The House and The Word

[PaulHewson]

I was at a Border's today with a friend trying and he asked if I knew any good books. I found a copy of HoL and handed it to him. After flipping through it, he asked me why House always appeared in Blue. I said I wasn't really sure, but I had some theories.
We wandered around a little more and I had a How-could-I-be-so-stupid moment of insight. We walked past the religious section of the store, and I noticed "The New American Catholic Bible, red letter edition". I've read HoL twice now, and I was raised a Roman Catholic, but I never made the connection between the books until today. (For those not familiar with the Catholic Bible, or should I say the "New American" Catholic Bible, red letter edition, the words of Jesus are all in Red and the other text is in black.)
Unfortunately, I'm not what you would really call a practicing catholic, and my brain is in a caffiene-less state of neutral tonight. I'm hoping that someone else might be able to see the point of color usage in the two books, or tell me that I'm really stretching things here.

-Paul

[Jessie]

You aren't stretching at all, you have opened a new route through the house which is what this bbs is all about. My spiritual nature leans east so I am utterly lost in the world of Catholic and/or Christian dogma.
I have sent emails to three seperate ministers to inquire about the red and blue letter versions so while I wait for that I will share this...
I found a table with a break down of the color symbolism in the bible...I hope this helps.
(even the example is eerie because they use "John")

"In apocalyptic literature, color plays an important role in conveying symbolic meanings. Take for example, the woman that John sees in the wilderness. She sits on a scarlet beast and wears purple and scarlet (Revelation 17:3-4). Here purple and scarlet suggest that the woman has become affluent, probably through evil means.

Below is a list of all the colors mentioned in the Bible with both their references and their meanings.


Color Meaning
Amber Symbolizes the Glory of God
Black One of the more commonly used colors in the Bible; describes the color of the middle of the night (Proverbs 7:9); diseased skin (Job 30:30); healthy hair (Song of Solomon 5:11; Matthew 5:36); corpes' faces (Lamentations 4:8); the sky (Jeremiah 4:28); the darkening of the sun and the moon (Joel 2:10); horses (Zechariah 6:2; Revelation 6:5); and marble (Esther 1:6).

The color black symbolizes sin, death, and famine.

Blue Used to describe the color of a wound, but may refer to the wound itself (Proverbs 20:30). It also describes the sky, Heaven, and the Holy Spirit.

Brown A dark, blackish color referred only to sheep (Genesis 30:32-33, 35, 40).

Crimson Crimson linen was used in the temple (II Chronicles 2:7, 14, 3:14); the color must have been indelible or permanet (Jeremiah 4:30), as crimson is used figuratively as sin. (Isaiah 1:18).
Often refers to blood atonement and sacrifice.

Gray Used only to describe the hair of the elderly (Genesis 42:38)

Green Normally describes vegetation; used of pastures (Psalm 23:2); herbage (II Kings 19:26); trees in general (Deuteronomy 12:2; Luke 23:31; Revelation 8:7); the marriage bed (in a figurative sense, Song of Solomon 1:16); a hypocrite compared to a papyrus plant (Job 8:16); and grass (Mark 6:39). A word meaning "greenish" describes plague spots (Leviticus 13:49, 14:37) as well as the color of gold.
Most often associated with the meaning of growth.

Purple The most precious of ancient dyes made from a shellfish found in the Mediterranean Sea. A total of 250,000 mollusks was required to make one ounce of the dye, which partly accounts for its great price. It was highly valued within the nation of Israel.
Used in several features of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:1, 27:16) and the temple (II Chronicles 2:14); the color of royal robes (Judges 8:26); the garments of the wealthy (Proverbs 31:22; Luke 16:19); the vesture of a harlot (Revelation 17:4); and the robe placed on Jesus (Mark 15:17, 20).
This color symbolizes kingship and royalty.

Red Describes natural objects such as Jacob's stew (Genesis 25:30); the sacrificial heifer (Numbers 19:2); wine (Proverbs 23:31); newborn Esau (Genesis 25:25); Judah's eyes (Genesis 49:12); the eyes of the drunkard (Proverbs 23:29); and the dragon (Revelation 12:3).
The color of blood, it often symbolizes life; it also suggests bloodshed in the carnage of war.
Scarlet Scarlet cord was tied around the wrist of Zerah (Genesis 38:28-30); used a great deal in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:4); the color of cord hung from Rahab's window (Joshua 2:18); a mark of prosperity (II Samuel 1:24; Proverbs 31:21); the color of the robe placed on Jesus (Matthew 27:28); though scarlet and purple were not always distinguished (Mark 15:17); color of the beast ridden by the harlot Babylon (Revelation 17:3) along with some of her garments (Revelation 17:4) and those of her followers (Revelation 18:16).
Often refers to blood atonement and sacrifice.

