Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter VII
Holloway, Jed and Wax arrive; Explorations #1–#3; Johnny's night with Kyrie.
A newcomer to the far north (Alaska, Yukon); also spelled cheechako.
He was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter.
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American writer of adventure stories. “To Build a Fire” (1908) tells of a man who travels alone in the Yukon at extreme cold.
The quote says the man has no imagination, so he does not see the danger. The chapter introduces a new explorer.
The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. — Jack London “To Build A Fire” Holloway Roberts arrives carrying a rifle.
Holloway is a professional hunter and explorer whom Reston calls in to explore the hallway. Menomonie is a real small city in western Wisconsin.
The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. — Jack London “To Build A Fire” Holloway Roberts arrives carrying a rifle.
A powerful hunting rifle cartridge made by the American company Weatherby, used for large game. It is the first thing we see Holloway carry.
In fact in the very first shot we see of him, he emerges from a truck holding a Weatherby 300 magnum.
A cartridge or gun with extra power.
In fact in the very first shot we see of him, he emerges from a truck holding a Weatherby 300 magnum.
Making people feel afraid or weak.
Even without weapons though, Holloway would still be an intimidating man.
To look at something very closely and carefully.
Consequently, when he steps onto Navidson’s front lawn, arms folded, eyes scrutinizing the house, bees flying near his boots, he looks less like a guest and more like some conquistador landing on new shores, preparing for war.
The Spanish soldiers who conquered the Americas in the 16th century. The comparison makes Holloway a man who arrives to take new land by force.
Consequently, when he steps onto Navidson’s front lawn, arms folded, eyes scrutinizing the house, bees flying near his boots, he looks less like a guest and more like some conquistador landing on new shores, preparing for war.
“Conqueror”; a Spanish soldier who conquered land in the Americas.
Consequently, when he steps onto Navidson’s front lawn, arms folded, eyes scrutinizing the house, bees flying near his boots, he looks less like a guest and more like some conquistador landing on new shores, preparing for war.
Field & Stream is a real American magazine about hunting and fishing. The travel writer and the article are invented.
As travel writer Aramis Garcia Pineda commented: “He is confident, leads well, and possesses a remarkable amount of brassball courage.
Very brave and bold (from “brass balls”).
As travel writer Aramis Garcia Pineda commented: “He is confident, leads well, and possesses a remarkable amount of brassball courage.
A meeting where experts give talks on one subject.
Reston had met Holloway four years earlier at a symposium on arctic gear design held at Northwestern University.
A private university in Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago. Reston met Holloway there at a meeting on arctic equipment.
Reston had met Holloway four years earlier at a symposium on arctic gear design held at Northwestern University.
To express an idea clearly in words.
Not only did he clearly articulate the problems with current equipment, he also focused on what was needed to correct the problems.
Backpacker is a real American magazine about hiking. The article, about Reston's friendship with Holloway, is invented.
39-47. Leezel Brant’s “Billy Reston’s Friends For Life” in Backpacker, v.
An interview with Reston, part of the Navidson material. The footnote sends the reader to Exhibit Four, a set of transcripts at the back of the book.
rock solid,” Reston said much later in The Reston Interview.
Curriculum vitae: a written record of a person's education and career.
“Just look at his C.V.
Jed is one of Holloway's two employees. He comes from Vineland, New Jersey, and lives in Seattle. The Cascades are a mountain range in the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon).
33 Within a week he had arrived at the house, along with two employees: Jed Leeder and Kirby “Wax” Hook.
Wax is the youngest of Holloway's team and a gifted climber. Aspen is a mountain resort town in Colorado.
33 Within a week he had arrived at the house, along with two employees: Jed Leeder and Kirby “Wax” Hook.
Sierra is the real magazine of the Sierra Club. The title plays on Wax's surname and on the idiom “hook, line and sinker” (completely, as a fish swallows all of the bait).
33 Within a week he had arrived at the house, along with two employees: Jed Leeder and Kirby “Wax” Hook.
Completely; to the highest degree.
… years later he is still a long way from Vineland, and as we can see for ourselves, his passion for the Pacific Northwest and the great outdoors only seems to have grown more intense. Consummately shy, almost to the point of frailty, Jed possesses an uncanny sense of direction and remarkable endurance.
Weakness of body or character.
Consummately shy, almost to the point of frailty, Jed possesses an uncanny sense of direction and remarkable endurance.
Strange and difficult to explain; beyond normal.
Consummately shy, almost to the point of frailty, Jed possesses an uncanny sense of direction and remarkable endurance.
Lyle Lovett (born 1957) is an American country and folk singer from Texas. Jed and his Texan fiancée listen to him.
When he is not trekking, Jed loves drinking coffee, watching the tide turn, and listening to Lyle Lovett with his fiancée.
A metal spike that a climber drives into rock to hold a rope.
