Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter I
Zampanò introduces The Navidson Record and the first short videos.
A line from the Beatles song “A Day in the Life” (1967). The song also has “I read the news today, oh boy”. Here you read about a film that you cannot see.
! saw a film today, oh boy .
A person who criticizes something.
! saw a film today, oh boy . , , — The Beatles While enthusiasts and detractors will continue to empty entire dictionaries attempting to describe or deride it, “authenticity” still remains the word most likely to stir a debate.
To laugh at something with contempt.
! saw a film today, oh boy . , , — The Beatles While enthusiasts and detractors will continue to empty entire dictionaries attempting to describe or deride it, “authenticity” still remains the word most likely to stir a debate.
Coming along with the main thing, secondary.
In fact, this leading obsession—to validate or invalidate the reels and tapes—invariably brings up a collateral and more general concem: whether or not, with the advent of digital technology, image has forsaken its once unimpeachable hold on the truth.!
That cannot be doubted or questioned.
In fact, this leading obsession—to validate or invalidate the reels and tapes—invariably brings up a collateral and more general concem: whether or not, with the advent of digital technology, image has forsaken its once unimpeachable hold on the truth.!
A trick made to make people believe something false.
For the most part, skeptics call the whole effort a hoax but grudgingly admit The Navidson Record is a hoax of exceptional quality.
Unwillingly; without wanting to.
For the most part, skeptics call the whole effort a hoax but grudgingly admit The Navidson Record is a hoax of exceptional quality.
The documentary film that Zampanò’s whole text describes. Johnny said in the Introduction that the film does not exist.
For the most part, skeptics call the whole effort a hoax but grudgingly admit The Navidson Record is a hoax of exceptional quality.
Truth.
Clearly it is not easy to appear credible when after vouching for the film’s verity, the discourse suddenly switches to why Elvis is still alive and probably wintering in the Florida Keys.2 One thing remains certain: any controversy surrounding Billy Meyer’s film on flying saucers?
This points to Billy Meier (born 1937), a Swiss man who claimed contact with aliens from the Pleiades. From the 1970s he showed photos and films of “beamships”. Critics showed them to be models and tricks.
… to appear credible when after vouching for the film’s verity, the discourse suddenly switches to why Elvis is still alive and probably wintering in the Florida Keys.2 One thing remains certain: any controversy surrounding Billy Meyer’s film on flying saucers?
To take the place of something.
… film’s verity, the discourse suddenly switches to why Elvis is still alive and probably wintering in the Florida Keys.2 One thing remains certain: any controversy surrounding Billy Meyer’s film on flying saucers? has been supplanted by the house on Ash Tree Lane.
A contradiction between two ideas that both seem true.
Though many continue to devote substantial time and energy to the antinomies of fact or fiction, representation or artifice, document or prank, as of late the more interesting material dwells exclusively on the interpretation of events within the film.
A clever trick; something made by skill, not natural.
Though many continue to devote substantial time and energy to the antinomies of fact or fiction, representation or artifice, document or prank, as of late the more interesting material dwells exclusively on the interpretation of events within the film.
The white whale in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851). The narrator tries to describe and classify the whale and fails. Zampanò says the house also resists summary. A behemoth is a huge beast from the Book of Job.
This direction seems more promising, even if the house itself, like Melville’s behemoth, remains resistant to summation.
A huge beast, from the Book of Job; any enormous thing.
This direction seems more promising, even if the house itself, like Melville’s behemoth, remains resistant to summation.
A summary; the act of summing up.
This direction seems more promising, even if the house itself, like Melville’s behemoth, remains resistant to summation.
A reading; a version of a text. Here: a way of reading the film.
Much like its subject, The Navidson Record itself is also uneasily contained— whether by category or lection.
In fiction: a dark, romantic horror style with old houses, secrets and ghosts.
If finally catalogued as a gothic tale, contemporary urban folkmyth, or merely a ghost story, as some have called it, the documentary will still, sooner or later, Slip the limits of any one of those genres.
A sudden, violent attack of a feeling.
Where one might expect horror, the supernatural, or traditional paroxysms of dread and fear, one discovers disturbing sadness, a Sequence on radioactive isotopes, or even laughter over a Simpsons episode.
The Simpsons is the long-running American TV cartoon (from 1989). The film, Zampanò says, holds laughter as well as fear.
Where one might expect horror, the supernatural, or traditional paroxysms of dread and fear, one discovers disturbing sadness, a Sequence on radioactive isotopes, or even laughter over a Simpsons episode.
A person who maps and describes the surface of a place.
