It seems like a stupid question at first, doesn't it?

**Alex Cel** · 03-16-2002, 01:43 AM

pg. 563

"Little solace comes
to those who grieve
When thoughts keep drifting
as walls keep shifting
and this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves

moments before the wind"

What does "house of leaves" mean anyway?

I tried translating the phrase "house of leaves" into German, and I ran into a problem. The word "of" in English can be translated into German as von, aus, or der. This is because the word "of" can imply three different meanings, and therefore the phrase "house of leaves" can also have three different meanings: A house constructed of leaves (what I alway assumed and took for granted until I tried to translate it), a house for (housing), i.e. belonging to leaves, like a house full of leaves, or a house originating (ausstammen) from leaves. All three of which have interesting implications considering the symbolism suggested in the poem and throughout the book.

A house constructed of leaves would shift. It would be fragile (?), transient, maybe almost impossible to possess, or to hold on to, so strong in a way, in the way water is strong, etc.

A house for leaves implies that is a seemingly typical one, but the things that live there (the family) are leaves, or like leaves, scattering, fragile, grieving, afraid = "shaking like leaves," easily blown apart, etc.

And a house originating from leaves... okay, this one is pretty stupid. I mean, really. Originating from leaves? House from Leaves? Come on. I don't know, maybe it's tied to the origins of the house, of leaves, coming from leaves in an elemental way. I don't know. I should have left this last one out probably.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone has talked about this on here already, but I think it's an interesting little question. You know, what exactly does the title of the book mean?

**shever** · 03-16-2002, 05:06 AM

i asked a question like this and got a variety of answers...

my favourite theory is this:
leaves can also be pages in a book.

house of pages. as i said, that's only one of the theories.

use the search function (upper-right) and see what else you can find. the thread i asked this in was called "of Leaves".

good luck, and welcome to the boards!

**Alex Cel** · 03-16-2002, 12:33 PM

Yeah, that's interesting. The word leaves in German is Blaetter, which also means pages, so it seems the words have similar histories.

I'm thinking the phrase is intentionally vague.

**RedsKat23** · 03-16-2002, 06:21 PM

Johnny himself also mentions in one of his lengthy footnotes (I promise to look the number up later) refers to letters as leaves. Hence - House of Leaves, House of Letters. This supports somewhat the book as the communications between Pelafina and Johnny, although I'm not sure I totally buy into that yet. However, I figured I'd mention the point anyway.

Happy Posting,Kat

[ March 16, 2002: Message edited by: RedsKat23 ]

[ March 16, 2002: Message edited by: RedsKat23 ]

**SouthyPar** · 03-16-2002, 10:56 PM

Hmmm, for as long as I can remember my take on the "House of Leaves" metaphor was that "leaves" represent fragments. The "House" to me represents not just a place of darkness where a person is constantly betrayed by the walls; It stands for various fragments of sadness and past memories. Old letters can be leaves. Pages of a book can be leaves. "It's okay, you can go now." is a leave, and to me the saddest one there is.

To me, a "House of Leaves" sounds like an complicated, and emotional place. I agree with you Writhe, leaves do immediatly give a connotation of something scattered and fragile, like (sad) emotions. In the wind, a batch of leaves can be swept up and carried over to new grounds. A "sweeping" sensation always comes to mind for me when I think of leaves.

**Dhalgren** · 03-18-2002, 07:14 AM

Like everything else in this book, I don't think that there is any one definitive answer for what the name means, and it would probably be a bit foolish to pick any one interpretation. All the theories offered up so far have been intriguing and it's sort of nice just to play with them all, accepting that perhaps it means all of them or none of them. I think the only mistake that a reader can make when approaching this book is hoping for a concrete single answer.

**Claudia Wilson** · 03-18-2002, 03:53 PM

There is another possibility which none of you considered, although I might be led astray by English not being my first language. So. Leaves as departures. It sounds slightly incorrect grammatically (it's supposed to be leaving, isn't it?), but I could surely read it that way too. And as for departures: speaking not only of those who died in the house, but of all the human relations cracking up and unbinding within those walls. I might be very wrong.

**scratch** · 03-20-2002, 04:14 PM

The way I understood it, while reading the book, was that the house was composed of leaves- i.e. moving sections, like on a table. My dictionary has the following definition: "A hinged or otherwise movable section of a folding door, shutter, or gate." Not very thought-provoking, but possible nonetheless.

**dungeon_master88** · 03-20-2002, 10:58 PM

I think that the 'House of Leaves' naming has several purposes. One, leaves of pages. Pretty self-explainatory. Second, there is a legend that I mentioned recently about a giant Ash Tree called Yggdrasil within my post 'Windows within Pages?'. It's fairly lengthy so I won't write it again, you can point-and-click much faster and easier than I can type. But it may shed a whole new light on the meaning, maybe not but check it out and decide for yourselves.

