The Spatio-Temporal Dimensions of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves: ‘Real Virtuality’ and the ‘Ontological Indifference’ of the Information Age
The Spatio-Temporal Dimensions of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves: ‘Real Virtuality’ and the ‘Ontological Indifference’ of the Information Age

Summary/Abstract: This essay attempts to examine Danielewski’s experimental novel from the standpoint of postmodernity, architecture, and information theory in order to demonstrate how it exemplifies the new modes of spatio-temporal ordering which characterize late capitalist society in the digital age. Both the figure of the house and the form of the text suggest the futility of spatially and temporally fixed identities in contemporary society. The fictional house contains a corridor that constantly expands, defying any attempts to accurately record its interior. Typographical innovations are used to merge the tempo of the narrative with the readers’ sense of space and time. Furthermore, the online forum where readers discuss the text serves as an extension of the narrative into digital space and also exemplifies the spatio-temporal dimension the novel evokes. Situated within this context we can understand the novel as a meditation upon the ontological uncertainty produced by the ubiquity of digital technologies, as we are no longer able to clearly demarcate the boundaries between online and offline, fact and fiction, real and fantasy.

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