White The color of animals (Genesis 30:35); manna (Exodus 16:31); both hair and pustules located in plague sores (Leviticus 13:3-39); garments (Ecclesiastes 9:8, Daniel 7:9); the robes of the righteous (Revelation 19:8); horses (Zechariah 1:8; Revelation 6:2, 19:11); forgiven sins (Psalm 5:7, Isaiah 1:8); a refined remnant (Daniel 11:35, 12:10); the beloved one (Song of Solomon 5:10); the white of an egg (Job 6:6); the shining garments of angels (Revelation 15:6) and of the transfigured Christ (Matthew 17:2); hair (Matthew 5:36); gravestones (Matthew 23:27); and the great throne of judgment (Revelation 20:11).
Portrays purity, righteousness, joy, light, and a white horse symbolizes victory.

Yellow Indicates the greenish cast of gold (Psalm 68:13) and the light-colored hair in a leprous spot (Leviticus 13:30,32)"

[ July 11, 2001: Message edited by: Jessie ]

[Tempast33]

Another religious group that colors the letters in the bible is a prod group called The Jesus Seminar or somthing like that anyways they color it by what things they think Jesus actualy said and what he might have said/done i don't remember all the colors they used but i don't knoe its late.

[haus]

The whole Bible thing is interesting, I hadn't thought of that connection myself. I always figured the blue was for 'blue screen' where something 'internal' to the self could be projected upon it or the fact that most hyperlink text is in blue (click on it, it takes you to another location, another place. etc). Just my two cents.

[yucker]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is the word "house" actually blue in anyone's edition? (It's greyed-out in mine, but the index lists it as being blue.)

Mark.

--

Still reading it...

[red_pages]

Yes, in my book the word house is actually blue. I have the hardcover US edition. I've read somewhere that in future editions the word minotaur will possibly be in red as well.

,Daniel

[haus]

I have the hardcover and softcover US editions and in both house is in blue. I know the UK edition is supposedly only in grey. There may be a full color version sometime in the future.

[Jessie]

I have been pestering ministers and dyed in the wool Christians to try to understand the colors as they appear in the bible.
None of the Blue Letter Bible websites offer any explanations for their choice of color.
I have received an email from a friend who addresses this and the question regarding the word house being gray in the UK version of the book;

"A bible with scripture typed in red are the word that Jesus said, blue
letters HMMMM not quite sure about that.... don't know if I've ever seen one
of those. Unless it's a product of a certain denomination, Mormon, Jehovah
witness etc.......some religions have strayed from the meaning of the bible
and created a religion around what they choose to believe. I like the
question about the gray letters, because like much of life people would like
to live in the gray matter of indifference and not commit to what is right."

[ July 14, 2001: Message edited by: Jessie ]

[Lost_In_Crete]

The Catholic red thing is interesting, I'm still working with that (and everything else [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img].) I like the comment about the hyperlink... the bluescreen idea had crossed my mind, more in the sense of the blue pencil artists use (in that it's something that for the layman's purposes isn't actually there but for working purposes is there... ie ARCHITECT). It's there but it goes unseen... anyway, when I started out writing this I thought blue and red were opposites on the color wheel (which they are not) then I thought maybe they were opposite on the spectrum (which they are not) but I thought those things because blue and red, while not opposite, are commonly thought of as opposite (in the same fashion the bull and human parts are often misunderstood regarding the minotaur.) In example, the blue lettering COLD and the red letting HOT on water faucets... there ya go. So if the blue and red are to be thought of as opposites (which in art terms they aren't but I consider it a possibility that a correlation could be drawn seeing as much of the house is based upon assumption as opposed to that which is) a correlation that could be drawn is that the house is some sort of "Anti-Jesus" or "Anti-redeemer," but that doesn't flow for me. It could be commentary on quite the opposite. Since the house led to knowledge (although with the loss of a certain naivete) it could be seen as something of a redeemer, an answer to the question... whereas the bible, epitomized by Jesus, is seen by some to limit people, their life experiences, their outlooks (i.e. racism, sexism, homophobia, etc). It could be parallel to the "happy medium" concept... where somewhere along the middle of the road is the ideal place to be... not being adverse to something but not requiring it... being halfway between red and blue = reds marrying blues = purple. I really wanna check out Harold and the Purple Crayon again... it just keeps popping into my head when I think about this... it seems like he was lost in a maze of some sort.... Then again, the red Jesus thing may just be a coincidence. Those things do exist you know? Either way, it's fun to ponder isn't it?
More than anything, I think the book's a commentary on how one little infraction can start a downward spiral (no pun intended) and by further examining that infraction or problem, help/answeres can be found, but that knowledge does not always come without its losses. I think of it as a statemtnt of "You can have what you want, but know what you're in for," or in a much more trite way "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." It also has the "Don't sweat the small stuff," idea too... if the story of the house is considered as a vicious cycle, it began with Navy's obsession with dimensions... dimensions that grew the more it bothered him.
I know this went in circles, hey, I work like that. If nothing else, blue and red are two of the primary colors... does yellow fit into this equation somewhere? I don't remember any mentions of yellow, the color of cowardice, the color of urine... the color which IS the opposite of purple (aka violet) on the color wheel... also, while not POLAR opposites, blue and red are VERY far apart on the spectrum, the only one further away from red than blue is purple... HMMMM let me know if you have any ideas, let alone if you found the redeeming ideas in this pile of words.

