Somethings Behind Me

[sarae]

warning: if just reading this passage made you paranoid... Don't, I repeat DON'T listen to the passage in MP3 with headphones on. It almost made me jump out of my skin (with the nice added sound effects to play with your head)

-s

[Elizabeth]

After I read this part, it scared the crap out of me. My back was to the door when I read it, and I have been so paranoid ever since. I also had a few unpleasant dreams.

"Something's behind me.
Of course, I deny it.
It's impossible to deny.
I wanna puke.

To get a better idea, try this: focus on these words, and when you do don't let your eyes wander past the perimeter of this page. Now imagine just beyond your peripheral vision, maybe behind you, maybe to the side of you, maybe even in front of you, but right where you can't see it, something is quietly closing in on you, so quiet in fact you can only hear it as silence. Find those pockets without sound. That's wher it is. Right at this moment. But don't look. Keep your eyes here. Now take a deep breath. Go ahead take an even deeper one. Only this time as you start to exhale try to imagine how fast it will happen, how hard its gonna hit you, how many times it will stab you jugular with its teeth or are they nails?, don't worry, that particular detail doesn't matter, because before you have time to even process that you should be moving, you should be running, you should at the very least be flinging up your arms--you sure as hell should be getting rid of this book--you won't have time to even scream.

Don't look.
I didn't.
Of course I looked." images/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[kimlan]

Where can I find the mp3?

[cloudsurfer]

There are a number of sites you might try searching for that would have them posted as mp3's, or you could just buy the album that goes with the book. I think it is entitled, House of Leaves, but check around or go to Border's

[ June 28, 2001: Message edited by: Jeff ]

[MicheleVR5]

Hey thanks Jeff. images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

TG from this board has put up a page with the MP3s, derived from Exploration Z (http://houseofleaves.4t.com)'s Idiot's Guide to HOL.

http://tgryphon.com/hol/

My friend Ben made HTML pages from the CD's liner notes, but I still hadn't gotten around to asking TG to put them up. I have e-mailed him now, hopefully he will so you guys can have the full experience images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[ June 28, 2001: Message edited by: MicheleVR5 ]

[Felicia]

That one part scared the crap out of me, too, as well as this one in the Introduction:

"Then no matter where you are, in a crowded restaurant or on some desolate street or even in the comforts of your own home, you'll watch yourself dismantle every assurance you ever lived by. You'll stand aside as a great complexity intrudes, tearing apart, piece by piece, all of your carefully conceived denials, whether deliberate or unconscious. And then for better or worse, you'll turn, unable to resist, though try to resist you still will, fighting with everything you've got not to face the thing you most dread, what is now, what will be, what has always come before, the creature you truly are, the creature we all are, buried in the nameless black of a name.
And then the nightmares will begin."

Love that line, though: "...buried in the nameless black of a name". Can you believe I actually have that whole paragraph memorized? Danielewski is fuckin' awesome.

[MicheleVR5]

Listen to Mark's reading in New York (http://partners.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/specials/danielewski.html) during his book tour. Something happens that totally changes the mood of the passage. images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif You can listen to the entire reading at once or skip around. For this passage alone click on Second Reading.

[Admiral_Shanks]

So a lot of people were scared when READING it, but has anyone felt it when your NOT reading it. When he says

'Then no matter where you are, in a crowded restaurant or on some desolate street or even in the comforts of your own home...'

I wondered how many people have experienced this. I have, when walking along hallways at work. I have felt the urge to look round so bad that it becomes a pain in my chest, and I have to fight to gain each step.
Now, Im putting this down to an overactive imagination, and like I said last time, if you think this is bull, that's cool. But its not, so, anyone experience the same/similar?