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Last updated: July 23, 2025
Progress: Page 170
Notes page (SPOILERS)
My reason for reading this book was because ████████████████████████████████
I've found this book to be very interesting, it's one of those books that's ahead of it's time despite not being very well-known outside of internet circles.
It's really ahead of it's time with it's use of liminal spaces which really wasn't as much of a thing or a commonly-used until the late 2010s and early 2020s.
It's also got a lot of elements of found footage even before it went mainstream1.
It's like a mix of haunted house, pyschological, found footage, and liminal horror.
The book also has a strong element of a meta-narrative.
The term "Meta" tends to have many connotations.
1. Denoting a change of position or condition. "metamorphosis"
2. Denoting position behind, after, or beyond. "metacarpus"
3. Denoting something of a higher or second-order kind. "metalanguage"
4. Chemistry denoting substitution at two carbon atoms separated by one other in a benzene ring, e.g. in 1,3 positions. "metadichlorobenzene"
5. Chemistry denoting a compound formed by dehydration. "metaphosphoric acid".
It's indeed very easy to critique a work of fiction with a meta-narrative as didactic, polemical, sententious, ostentatious, affected, grandiloquent, bombastic, pedantic, rhetorical, discursive, self-referential, overdetermined, hyperconscious, performative, esoteric, theoretical
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excessive, involuted, allusive, dissonant, impenetrable, affectless, nihilistic, academic, theoretical, sardonic, ironic, mannerist, circuitous, hyperintellectual, obfuscating, self-indulgent, elusive, structuralist, referential, detached, analytical, nonlinear, paradoxical, impressionistic, dialectical, fragmented, rhetorical, abstracted, labored |
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reflexive, recursive, self-conscious, parodic, analytical, speculative, contrived, artificial, theoretical, metafictive, ironic, mannered, stylized, experimental, layered, disjointed, non-linear, fragmentary, disruptive, self-critical, and many other terms. |
Although a meta-narrative can be used to intrigue the reader with how self-aware a story can become. Such is the case with the famous(or infamous) trope of the "Unreliable Narrator"(which House of Leaves uses as well) to create a narrators who's storytelling is often fragmented, inaccurate, and spontaneous. This trope is great for creating a character that "feels real" as opposed to an all-seeing narrator. Meta-narratives can also challenge conventional storytelling by deconstructing tropes.
Edgar Wright’s action film Baby Driver (2017) exemplifies a modern subversion of traditional action movie conventions. The protagonist, Baby, defies the stereotypical appearance and demeanor of the genre’s classic heroes. Rather than embodying the hyper-masculine traits associated with 1980s action stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Baby is portrayed as awkward, introverted, and even nerdy. His character is also more morally complex—while he participates in criminal activity as a getaway driver, he harbors a desire to escape that life. This contrasts with the more straightforward good-versus-evil dichotomy often seen in traditional action films. Notably, Baby’s primary skill lies not in wielding weapons but in his exceptional driving abilities. Wright capitalizes on this by showcasing thrilling car sequences, using dynamic cinematography to highlight Baby’s agility behind the wheel. While Baby Driver lacks the frequent gunfights typical of the genre, its high-octane driving scenes preserve the excitement associated with action films. Rather than serving as an anti-action film, it reimagines genre tropes in a way that feels both fresh and engaging, ultimately enriching the genre rather than rejecting it.2 Therefore, it can be concluded that the incorporation of a meta-narrative can enhance a story’s depth and complexity, encouraging critical engagement from the audience and offering new layers of meaning beyond the surface-level plot.
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1Found footage films actually started to go mainstream in 1999, a year before this book came out (2000). However, author Danielewski started writing the book around 1993.
2Wright’s kinetic visual style, synchronized sound design, and integration of music into the editing rhythm are often cited as key elements distinguishing Baby Driver from other modern action films without relying on traditional shootouts or large-scale violence.
[Missed work again, I mean it's only the second time this month, but I wish I could save up all my sick day to go on vacation somewhere, maybe Rome.]