Dear Johnny - Track 11

[rextheovermind]

I've searched the site using the site's search engine, and I can't seem to find any reference of this anywhere, so this may be a new idea... then again, I only recently discovered this place and its very very likely that this has already been discussed... anyway, if I'm being a silly newb, feel free to delete this. Otherwise, I'm curious...

The lyrics for Track 11 - Dear Johnny are:

Johnny dear, don't be afraid.
I will keep your secret safe.
Bring me to the blind man who
lost you in his house of blue.

Okay, aside from being creepy sounding, this is riffe with connections to HoL.

It seems to me that this is from one of the Whalestoe Letters sent to Johnny by his mother, but I don't remember it actually being present in the book. The blind man that she mentions is obviously Zampan'o.

Now, if this is Johnny's mother (Pelafina? I can't remember.) then perhaps she's asking to be taken to Zampan'o in order to get revenge on him for "harming" her son by driving him mad. If this is the case, then when she also says "lost you in his house of blue" that suggests that the house and thus The Navidson Record were simply creations of Zampan'o's sad (blue) mind, and Johnny was driven mad trying to decipher Zampan'o's mind, which has been suggested numerous other times on this site.

Perhaps my pointing this out is unnecessary and already done, but I thought it was a very strong supporting point in the idea that Zampan'o has created this whole mess in his head. What this doesn't tell us is if Zampan'o is actually Johnny or not...

[fearful_syzygy]

● Dear Johnny: pg. 296-300 (http://www.houseofleaves.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1290) J.T.; the hard cover end (http://www.houseofleaves.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3312) papers; pg. 638 (Nov.27th '88) The Letters

[rextheovermind]

Oh, that's interesting... the copy I read was missing p. 638... thanks.

[fearful_syzygy]

Seriously? How did that happen?

[Ellimist]

the book is probably slowly imploding... for whatever reason, it started with that page.

[rextheovermind]

:: shrugs :: The binding machine missed that page? It's slowly imploding and will eventually pull me in with it? Take your pick, I'm up for either option.

[malvo4]

Ok i just think that this just refers to King Mino's great labryith(no i can't spell) and its inhabitant the Minotaur. Basically Zampano has created this vast thing that traps teh mind, and it has obviously trapped Johnny and he is now lost within Zampano's creation just as the Minotaur was trapped in King Mino's great creation. just my two cents... wait this thing is over six months old. crappers...

[NuerotoxicRomantic]

Yea, this thread seems old, but you can be proud of me, i used the search function to find it.

I was listening to a breif clip of "Dear Johnny" and all I heard was the creepy voice saying
"Dear Johnny, don't be afraid I will keep your secret safe" Now because "safe" starts with "s" I don't know of secret was plural or not.

I read p. 638
"Open yourself to me. I will not harm your secrets."

But I truly don't believe those are the secrets reffered to in the song. Is there some grandiose secret that Johnny has kept from his mother? Please fill me in, I seem to be a bit lost.

[NuerotoxicRomantic]

wow....been a month, still no replies? its okay, I got another question.

is there a code on pages 296=300? I know that certain things are underlined, and they are in this order

The Navidson Record
ignis fatuus
really
The Atrocity
who left it open?
but whose
inside!
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity

I guess it would help alot if I knew what ignis fatuus means...just help me out here, still in the dark about all of this

[fearful_syzygy]

Will-o (http://houseofleaves.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=50722#50722)'-the-Wisp. (p. 488)

[po-m]

The Navidson Record
ignis fatuus
really
The Atrocity
who left it open?
but whose
inside!
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity

I noticed that, too. The only thing I could come up with was, reading it straight, it says "the Navidson Record is misleading. (The atrocity) Who left it open? (answer: Navidson) But who's inside? (answer: The atrocity)

It's saying the Navidson Record is misleading and there is a minotaur inside????(sharply ascending in pitch to a high squeak) Mostly, I think it was saying that The Navidson Record is just a metaphor for the Atrocity sinking or vice-versa. I don't have my book. This was written by Zampano', yes?

[fearful_syzygy]

No, Johnny. Johnny underlines everything instead of italicising it, because that's harder to achieve on a typerwriter. ;)

[po-m]

No, Johnny. Johnny underlines everything instead of italicising it, because that's harder to achieve on a typerwriter.

Oh, well there goes my theory...or...hmm...I guess depending on how you look at it, this could back up the "Johnny=Zampano" theory. It could mean that he wrote both stories and this is where he relates them, or it could just mean that he's being driven mad by TNR and relating it to his own experience. The prior would also hint that Pelafina did know Zampano because she knew about the Atrocity's sinking.
OR it could mean that I am going crazy and confusing the hell out of everyone, which would mean that I am, in fact, Pelafina. Correct?

