Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter III
Why Navidson? His childhood and his need for photography.
A circus performer who trains lions.
iil It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer.
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) was an American documentary photographer. Her photo “Migrant Mother” (1936) is the best-known image of the Great Depression. Her line says that a photographer is made by his or her life, not by chance.
iil It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer. — Dorothea Lange myTe ae Woe 12 yD ody by AY WR OED ONT!
A verse from the Hebrew Bible, printed in Hebrew. The Editors translate it in footnote 24: Moses asks God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?” Moses feels unfit for the task God gives him. The chapter asks the same question about Navidson.
NTN’ NTR 13 — Exodus 3, 11%4 Why Navidson?
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence. At the start of his journey he asks why he should go into the other world: “I am not Aeneas; I am not Paul.” Johnny’s footnote gives Sinclair’s translation again.
When the great Florentine howls, “Ma io perché venirvi?
To cry out loudly, in pain or distress.
When the great Florentine howls, “Ma io perché venirvi?
Dante: “But I, why should I go there, and who grants it? I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul.”
When the great Florentine howls, “Ma io perché venirvi? o chi ‘I concede?/ Io non Enéa, io non Paulo sono,”?5 Homer’s rival calls him a *4"But Moses said to God, ‘Who am 1 that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?’
Virgil (70–19 BC), the Roman poet of the Aeneid, which was written to rival Homer’s epics. In the Inferno Virgil is Dante’s guide. He tells Dante that his soul is hurt by cowardice and that three women in heaven sent help for him.
When the great Florentine howls, “Ma io perché venirvi? o chi ‘I concede?/ Io non Enéa, io non Paulo sono,”?5 Homer’s rival calls him a *4"But Moses said to God, ‘Who am 1 that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?’
Johnny’s footnote 25 takes Dante’s question for himself: why did the papers come to him? His answer turns into a portrait of Lude and of the stories Johnny tells about himself.
Two figures who went to the other world while alive. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI, the Trojan hero Aeneas visits the underworld. In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul says he was taken up into heaven. Dante feels he is neither of them.
I am not Aeneas; I am not Paul.”
Johnny’s friend, a hair stylist who knows every bar and club in Hollywood. The joke about “sublime” plays on lime, which you suck after a shot of tequila.
The simple answer I know: Lude woke me up at three in the morning to check out some dead guy’s stuff.
So great or beautiful that it fills you with awe. Johnny jokes that Lude thinks it is “sub-lime”.
He's the kind of guy who thinks sublime is something you choke on after a shot of tequila.
A person who decides who may come in, like a club doorman.
Lude knows every bar, club and gatekeeper at every bar and club.
Something that you know or love from birth.
Hollywood has always been mother's milk to Lude.
To do very well, to grow strong.
We both thrive in the late hours, 19
Exodus 3:11: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?”
Praise, respect (“to throw someone props”).
Of course publicly, Lude likes to throw me plenty of props, invariably focusing on the disjointed life I’ve led.
Broken into parts that do not connect.
Of course publicly, Lude likes to throw me plenty of props, invariably focusing on the disjointed life I’ve led.
A long improvised talk on a theme (from music).
(I already got into that a little with the whole riff on boxing and Birds of Paradise and some guy named Punching Bag.)
Johnny has real scars from his wrists to his elbows. He tells women invented stories about them, such as a cult in Idaho and a hot wok. He says the stories help people look away, and maybe help him look away too.
I actually have a whole bunch, Take the scars for instance.
A period of time spent doing a job.
The most popular is my two year stint in a Japanese Martial Arts Cult, made up entirely of Koreans living in Idaho, who on the last day of my initiation into their now-defunct brotherhood made me pick up a scalding metal wok …
A ceremony to accept a new member into a group.
The most popular is my two year stint in a Japanese Martial Arts Cult, made up entirely of Koreans living in Idaho, who on the last day of my initiation into their now-defunct brotherhood made me pick up a scalding metal wok using only my bare forearms.
No longer existing or working.
The most popular is my two year stint in a Japanese Martial Arts Cult, made up entirely of Koreans living in Idaho, who on the last day of my initiation into their now-defunct brotherhood made me pick up a scalding metal wok using only my bare forearms.
Hot enough to burn skin.
… two year stint in a Japanese Martial Arts Cult, made up entirely of Koreans living in Idaho, who on the last day of my initiation into their now-defunct brotherhood made me pick up a scalding metal wok using only my bare forearms.
A deep round Chinese frying pan.
… stint in a Japanese Martial Arts Cult, made up entirely of Koreans living in Idaho, who on the last day of my initiation into their now-defunct brotherhood made me pick up a scalding metal wok using only my bare forearms.
A very hot oven for baking pottery or bricks.
In the past the wok has been heated in a kiln; recently it's been full of red hot coals.
Complete nonsense; a lie.
The story’s an absolute crock of shit, or should I say a wok of shit—sorry; I know, I know I should learn to crawl before I walk; sorry again; I mean for not being sorry the first time or for that …
Master simple things before you try hard ones. Johnny uses it about his bad pun.