[ July 14, 2001: Message edited by: Lost_In_Crete ]

[invisibleman]

blue is the color of the blood before it hits the air. the color of the blood in the viens.

it is red in the arteries because it has been oxygenated.

so perhaps HOUSE is always blue because it is a hint at the symbolism of something "hidden" or in the "vein" of the home

is anyone familiar with the tree of life?
i dont have a color diagram handy...

[Lost_In_Crete]

so it could have something to do with a combination of that which is within us with that which is outside us... makes sense to me

And following the internal/external idea, then the minotaur is more out in the open, whereas the house is the underlying and more significant problem... that would explain minotaur being crossed out, and also why it is "supposed" to be red, red travels faster than any other color, your eyes see it first... maybe it was "thought" to be the problem, but as time went on it proved not to be... I also find it interesting regarding the blue pencil used by artists when photocopying... maybe the house was never really there at all...

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: Lost_In_Crete ]

[miharu]

tree of life.. as in the sephiroth?
and.. i thought the blue blood thing was mostly a myth.. as unoxygenated blood is dark red, almost brown, not blue.
i'm gonna go back to sleep now ;_;

-miharu
(there is no minotaur, but there is a minotaru... bwahahaha)

[bobus]

i guess i don't look deep enough 'cause i just assumed the navy blue connection.

[Joep Trommelen]

Excuse me, but I think this Bible-connection is going a bit too far. Maybe Mark is just playing a joke on us, trying to get us even more confused. The bluescreen explanation sounds also plausible to me, because the house is in fact een bluescreen for anyone's hopes and fears. What I'm missing in the religious connections that are made, are real explanations. They sound very intellectual and interesting, but is that all???

[MicheleVR5]

In terms of formatting, Mark mentioned the Talmud a couple of times.[1] I don't recall or know if there's different colors in that.

The blue screen theory is apparently the only one Mark's ever actually talked about, the rest of the time he just says "it's in the book." There isn't even a direct quote about it in the article where it's mentioned.[2]

[1] See Random House: Bold Type and KCRW Bookworm interviews.
[2] Missing. I can't find it right now. [img]images/smiles/icon_mad.gif[/img] [3]
[3] Found it. Flak Magazine HOL review - from the same guy who brought you the interview of Mark saying "nyah."

[ July 16, 2001: Message edited by: MicheleVR5 ]

[karebear3982]

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but there is a play by John Guere called "The House of Blue Leaves" and it is about insanity...coincidence that he chose Blue as well?? I really don't have a connection all thought out...but maybe someone else could play around with the idea. The whole blue lettering thing puzzles me too...

[shannon]

I also immediately thought of the "House of Blue Leaves" connection, which featured a character named "Bananas." Also, maybe I just don't get it, or didn't read it thoroughly enough (I know I did race throught this part), but how is Navidson reading "House of Leaves"? Is this a reference to perhaps another work of the same name?

[gleality]

"Navy" owns the house. The house is blue. Navy (the color) is blue. I know everyone gets this but I believe it has to be one of the major reasons for the blue. What I'm curious about is why Karen is Green.