**Rubble** · 05-30-2002, 05:27 AM

I take the title to mean Book. A house of leaves is a book. Leaves and pages are commmon symonyms. A book is where pages are at home in a book: therefore house of leaves.

But that poem above makes me think this is the wrong direction to look. When I picture leaves in the wind, i picture a small dust devil. The little whirlwind is in constant flux, yet is always the same. I picture the house on Ash Tree lane the same way. Constant flux, yet never changing.

**John B.** · 05-30-2002, 06:27 AM

This is an interesting thread--the suggestions are right in line with this book's love of puns.
An image that came to mind as I was reading it was that of the Sibyl of Cumae that Virgil describes in Book 6 of the Aeneid. The Sibyl is a prophetess who lives in a cave and writes her prophecies on leaves. She writes them in order, but she does not weight them down or otherwise shelter them; therefore, when the winds blow in and out of the cave (air pressure changes cause caves to "breathe"), the prophecies get scattered, out of order--and, of course, fragmentary. Aeneas knows all this, so when he approaches her he asks her not to bother writing down the prophecies concerning him but just to tell him orally.
All this got evoked for me as I read Johnny's description of Zampano's apartment--of how every scrap of paper has writing on it, and even how the various objects in it seem to have some meaning, but then again, maybe not--and did some thinking about the book's very nature (in particular, the fact that its various editions differ from each other, that The Whalestone Letters contains letters that HoL does not, that Poe's album Haunted provides yet another take on characters in the novel). Elsewhere (the thread "Exactly"), I and others speculate that the unbound-ness of HoL is by design, that perhaps MZD is seeking to (re)create the dynamic out of which myth arises--and that we readers, as we read and discuss and re-read, will be the collective source of that myth. But maybe not. At any rate, MZD is clearly a student of myth . . . he would also know that one of the central motifs of the mythic hero is a descent into and return from an underworld . . . this happens in the Aeneid, just to name one of many instances.

**Agrimorfee** · 05-30-2002, 07:54 AM

The thread starter said: "A house for leaves implies that is a seemingly typical one, but the things that live there (the family) are leaves, or like leaves, scattering, fragile, grieving, afraid = "shaking like leaves," easily blown apart, etc.

And a house originating from leaves... okay, this one is pretty stupid. I mean, really. Originating from leaves? House from Leaves? Come on. I don't know, maybe it's tied to the origins of the house, of leaves, coming from leaves in an elemental way. I don't know. I should have left this last one out probably..."

I don't know about that. I would combine these two ideas into yet another interpretation. THIS HOUSE--our world, our civilization as Homo sapiens-- that we deal with here DOES COME FROM the leaves--HUMANITY-- of the past.... Why else would MZD cite so many quotes from ancient history up through our modern times?

**hello?** · 05-30-2002, 11:38 PM

I'm no linguist, but I think the title of the norwegian or polish or some translation version is Het kaartenhuis, which I think might mean something closer to "The Leaf House." but like I said, I'm no linguist. Just guessing.

You can probably figure it out better than I can; here's where I found it:

House of Leaves in a language I am unfamiliar with

[ May 30, 2002: Message edited by: hello? ]

**silver474** · 05-31-2002, 08:21 AM

I really agree with John B.--I think MZD has a great love for puns, and the title is no exception. Everyone's theories here are valid, and they all could be true.

As for house from Leaves, I think that it all stems back to Yggdrasil. In my opinion, Yggdasil is the key to this book, and the house is some sort of manifestation, connection or actual physical being of or to that tree. So, house from leaves? Not so hard to see that one, too.

*s

**fatwoul** · 08-07-2002, 05:34 PM

It sounds to me like this relates to the stuff hidden in footnote 75.

And before you say "There's nothing hidden in footnote 75 - its a red herring". You need to decode the whole thing - some interesting things appear here and there that seem to tie in with this thread:

"She said memories mean all but they are all dead."

"I wait now only for the wind."

[ August 08, 2002: Message edited by: fatwoul ]

**benzelbub** · 08-08-2002, 06:58 AM

shever---
you might be interested to know that the tori amos song you quote is actually a cover of a joe jackson song (from "night and day")

**girl2** · 08-08-2002, 08:38 AM

totally off this thread's topic:

how come that link that hello? posted to house of leaves in a different language has like a whole damn website, and all we have is a messageboard? i want a neat flash-y intro and some explanation on this site too! i feel neglected! geez!