The story’s an absolute crock of shit, or should I say a wok of shit—sorry; I know, I know I should learn to crawl before I walk; sorry again; I mean for not being sorry the first time or for that matter the second time—but, you see, it's so hard to argue with all those whirls of melted flesh.
Casual, as if without thought.
“Show them your arms, Johnny” Lude will say, in his most offhand over-the-top manner.
Short for “bullshit”: nonsense, lies.
I’m sure most women know it’s bull but hey, they’re entertained.
A thing, an item (“one of those old jobbers”).
Three months since I dragged away a black, unremarkable, paint spattered trunk, which as I quickly found out was one of those old cedar lined jobbers, built in Utica, NY, special thanks to the C.
A simple metal fastener on a door or box.
Clapp Company, complete with rusted latches, rotting leather handles and a lifetime of digressions and disappointments.
A part of a text that moves away from the main subject.
Clapp Company, complete with rusted latches, rotting leather handles and a lifetime of digressions and disappointments.
Johnny finds that Zampanò sent his work to journals, publishers and professors many times, and nobody wanted it.
To date, I’ve counted over two hundred rejection letters from various literary journals, publishing houses, even a few words of discouragement from prominent professors in east coast universities.
Zampanò’s papers came in an old cedar-lined trunk. Utica is a real city in New York State. The maker’s name on the trunk is a small detail that Johnny records with care.
I just glanced over at the trunk.
Dante again: he maps hell in the Inferno. Dante had Virgil as a guide, and his journey had heaven’s support. Zampanò says Navidson gets no answer and no guide. “Amaurotic” means blind.
For hell’s cartographer, the answer is mildly satisfying.
A person who makes maps.
For hell’s cartographer, the answer is mildly satisfying.
Loud and echoing; also very clear.
The house responds with resounding silence.
Blind, from amaurosis, loss of sight without a visible cause.
Not even an amaurotic guide.
A visible form or sign of something.
Some have suggested that the horrors Navidson encountered in that house were merely manifestations of his own troubled psyche.
The human mind or soul.
Some have suggested that the horrors Navidson encountered in that house were merely manifestations of his own troubled psyche.
An invented critic who says the house is a physical form of Navidson’s pain. Zampanò praises his research and then says “almost everything he concludes is wrong”. The line “a little bit of house cleaning” is an example of the puns Zampanò complains about.
Some have suggested that the horrors Navidson encountered in that house were merely manifestations of his own troubled psyche. Dr. Iben Van Pollit in his book The Incident claims the entire house is a physical incarnation of Navidson’s psychological pain: “I often wonder how things might have turned out if Will Navidson had, how shall we say, …
A thing that gives a body or physical form to an idea.
Iben Van Pollit in his book The Incident claims the entire house is a physical incarnation of Navidson’s psychological pain: “I often wonder how things might have turned out if Will Navidson had, how shall we say, done a little bit of house cleaning.”’26 While Pollit is not alone in …
To make something appear, as if by magic.
… had, how shall we say, done a little bit of house cleaning.”’26 While Pollit is not alone in asserting that Navidson’s psychology profoundly influenced the nature of those rooms and hallways, few believe it conjured up that place.
Serious danger.
The reason is simple: Navidson was not the first to live in the house and encounter its peril.
The Navidsons’ real-estate agent. She later tells that the house has had many owners, about .37 a year, most of them hurt in some way.
As the Navidsons’ real estate agent Alicia Rosenbaum eventually revealed, the house on Ash Tree Lane has had more than a few occupants, approximately .37 owners every year, most of whom were traumatized in some way.
Great enjoyment and energy.
It is no great coincidence then that eventually someone with a camera and a zest for the dangerous would show up at this Mead Hall and confront What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of …
In the Old English poem Beowulf, Heorot is the great mead hall of King Hrothgar. The monster Grendel attacks it every night until the hero Beowulf comes to face him. Zampanò compares the house to Heorot and Navidson to the man who confronts the terror.
It is no great coincidence then that eventually someone with a camera and a zest for the dangerous would show up at this Mead Hall and confront What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows …
A large hall where an old Germanic king and his warriors ate and drank mead (honey wine).
It is no great coincidence then that eventually someone with a camera and a zest for the dangerous would show up at this Mead Hall and confront What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows …
A person who cannot resist something.
It is no great coincidence then that eventually someone with a camera and a zest for the dangerous would show up at this Mead Hall and confront What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unmourned, well, you get the …
Not announced; not noticed.
… can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unmourned, well, you get the drift.
To understand the general meaning.
… sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unmourned, well, you get the drift.
Johnny says his father died when he was ten and that his “crazy Shakespearean mother” died almost nine years later. He refuses to tell more here.
As a counselor once told me—a Counselor For Disaffected Youth, I might add: “You like that crap because it reminds you of you.”
Unhappy and no longer loyal; alienated.
As a counselor once told me—a Counselor For Disaffected Youth, I might add: “You like that crap because it reminds you of you.”
Exactly right.