[Inanna]

I was reading a section on auras in a book the other day and it said that blue is generally the color associated with spirituality. The more vivid the color, the more pure the person's spirituality is. Red I believe represented passion and anger. Green is commonly associated with jealousy. What would Johnny's color be? [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

Irene

[nigelthezebra]

Yeah...I don't have my copy in front of me so someone double check the references for me...OK, we've established that blue is the colour of sprituality and heaven...well anyone remember that several times the house is likened to God? I remember the "In my father's house are many rooms" quote being attributed to the house...the fact that immense spaces and echoes invoke the divine...and it was Navidson who said that his house was God, right? I am too tired to elaborate the analysis, so if someone wants to pick up from here...

[wallacebcm]

I find that by pressing on one's eye balls intermittently during reading sessions, the colors will intertwine. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]

[Kittielyckrysh]

lol...umm heyyyy...Maybe blue is just Mark's favorite color...


I'm sorry...I'm thinking House is blue because Blue...well umm...I dunno...it fits the house..I wou;dn't cal lthe house Green...and yellow is too happy...

[shelle]

about the red, blue religious references, i remember learning in high school art class that the Virgin was always painted as wearing those colors.

also, red + blue = purple, which someone pointed out is Pelafina's color.

my edition has blue "house"s but no red "minotaur"s. the note on editions on the 2nd page says you'll either get a book with one, or the other, but not both (since in the 2color edition, black is already one of your colors). the book is very careful about blueing all the houses, even if it is "house" in another language.

the index, however, seems (?) to make a careless mistake: it differentiates between blue and black "house", stating correctly that black house "DNE" (does not exist?). the entry for "minotaur" is also listed under red and black, but black minotaurs are DNE when clearly they are all over the book. i read another post where they said this meant that the minotaur really, doesn't exist.

this index would have been correct for the full color "1st edition", but for the 2nd edition it would have been one word or the other in color, not both. (by the way, does anyone have an edition with red but not blue words?) is this really just an oversight? [img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]

[shelle]

oh yeah! and why is house sometimes in subscript?

[MicheleVR5]

"by the way, does anyone have an edition with red but not blue words?"

This edition's coming out in the fall, October I think. Too tired to remember. Check Exploration Z and Random House's news.

Edit: red version out in November. The Japanese version out in October was planned last year to be the whole four colors, color pics and Braille in two volumes. I hope they managed to do it!

"oh yeah! and why is house sometimes in subscript?"

I think that's just how it ended up getting printed, the blue ink not lining up correctly with the black ink...we'll see when the red version comes out I guess, if it's on purpose or if they managed to get a better way to print it. I don't remember if it was crooked in the UK grey version.

[ July 27, 2001: Message edited by: MicheleVR5 ]

[NathanStack]

Re:Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is white. I had a dream about it once, before I had ever heard of it. In the dream, it began to turn blood red from the roots up and out through all the branches. I've been tryin to paint that image ever since. Never heard the Yggdrasil story before either until now. Interesting.

[ManiKatt]

I don't think it's a stretch at all to bring in the Bible. The book itself seems to be saying something about the influence myths have on us. And the idea that blue represents a wound in christian mythology is VERY important and adds MORE to my understanding of the book. Remmember that Mark took 10 years making this book. THere are an almost infinite amount of references in this book and the Bible, being the single most important book in Western culture is I think I very imprtant book to bring information about myth out of.

[RedsKat23]

OK ...this is my first post, so bear with me...I just finished the book last night.

About the blue lettering:

1) The original "House of Leaves" was privately distributed and did contain blue "house"s and red "minotaur"s. However, there are only 1 and 2 color editions in print. The copy most people have is with "house" always in blue. In UK I think they have only the 1 color edition. Soon, the red-color will be out. And eventually (hopefully), there will be a full-color edition which also includes the only struck passage in chapter XXI (21) in purple ("what I'm remembering now") as well as the plate instructions in the appendix in color or the actual plates. I'm not sure.

2) Why I think the word "House" is always blue:
OK. I liked the blue screen idea as well. However, Mark always says "it's in the book." So, I went searching. I looked up the word blue in the index and located all of the references in the book to the word "blue." 99% of these references either coupled blue with another color in some type of description, or even more often in the phrase "out of the blue." OUt of over 50 references I believe more than 30 were form the phrase "out of the blue." This phrase was used by Johnny and Zampano, though most often by Johnny. Someone on this site previously said somehting about Mark not being one much for cliches, which I also found to be true. SO, why use this one over and over again? "Out of the blue." Mark couples this phrase with, "out of nowhere," "beyond any cause you can trace", etc. "out of the blue" seems to be an unknown source of creation. Think about when you use that phrase. "it just appeared..outta nowhere...outta the blue." You use it when something appears and you don't know where it came from. Whether they be rooms, hallways, people, words, objects. Many say this phrase implies "out of the blue sky", thus alluding to god or the heavens. Which the house is compared to on several occasions. And several mentions of "blue skies" appear in the book. ONe particularly interesting reference is on page 45 where Hollander quotes Wordsworth's poem "incorrectly" and the last line reads - "Flung back, in the sky's blue care reborn -" care is printed instead of "caves." Care is also the last word Navidson utters when he sees his "piece of blue light sky" at the end.