**hello?** · 08-08-2002, 09:22 AM

I think we should picket outside MZDs house and demand a cool intro to this site and a fun trivia challenge, featuring a question about what Dopey fucked.

**ianthebruce** · 08-08-2002, 02:59 PM

One of the meanings I always took from house of leaves was a description of a tree. A house of leaves before the wind is like a tree with birds residing in it, when the leaves begin to fall. I figured it had something to do with page 609, the description of the tree, yggdrasil, etc. What I'm not sure, but if the roots hold the sky, the leaves are here.

**Agrimorfee** · 08-09-2002, 07:25 AM

I still think WE are the leaves.

**Francis Glances** · 08-09-2002, 08:01 AM

I'd like to live in a House of Veal
with a dirty little dog
who's not quite real
I want to live in a House of Meat
so that me and my dirty
little dog can eat
it

**girl2** · 08-09-2002, 03:00 PM

wow, mzd has a house?

**maryjaneparker** · 08-09-2002, 11:52 PM

I also got the feeling that "leaves" were layers - and that the reader themself becomes yet another layer within the story as they form their own theories about the theories of Truant about the theories of Zampano about the theories of Navidson...and the cycle never seems to end - almost like the black, cold, borderless passages within the House itself.

**fatwoul** · 08-09-2002, 11:55 PM

That is exactly what I like about the idea of Navidson reading HOL - the fact that he and the reader share in each being a leaf in the house.

**hello?** · 08-10-2002, 09:29 AM

says who?

**Swordfish** · 08-11-2002, 11:31 PM

i dunno. i always (following, of course, my first completion of the book) thought that house of leaves referred to the book itself, insofar as the book is the same as the house. We are put into a world where we dont relaly understand anything, but we slowly come to some sort of comprehension as to where we are, and what the fuck is going on. As navy and the crew explore the house and truant explores z's manuscript, we explore the book that we got. We are all exploring the same house.

**girl2** · 08-12-2002, 12:36 PM

says you, hello?! we can't picket his house without him having a house...

*gasp*

or CAN we...

hmmmm...

**dhv25** · 08-12-2002, 01:43 PM

First post ever. sorry if it's bad.

I've got two things to bring up. First, on page 564 (? don't have my text) there is La Feuille, left untranslated. It's weird to me that it wasn't translated, but who cares. Here's the business. A recurring word in that bit can be translated as sheets (like paper) or as leaves from a tree. papers and tree parts have already been brought up on the post so it's not really that big of a deal, except for it being a textual reference where leaf is treated ambiguously.

second, i haven't seen anyone note another shade of meaning in the title. this comes up because of the strange thing that happens when you pluralize 'leaf'. the spelling changes, duh, I know, to leaves, which is also a verb, to, like, get out, as in 'my wife leaves me every three weeks or so.' when you have the preposition 'of' (in 'house of...') it necessarily needs to be predicated of a noun. so you say, fine leaves on a tree, but leaves as in get out, can also be a noun, such as 'leaves of absence' or ' I take leave of you now'. so it could be read as 'house of people getting out.'

clumsy post, sorry. leaving seems to be a recurring theme in the novel, mom and pop leave JT, girlfriends leave JT, owners leave the house, cats and readers leave zampano. JT leaves mom. any more? its not the primary meaning of the title, of course, but it illuminates the theme.

**fatwoul** · 08-12-2002, 02:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by danderjohn:
...second, i haven't seen anyone note another shade of meaning in the title. this comes up because of the strange thing that happens when you pluralize 'leaf'. the spelling changes, duh, I know, to leaves, which is also a verb, to, like, get out, as in 'my wife leaves me...

"House of Leaves" as in "House of Departures" has been observed on here before, but I have to say I don't think that any one meaning is correct, more that it is deliberately chosen as a name with many meanings, again to symbolise the contents that follows.

Its also a good selling point - with many different meanings, the title must surely have appealed to more readers than otherwise - after someone has bought the book, who cares if it isn't what they expected? the publishers and MZD still get their profits. Like I and other have said before, MZD is a hell of a salesman.

**ASAPiccirillo** · 08-17-2002, 11:01 PM

when I thought of the title house of leaves, i thought more of trees and how trees with the change of seasons change colors, shapes and fall off with winter. I thought by naming the book house of leaves the author, who ever that is, was thinking about the lives of the people and the house itself.People go in the house at the beginning, they are like green leaves. As they grow in the house, they mature, and the house become part of their life something that can't be changed or taken away from them, so the leaves are changing colors turning red and orange with the amount of effort the person gives when in the house. and the leaves someday fall off. The people leave the house or like Navy die in the house. That may not make sense but that is what I thought of the title.

Thread: It seems like a stupid question at first, doesn't it?

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