In the 17h century, England’s greatest topographer of worlds satanic and divine warned that hell was nothing less than “Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace/ And rest can never dwell, hope never 'A topic more carefully considered in Chapter IX.
Very sad.
In the 17h century, England’s greatest topographer of worlds satanic and divine warned that hell was nothing less than “Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace/ And rest can never dwell, hope never 'A topic more carefully considered in Chapter IX.
Zampanò’s first footnote points ahead to his own later chapter on digital images and truth.
In the 17h century, England’s greatest topographer of worlds satanic and divine warned that hell was nothing less than “Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace/ And rest can never dwell, hope never 'A topic more carefully considered in Chapter IX.
Many tabloids claimed that Elvis Presley (died 1977) was still alive. Bowler, his essay and the collection The House (Little Brown, 1995) are invented. Zampanò uses them to show how believers in the film mix it with tabloid myths.
2See Daniel Bowler’s “Resurrection on Ash Tree Lane: Elvis, Christmas Past, and Other Non-Entities” published in The House (New York: Little Brown, 1995), p.
In 1917 two English girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, took photos of “fairies” that were paper cut-outs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, believed they were real. The two women confessed in 1983.
30r for that matter the Cottingley Fairies, Kirlian photography, Ted Serios’ thoughtography or Alexander Gardner's photograph of the Union dead,
Semyon Kirlian, a Soviet engineer, found in 1939 that an object on a photo plate in a high-voltage field shows a glowing outline. The cause is electrical corona discharge. Believers said the glow was the “aura” of living things.
30r for that matter the Cottingley Fairies, Kirlian photography, Ted Serios’ thoughtography or Alexander Gardner's photograph of the Union dead,
A Chicago bellhop who said in the 1960s that he could put his thoughts on Polaroid film. He stared into the camera through a paper tube, his “gizmo”. Critics showed that a small picture hidden in the tube gives the same result.
30r for that matter the Cottingley Fairies, Kirlian photography, Ted Serios’ thoughtography or Alexander Gardner's photograph of the Union dead,
A photographer of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Historians showed that he moved a dead soldier and posed him for a better picture: “Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter” at Gettysburg (1863).
30r for that matter the Cottingley Fairies, Kirlian photography, Ted Serios’ thoughtography or Alexander Gardner's photograph of the Union dead,
John Milton (1608–1674) is the “greatest topographer of worlds satanic and divine”. In his epic poem, hell is “Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace / And rest can never dwell, hope never comes / That comes to all.”
… and the translucent summer air—in essence an exercise in disbelief which despite his best intentions still takes Navidson back inside to that impossible hallway, until as the camera begins 4phat first bit comes from Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 65-67.
Dante: “Before me nothing was created but eternal things, and I endure eternally. Abandon every hope, you who enter.”
comes/ That comes to all” thus echoing the words copied down by hell’s most famous tourist: “Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create/ Se non etterne, e io etterna duro./ Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.”4 Even today many people still feel The Navidson Record, in spite of all its existential refinements and contemporary allusions, continues to reflect …
A list of academic schools that claim the film. Most are real: Neo-Plasticism is Mondrian’s art of lines and primary colors; Phenomenology is the philosophy of experience (Husserl, Heidegger); Biosemiotics studies signs in living things. “Popomo” is slang for “post-postmodernism”. The long list is partly a joke about theory.
In fact a few eager intellectuals have already begun to treat the film as a warning in and of itself, perfectly suited for hanging whole above the gates of such schools as Architectonics, Popomo, Consequentialism, Neo-Plasticism, Phenomenology, Information Theory, Marxism, Biosemiotics, to say nothing of psychology, medicine, New Age spirituality, art and even Neo-Minimalism.
A loose set of spiritual beliefs popular in the West from the 1970s: crystals, energy, channeling and similar ideas.
… as a warning in and of itself, perfectly suited for hanging whole above the gates of such schools as Architectonics, Popomo, Consequentialism, Neo-Plasticism, Phenomenology, Information Theory, Marxism, Biosemiotics, to say nothing of psychology, medicine, New Age spirituality, art and even Neo-Minimalism.
Firm and loyal; not changing one’s position.
Will Navidson, however, remains stalwart in his insistence that his documentary should be taken literally.
To pay attention to advice and follow it.
Considering how the film ends, it is not surprising that more than a handful of people have decided to heed his advice.
The two short videos that first appeared before the film. VHS copies passed from hand to hand, each copy worse than the last one.
Nearly seven years ago what surfaced was “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway”—a five and a half minute optical illusion barely exceeding the abilities of any NYU film school graduate.
The Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, a famous American film school.
Nearly seven years ago what surfaced was “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway”—a five and a half minute optical illusion barely exceeding the abilities of any NYU film school graduate.