Seems pretty dead on and probably has everything to do with the fact that when I was ten my father died and almost nine years later my crazy Shakespearean mother followed him, a story I’ve already lived and …
To shock and disgust.
The first time I saw it, I mean when I discovered what was inside, it appalled me.
A natural tendency to do something.
26Regrettably, Pollit’s proclivity to pun and write jokes frequently detracts from his otherwise lucid analysis.
So good that others should copy it.
108, is a remarkable example of brilliant scholarship and exemplary synthesis of research and thought.
The combination of parts into one whole.
108, is a remarkable example of brilliant scholarship and exemplary synthesis of research and thought.
Cold, sad and without hope.
Navidson’s childhood was fairly bleak.
St. Louis is a city in Missouri. “Bring down the house” is an actor’s idiom: to get huge applause. The phrase, from Navidson’s mother, takes a second meaning in a book about a house.
His father was a St. Louis salesman who worked for a string of large electronics corporations, shuttling his family around the mid-west every two or three years.
To move back and forth between places.
Louis salesman who worked for a string of large electronics corporations, shuttling his family around the mid-west every two or three years.
Likely to do or suffer something.
He was also an alcoholic and prone toward violent outbursts or disappearing for long periods of time.?’
A disease in which the heart cannot pump enough blood and fluid collects in the body.
Navidson’s father died of congestive heart failure but his mother just vanished.
Too much love of and interest in oneself.
Neither Will nor his twin brother Tom ever heard from her again.?8 Because the enormous narcissism of their parents deprived Will and Tom of suitable role models, both brothers learned to identify with absence.
By lucky chance.
Consequently, even if something beneficial fortuitously entered their lives they immediately treated it as temporary.
In love with; very fond of.
Unfortunately, ““accustomed to” here is really synonymous with “damaged by.”29 Perhaps one reason Navidson became so enamored with photography was the way it gave permanence to moments that were often so fleeting.
Lasting a very short time.
Unfortunately, ““accustomed to” here is really synonymous with “damaged by.”29 Perhaps one reason Navidson became so enamored with photography was the way it gave permanence to moments that were often so fleeting.
A bottle that keeps drinks hot or cold.
27Michelle Nadine Goetz recalls how on one occasion Navidson’s father climbed onto the hood of the family’s recently purchased car, used a thermos to crack up the windshield, then marched back into the kitchen, picked up a pan full of sizzling pork chops and threw it against the wall.
Real American newspapers, invented interviews. The two witnesses describe the violent and absent father, Tony Navidson.
Louis Post-Dispatch, September 27, 1992, D-3, column one.)
Invented sources for the story of the mother who vanished.
8A selection of personal interviews with Adam Zobol, Anthony Freed and Anastasia Cullman.
An invented doctor and book in a real university press. The quoted passage compares emotional deprivation in children with starvation: severe damage stays for life.
29Rita Mistopolis M.D., in her book Black Heart, Blue Heart (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1984), p.
The lack of something you need.
245, describes the seriousness of emotional deprivation: It is not difficult to understand how children who have suffered from malnutrition or starvation need food and plenty of care if their bodies are to recover so they can go on to lead …
Damage that stops a part of the body or mind from working fully.
If, however, the starvation is severe enough, the damage will be permanent and they will suffer physical impairments for the rest of their lives.
Care and support that helps a child grow.
Likewise, children who are deprived of emotional nurturing require care and love if their sense of security and self-confidence is to be restored.
To give, as a gift or honor.
… become increasingly more successful, he was ultimately misled in feeling that his labor could make up for the love he was deprived of as a child and the ultimate sense of security such love bestows.
Harmless; not likely to offend.
A pretty innocuous and laconic rumination and yet it contains one particularly nettlesome word.
Using very few words.
A pretty innocuous and laconic rumination and yet it contains one particularly nettlesome word.
Deep, slow thinking about something.
A pretty innocuous and laconic rumination and yet it contains one particularly nettlesome word.
Causing annoyance or difficulty.
A pretty innocuous and laconic rumination and yet it contains one particularly nettlesome word.
The quality of lasting only a short time.
More than just snapping a few pictures and recording daily events with a few Hi 8s, Navidson wanted to use images to create an outpost set against the transience of the world.
From before Adam; extremely old.
Considering the practically preadamite history of the house, it was inevitable someone like Navidson would eventually enter those rooms.
The Atlantic is a real American magazine; the article is invented. Ross thinks Navidson’s word “outpost” is a joke; Zampanò disagrees.
3°Keillor Ross in his article “Legal Zoning” for Atlantic Monthly, v.
Limits, borders of a place.
43, does not wish to discount the possibility of irony: “After all Navidson has just moved from the extremely populated confines of New York City and is now only poking fun at the relative wilderness of this suburb.”
A joke.
Ross makes a good point, except for the fact that Navidson is a man who understands the meaning of outpost and his tone seems too straight forward to imply any kind of jest.
LA Weekly is a real free weekly paper in Los Angeles. Zampanò says this chapter first came out there in 1994. No such article exists.
This chapter first appeared as “The Matter Of Why” in LA Weekly, May 19, 1994.