Before he could walk he knew where to drive a piton and before he could talk he had a whole vocabulary of knots under his fingers.
A young person with a very great natural talent.
If there is such a thing as a climbing prodigy, Wax is it.
The north side of Mount Everest, on the Tibet side. Wax wants to climb it alone.
In one clip, he tells us how he plans to eventually make a solo ascent of Everest’s North Face: “And I’ll tell you this, more than a few people are bettin’ I'll do it.”
Mt. McKinley (now called Denali) in Alaska is the highest mountain in North America. Ellison's Cave in Georgia holds some of the deepest vertical pits in the USA. A cwm is a bowl-shaped valley cut by a glacier; the Western Cwm on Everest is in Nepal.
For the next three years, Wax helped Holloway and Jed lead teams up Mt. McKinley, down into Ellison’s Cave in Georgia, or across some Nepalese cwm.
A deep, round valley on a mountain, cut by a glacier. Said “koom”.
McKinley, down into Ellison’s Cave in Georgia, or across some Nepalese cwm.
A short trip into an unknown or dangerous place.
… always better than you and if you make it down alive you’re grateful you had a good trip.”8” “This though has to be the weirdest,” Wax later tells Navidson, right before making his last foray down the hallway.
An invented book. Ohio University Press in Athens, Ohio, is real. Reller guesses how the short film “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway” spread from Holloway to friends and then to academics.
3 Gabriel Reller in his book Beyond The Grasp of Commercial Media (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1995) suggests that the appearance of the first short entitled “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway” originated here: “Holloway …
Outdoor Life is a real American magazine. The article title is a pun on Jed's surname and on “Leader of the Pack”, a 1964 hit song by the Shangri-Las.
86See also Susan Wright’s “Leeder of the Pack” in Outdoor Life, v.
Crazy.
if I wanted to explore a house I thought he was cracked.
A nut with two flat “wings” to turn by hand. “Loose wing nuts in his cerebral cortex” means he is a little crazy.
In spite of the tape he saw, Holloway seems convinced that Navidson has more than a few loose wing nuts jangling around in his cerebral cortex.
The outer layer of the brain, used for thought.
In spite of the tape he saw, Holloway seems convinced that Navidson has more than a few loose wing nuts jangling around in his cerebral cortex.
Kuellster and his book (from an invented publisher, Metalambino Inc.) are invented. People is a real American celebrity magazine; the article is invented.
Kuellster claims to know what Holloway feels at the first sight of the hallway.
But when the four dead bolts are at last unlocked and the hallway door drawn open, the icy darkness instantly slaughters every smile and glance. Newt Kuellster suspects the first view of that place irreparably altered something in Holloway: “His face loses color, something even close to panic suffuses his system.
In a way that cannot be repaired.
Newt Kuellster suspects the first view of that place irreparably altered something in Holloway: “His face loses color, something even close to panic suffuses his system.
To spread through and fill.
Newt Kuellster suspects the first view of that place irreparably altered something in Holloway: “His face loses color, something even close to panic suffuses his system.
To show anger or tension, as an animal raises its hair.
Neither one says anything critical but both men bristle in each other’s presence.
Very angry.
Navidson, no doubt, is privately incensed that he must ask another man to explore his own house.
Too sure of yourself; arrogant.
He is cocky and following Navidson’s little introduction immediately starts calling the shots.
To be the person who makes the decisions.
He is cocky and following Navidson’s little introduction immediately starts calling the shots.
To calm someone's anger or worry.
Karen would refrain from relying on other men to mollify her insecurities if Navidson curbed his own risk-lust and gave domesticity a real shot.
To say something indirectly; to hint.
After all, as Karen later intimated, their home was supposed to bring them closer together.8° The appearance of the hallway, however, tests those informal vows.
Zampanò points ahead to a later chapter for Karen's own words. This guide does not say what that chapter holds.
89See Chapter XIII.
Two invented sources from an earlier chapter who made claims about Karen's unfaithfulness. The scene with Holloway brings those claims back.
She laughs it off but the uneasy energy released recalls Leslie Buckman and Dale Corrdigan’s accusations.”
Hi8 was a small analog videotape format for home camcorders, introduced by Sony in 1989. Navidson records his video diary on it.
Navidson confides to his Hi 8,“I can’t tell you how much I’d like to deviate that fucker’s [Holloway’s] septum.”
A deviated septum is a bent wall between the two sides of the nose, often after a punch. Navidson means he wants to break Holloway's nose.
Navidson confides to his Hi 8,“I can’t tell you how much I’d like to deviate that fucker’s [Holloway’s] septum.”
The thin wall between the two sides of the nose.
Navidson confides to his Hi 8,“I can’t tell you how much I’d like to deviate that fucker’s [Holloway’s] septum.”