Long thin boards that overlap to cover the outside wall of a wooden house.
… room before climbing outside of the house through a window to the east of that door, where he trips slightly in the flower bed, redirects the camera from the ground to the exterior white clapboard, then moves right, crawling back inside the house through a second window, this time to the west of that door, where we hear him grunt slightly as he knocks his head on the sill, …
The flat piece of wood or stone at the bottom of a window.
… clapboard, then moves right, crawling back inside the house through a second window, this time to the west of that door, where we hear him grunt slightly as he knocks his head on the sill, eliciting light laughter from those in the room, presumably Karen, his brother Tom, and his friend Billy Reston—though like Navidson, they too never appear on camera—before finally returning us to the starting point, thus …
Insulation is material inside a wall that keeps heat in; siding is the outer covering of a wall.
… his friend Billy Reston—though like Navidson, they too never appear on camera—before finally returning us to the starting point, thus completely circling the doorway and so proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that insulation or siding is the only possible thing this doorway could lead to, which is when all laughter stops, as Navidson’s hand appears in frame and pulls open the door, revealing a narrow black hallway at least …
Walking all the way around something.
… all laughter stops, as Navidson’s hand appears in frame and pulls open the door, revealing a narrow black hallway at least ten feet long, prompting Navidson to re-investigate, once again leading us on another circumambulation of this strange passageway, climbing in and out of the windows, pointing the camera to where the hallway should extend but finding nothing more than his own backyard—no ten foot protuberance, just rose bushes, …
A part that sticks out.
… us on another circumambulation of this strange passageway, climbing in and out of the windows, pointing the camera to where the hallway should extend but finding nothing more than his own backyard—no ten foot protuberance, just rose bushes, a muddy dart gun, and the translucent summer air—in essence an exercise in disbelief which despite his best intentions still takes Navidson back inside to that impossible hallway, until as the …
Dante Alighieri is “hell’s most famous tourist”: in the Inferno (early 1300s) he walks through hell. The Italian lines are the words over the gate of hell: “Before me nothing was created but eternal things, and I endure eternally. Abandon every hope, ye that enter.”
The second from Dante’s Inferno, Canto III, lines 7-9.
John D. Sinclair (1865–1968) was a Scottish minister who made a well-known prose translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, first published in 1939. Johnny calls him “some guy”, which is the first footnote in Johnny’s voice.
In 1939, some guy named John D. Sinclair from the Oxford University Press translated the Italian as follows: “Before me nothing was created but eternal things and I endure eternally.
The Editors explain that Johnny’s footnotes are in Courier and Zampanò’s in Times. They also say they never met Johnny. Their own notes are in Bookman and end with “— Ed.” or “— The Editors”.
All matters regarding the publication were addressed in letters or in rare instances over the phone. — The Editors 4
The strip of floor at a doorway; the point where you enter.
… move closer, threatening this time to actually enter it, Karen snaps, “Don’t you dare go in there again, Navy,” to which Tom adds, “Yeah, not such a hot idea,” thus arresting Navidson at the threshold, though he still puts his hand inside, finally retracting and inspecting it, as if by seeing alone there might be something more to feel, Reston wanting to know if in fact his friend does …
A copy of a tape. Each copy of a copy loses quality.
Rather, VHS copies were passed around by hand, a series of progressively degenerating dubs of a home video revealing a truly bizarre house with notably very few details about the owners or for that matter the author of the piece.
Broken into parts, not in one line.
The structure of “Exploration #4” is highly discontinuous, jarring, and as evidenced by many poor edits, even hurried.
Holloway Roberts is an invented man. Menomonie is a real small city in Wisconsin, and U. Mass. is the University of Massachusetts.
He speaks rapidly and appears short of breath: “Holloway Roberts.
A short summary or extract.
Thus bringing to an end this strange abstract which as the release of The Navidson Record revealed was sparingly incomplete.
Navidson is invented, but the photo points to a real one. Kevin Carter’s 1993 photo shows a starving Sudanese child with a vulture behind her. It won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, and people criticized Carter because he took the photo and did not help the child.
community did recognize the author as none other than Will Navidson, the prize-winning photojournalist who won the Pulitzer for his picture of a dying girl in Sudan.
Proof from another source that something is true.
Unfortunately this discovery only generated a few months of heated speculation, before, in the absence of press, corroboration, the location of the house or for that matter any comment by Navidson himself, interest died out.
Here: a clever central idea of a work of art (not pride).
Most people just wrote it off as some kind of weird hoax, or, because of the unusual conceit, an aberrant UFO sighting.