3) OK. enough of that. PLease send your thoughts and feedback. Also, DNE (does not exist?) The list of words in the index listed as DNE is interesting. THoughts anyone?

[gametheory]

And the Word was with him

Yikes, I've been reading this book too much. Off the beach tomorrow, I promise you all.

I'm stunned/pleased (and yet not surprised at all) that *some*body in this forum had the knowledge, at-hand, to list the Scriptural import of the various colors re the parsing of the word *HOUSE* in blue: I wasn't aware of any chromatic significance as regards Bible passages---something new to check out!---but I always saw the blue-register of *HOUSE* as both wondrous and something of a no-brainer; it's the most important word in the book (next to the somewhat more nebulous meanings of the words "Leaves" and "nothing," the latter in the Screwtapian sense of the word), and here deserves, almost demands, its own regalia. So, to break it down---it *had* to be SOMEthing, so why not italics, or caps, or red, or green, or something else entirely? Why blue, anyway, Mark Z.?

(upon rereading this, BTW---I get out, most of the time, and have a serious Life; girls, booze, music, swear to God, ask anybody. But what can I say? This book has changed/wrecked my life. Sorry. Onward.)

And the answer to "Why blue?" seems to come down, in a vaccuum, to a consideration of the process of elimination: Caps, italics? Sophomoric---and clearly, love him or hate him, Danielewski is beyond that. So, chromatics---Red? Hokey, alarmist, old (although the aforementioned, recent and Scripturally-learned correspondent in this forum might have some very valid things to say about *that* stance). Green?---hokum overdrive, a parody of the kind of light that defines "alien" in the cheesiest, most contemporary way. But blue---chromatically, it's not the typical sinister shade, to be sure, the color only most typically found in two places within (terrestrial) nature---the sky and the sea...two paralyzingly vast, for-all-practical-purposes boundless *gulfs,* both known for their stupefying effect upon the psyches of certain two-legged dreamers, the only supercedant, of course, being black---and the *HOUSE* also has plenty of THAT to spare. Let's remember what C.S. Lewis' most austere infernal minion had to tell us about the nature of what we so casually dismiss from the lips as nullnothing. (415-387-3347)

Another aspect of the rendering of the word *HOUSE* all too briefly touched on by the occasional sensitive is the nature of the illuminated word as Hyperlink, hinting at the hyper-textual (indeed, hyper-spatial) nature of the place itself. Despite the age of the original HoL text, I do not and can not believe this was an accidental or merely serendipitous development. Sorry to be grandiose here, but to talk about that *HOUSE* with even the same visual language as one would with other subjects would be tantamount to referencing God with the same lower-case letters with which one would talk about the basest criminal.

(Yikes---this book really does crawl into one's head after awhile, dunnit? Anyway---if you've read the book, you have a sense of familiar country in what I'm trying to say, and if you haven't read it, WOW, did YOU get off-track in winding up embroiled in this forum! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])

All of which begs the mundane but obvious question: To anybody reading this, to anybody curious, a personal, invasive question: What would going back to the *HOUSE*---or telling any other living soul about it---have meant to YOU? This is the single most important, self-reflective question this singular book can ask of you, in my opinion.

In fact, if you're here at all, reading this, gimme hallelujah---did you honestly read this book *one angstrom* more than IT read YOU?

Just a thought.

Also, would appreciate input from anyone regarding the (hexidecimal?) mess contained within the front- and back-covers of the hardcover HoL edition. If you're at all clued into the concept of "potential literature," you know what's worrying me already, damn Perec and his lot. Anybody finish THAT chess-game to date?

Anyway, let me know, peeps.

H

[blueeyeddevil]

super-stretch...

the red minotaur
karen green
and the blue house

red green blue

the primary colors of light

combine to make white light

and in their absence:

darkness

?

[ August 17, 2001: Message edited by: the.blueeyed.devil ]