quotes about the film from famous artists, filmmakers, etc., but in such a way that the text absorbs them—70 years from now, when no one knows who Dr. Joyce Brothers is, her quote will still resonate in this book. The first, joyous, utterly absorbing outburst from a writer who will, one day, write books that are not so much outbursts as beautifully intricate works of art, each element in its proper place.
Motor through the footnotes and the typography experiments as they are but juvenilia next to other such experiments by Alasdair Gray, et al. Instead, focus the meat of your attention on the meat of the text, that it and you may feast on each other in equally ravenous fashion.
The World’s Most Dangerous Places
By Robert Young Pelton
(HarperCollins, 2000)
Those of you who have explored House of Leaves may be surprised to find that the real world is more murderous, more mysterious, and more insane than any book. The World’s Most Dangerous Places documents that insanity from pole to pole, including the ludicrously large amount of land covered by mines, the number of deaths from regional/local wars in the past 20 years, and rape/murder statistics from some of the world’s more unsavory places. In listing more than 30 dangerous countries, the bizarre facts pile up like a mound of severed limbs:
Liberia’s Charles Taylor-led rebels included military personnel with names like General No-Mother-No-Father, General Housebreaker, General Fuck-Me-Quick, and ‘the gregarious General Butt Naked.’ General Butt-Naked was particularly visible since he fought battles in his prime-evil buff-his only uniform was a pair of scuffed tennis shoes and his only armor the protective stench of stale liquor no bullet would dare penetrate. These days you’ll find Butt Naked preaching the word of God on Broad Street in Monrovia as a born again preachers.
Ahmed Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierre Leone like to eat their captives: the most favored entrees are the liver and heart. Another nasty trick the guerillas employ on captives is the slashing of ankle tendons and neck muscles. Nice guys. Makes the Khmer Rouge look like a ladies’ field hockey team. Over 100,000 inhabitants of Sierre Leone have had limbs cut off by the RUF since 1991. Some noted commanders of the Cut Hands Commando include Captain 2 Hands, Commander Cut Hands, Dr. Blood, Betty Cut Hands, OC Cut Hands and Adama Cut Hands.
Peace Corps instructions for How to Survive an Anaconda Attack:
- Do not run. The snake is faster than you.
- Lie flat on the ground, put your arms tight against your sides and your legs tight against each other.
- Tuck your chin in.
- The snake will begin to nudge and climb over your body.
- Do not panic.
- The snake will begin to swallow you feet first.
- You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
- When the snake has reached your knees, reach down, take out your knife, slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg. Quickly rip upward, severing the snake’s head.
- Be sure you have your knife.
- Be sure your knife is sharp.