Not normal; wrong.
Most people just wrote it off as some kind of weird hoax, or, because of the unusual conceit, an aberrant UFO sighting.
The belief that a small group is better than others.
Certainly a good deal of the debate was sustained by a bit of old fashioned cultural elitism.
An invented critic and an invented book. “Degenerate” fits the copies that get worse with each dub. The invented publisher is named after Zeuxis, the Greek painter whose painted grapes fooled birds.
People talked about the Navidson pieces because they were lucky enough to have seen them. Lee Sinclair suspects a majority of professors, students, SoHo artists and avant-garde filmmakers who spoke—and even wrote—so knowingly about the tapes, more than likely had never even viewed one frame: “There just weren’t that many copies …
A Manhattan district known in the 1970s–1990s for artists’ lofts and galleries.
Lee Sinclair suspects a majority of professors, students, SoHo artists and avant-garde filmmakers who spoke—and even wrote—so knowingly about the tapes, more than likely had never even viewed one frame: “There just weren’t that many copies available.”6 While “ The Five and a …
“Advance guard”: artists who make new, experimental work.
Lee Sinclair suspects a majority of professors, students, SoHo artists and avant-garde filmmakers who spoke—and even wrote—so knowingly about the tapes, more than likely had never even viewed one frame: “There just weren’t that many copies available.”6 While “ The Five and a Half Minute Hallway” …
A figure of speech; a common image or idea used in a work.
On a purely symbolic level, they afford a vast potential for examination: the compression of space, the power of the imagination to decompress that space, the house as trope for the unlimited and the unknowable etc., etc.
Felt in the body and the gut, not in the mind.
On a strictly visceral level, they provide ample shocks and curiosities.
A film shot made from a camera on a crane, moving high above the scene.
… can be attributed to the verifiable elements (Holloway Roberts, Will Navidson et al.), but most of which must be chalked up to the starkness of the production—the absence of make-up, expensive sound tracks, or crane shots.
Miramax was the film company of Harvey and Bob Weinstein. In the 1990s it was famous for independent films such as Pulp Fiction. Zampanò says it released the film in 1993.
Who would have suspected that almost three years after “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway” began appearing on VHS, Miramax would quietly release The Navidson Record in a limited run and almost immediately unsettle audiences everywhere.
Real American magazines. The list makes the invented film look famous.
Comments and references frequently appear in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Esquire, American Heritage, Vanity Fair, Spin as well as on late night television.
A Greek painter, about 400 BC. Pliny the Elder tells the story: Zeuxis painted grapes so real that birds flew down to eat them. His rival Parrhasius then painted a curtain, and Zeuxis asked him to pull it aside. Zeuxis fooled birds, but Parrhasius fooled Zeuxis.
Japan, France and 6Lee Sinclair’s “Degenerate” in Twentieth Century Dub, Dub edited by Tony Ross (New York: CCD Zeuxis Press, 1994), p.
A word that copies a sound, like “buzz” or “bang”.
7 Arguably interpretive, especially in the case of Holloway’s garbled patter where even the subtitles appear - incomprehensible onomatopoeia or just question marks.
Like a ghost.
Norway have all responded with awards but to this day the spectral Navidson has yet to appear let alone accept any one of these.
Talking too much.
Even the garrulous Weinstein brothers remain unusually reticent about the film and its creator.
Not willing to speak about something.
Even the garrulous Weinstein brothers remain unusually reticent about the film and its creator.
The main text says Interview magazine quoted Harvey Weinstein, but the footnote cites an invented article in Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ). Small contradictions like this one are on purpose. They teach you not to trust the sources.
Even the garrulous Weinstein brothers remain unusually reticent about the film and its creator. Interview magazine quoted Harvey Weinstein as saying, “It is what it is.”9 The Navidson Record now stands as part of this country’s cultural experience and yet in spite of the fact that hundreds of thousands …
A mystery; a thing that is hard to understand.
… The Navidson Record now stands as part of this country’s cultural experience and yet in spite of the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have seen it, the film continues to remain an enigma.
On 30 October 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio play of H. G. Wells’s novel as a series of fake news bulletins about a Martian attack. Newspapers reported that some listeners panicked. It is the classic example of a fiction taken as fact.
Some insist it must be true, others believe it is a trick on par with the Orson Welles radio romp The War of the Worlds.
A light, lively piece of fun.
Some insist it must be true, others believe it is a trick on par with the Orson Welles radio romp The War of the Worlds.
The state of a work loved by a small, very devoted group of fans.
These days, with the unlikely prospect of any sort of post-release resolution or revelation, Navidson’s film seems destined to achieve at most cult status.