[sutrix]

No, Johnny. Johnny underlines everything instead of italicising it, because that's harder to achieve on a typerwriter. ;)

I have wondered about that, though:

From what I've read about the publishing industry, you actually do underline instead of italicise your manuscript when you're sending it to an editor for publication. The editor/typesetters then italicize the text appropriately. That's an old custom and might not be applicable now, but it kind of makes you wonder why those underlines stayed instead of italicising, doesn't it?

[fearful_syzygy]

That's an old custom and might not be applicable now, but it kind of makes you wonder why those underlines stayed instead of italicising, doesn't it?
Well not really. The editors put Johnny's text in Courier, and I think it's just customary to underline rather than italicise in Courier. It also increases the immediacy of Johnny's footnotes, because it makes it look more like Johnny's actually typing them right then and there, with no intermediary.

[sutrix]

Heh, and now I'm back to wondering who made the decision to print Johnny's stuff in Courier and how to print everything else.¹ This book is a circle, I tell you. It takes you round and round.

Like an O.

_________________
¹And of course I'm talking about it in the fictional sense. Otherwise everyone would go: MZD decided.

[NuerotoxicRomantic]

So then why look for an end....if the last page is only a connection to the beginning(wherever that might be) sounds alot like a labrynth of sorts, does it not? Forcing you to search for the way out to end your toil and searching....when really an end to it all is just an illusion, something made up by our mind that is begging with reality and invevitability so that we do not go insane.
?

[singularhiccup]

Or it could also be in reference to the single "Angry Johnny" off of POE's first album.
Or maybe "Angry Johnny" references House of Leaves as well.

[Nail Bane]

Or it could also be in reference to the single "Angry Johnny" off of POE's first album.
Or maybe "Angry Johnny" references House of Leaves as well.
Was there ever a question as to if it did?

[Oracle428]

wow....been a month, still no replies? its okay, I got another question.

is there a code on pages 296=300? I know that certain things are underlined, and they are in this order

The Navidson Record
ignis fatuus
really
The Atrocity
who left it open?
but whose
inside!
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity

I guess it would help alot if I knew what ignis fatuus means...just help me out here, still in the dark about all of this


Ok, I know this post is over a year old, but you sparked my curiosity about "ignis fatuus" and I don't think anybody ever found out what it meant...

"Ignis" = Fire

I couldn't find "Fatuus" exactly, but...

"Fatu", "Fatus" = To Speak
"Fatua" = Foolish
"Fatum" = Fate, Destiny, Doom, Lot, Weird

Pick a meaning... it doesn't matter which one... they're all creepy.

~The Oracle~

[fearful_syzygy]

...I don't think anybody ever found out what it meant...
Well, not in this thread perhaps (but that's only because no-one followed up my page reference).

Also, see here (http://www.houseofleaves.com/forum/showthread.php?p=50193#post50193).

Welcome aboard, oracle.

[Oracle428]

Hi Fearful Syzygy... Thanks for the welcome.

Ah, I see now about Ignis Fatuus... I read several of the posts that you linked to and also looked it up on the Webster website... a definition they give that wasn't mentioned is "a deceptive goal or hope"... I thought that was interesting.

... going back to the original text:
"The Navidson Record
ignis fatuus
really
The Atrocity
who left it open?
but whose
inside!
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity
The Atrocity"

... Nice allusion to the Navidson Record itself being simply a will-'o-the-wisp (a ghost and a fool's errand)... nonexistant, except for the idea... not to mention the layers of deception, misdirection, false hope and metaphorical phantom hunting that occur for both Will and Johnny (and even to Johnny's mother and Holloway and various other characters)... Or maybe Zampano himself was the "ignus fatuum," since he seemed to play the role of the fulcrum between the stories presented and was never exactly a tangible character (since, at best, he was dead, or perhaps more interestingly, didn't exist at all)... and if he didn't exist and the Navidson Record didn't exist, can was assume that Johnny doesn't exist... or how about that illusive editor... they must all be "ignus fatuum." :]

As a will-'o-the-wisp leaves us questioning the validity of our perceptions and whether or not any of it is real at all (or as real as a work of fiction can be), so does every part of this book... I love that... its been way to long since I've read it (about a year)... I need to go back and read it again... a friend of mine (who I recommended the book to) just finished it and has me inspired to try and wrap my brain around it again... (and I'm especially dying to after perusing around this site for the past few days).

~The Oracle~

[OrangeTangoDoble]

Was there ever a question as to if it did?

Actually, for me, there was . . . Especially because <i>Hello</i> was released before <i>Haunted</i>. I just don't see it as really tying in that much.