In a mysterious way that is hard to understand.
And then later on mutters somewhat enigmatically: “For that I should throw her out.”
To join pieces of film or tape together.
The closest he comes appears in a Hi 8 journal entry spliced in following his encounter with Holloway.
In a quick, easy way that is not serious.
Sitting by himself on the edge of the tub, blood stained socks draped over the edge, he carefully spreads a silky ointment around what he glibly calls his “light fantastic toe.”
From John Milton's poem “L'Allegro” (1645): “Come, and trip it as ye go / On the light fantastic toe”, an old way to say “dance”. Navidson uses the phrase as a dry joke about his damaged feet.
Sitting by himself on the edge of the tub, blood stained socks draped over the edge, he carefully spreads a silky ointment around what he glibly calls his “light fantastic toe.”
An invented study, from a real New York publisher. Calzatti describes the explorations as a medical intrusion: Holloway is “the stranger”, Jed and Wax “the instruments”, the house “the patient”.
Frequently treatment of the first three explorations has concentrated on the physical aspects of the house. Florencia Calzatti, however, has shown in her compelling book The Fraying of the American Family (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995)—no longer in print—how these invasions begin to strip the Navidsons of any existing cohesion.
The state of staying together as one unit.
Florencia Calzatti, however, has shown in her compelling book The Fraying of the American Family (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995)—no longer in print—how these invasions begin to strip the Navidsons of any existing cohesion.
Here: a special way of speaking or writing used by one person or group.
Unfortunately understanding Calzatti’s work is not at all easy, as she makes her case using a peculiar idiom no reader will find readily comprehensible Refer to footnotes 19 and 20 concerning Karen’s infidelities.
Having many sexual partners.
Perhaps it also should be noted here that for all his wanderings Navidson was pointedly not promiscuous.
Fortune is a real American business magazine. Panofsky says Navidson worked like a monk and was faithful.
Good looks, intelligence, and fame did not combine to create an adulterous lifestyle. Iona Panofsky in “Saints, Sinners, and Photojournalists” Fortune, v.
An invented Australian author who insults Navidson's faithfulness with Freudian terms. Zampanò then quotes a Wall Street Journal report of a bar fight in Australia that contradicts him.
However, Australian native, Ryan Murray in his book Wilder Ways (Sydney: Outback Works, 1996) calls Navidson’s monastic habits “‘a sure sign of unresolved oedipal anxieties, repressed homosexuality, and a disturbed sense of self.
Like a monk: simple, strict and without sex.
However, Australian native, Ryan Murray in his book Wilder Ways (Sydney: Outback Works, 1996) calls Navidson’s monastic habits “‘a sure sign of unresolved oedipal anxieties, repressed homosexuality, and a disturbed sense of self.
In Freud's theory: about a child's desire for the parent of the other sex.
However, Australian native, Ryan Murray in his book Wilder Ways (Sydney: Outback Works, 1996) calls Navidson’s monastic habits “‘a sure sign of unresolved oedipal anxieties, repressed homosexuality, and a disturbed sense of self.
According to what people say, but not proven.
An odd thing to say considering Navidson drank freely in every Australian bar he ever visited and on the one occasion when he was attacked by two drunks, purportedly angry over all the attention the waitresses were lavishing on him, both inebriates left bruised and bleeding.
A drunk person.
… drank freely in every Australian bar he ever visited and on the one occasion when he was attacked by two drunks, purportedly angry over all the attention the waitresses were lavishing on him, both inebriates left bruised and bleeding.
To give someone too much love and attention.
Very fine, delicate decoration; here, very small details.
Without focusing too closely on the fine filigree of detail presented in these pieces—a book in itself—it is worthwhile, however briefly, to track the narrative events of the three explorations and recite to some degree how they effect the Navidsons.
A down parka is a warm jacket filled with feathers. Gore-Tex is a waterproof fabric that lets sweat out. Halogen lamps give a bright white light.
For Exploration #1, Holloway, Jed and Wax enter the hallway equipped with Hi 8s, down parkas, hats, Gortex gloves, powerful halogen lamps, extra batteries, and a radio to keep in contact with Navidson, Tom and Reston.
A type of bright lamp with a gas inside the bulb.
For Exploration #1, Holloway, Jed and Wax enter the hallway equipped with Hi 8s, down parkas, hats, Gortex gloves, powerful halogen lamps, extra batteries, and a radio to keep in contact with Navidson, Tom and Reston.
A round holder on which line or thread is wound.
Navidson ties one end of some fishing line to the hallway door and then hands the spool to Holloway.
Strange and frightening.
It is particularly eerie to watch Holloway and his team disappear down the long hallway, while just outside Karen paces back and forth in the light of a September day, oblivious of the space she repeatedly crosses though …
Four invented articles in psychoanalysis, medicine, internal medicine and homeopathy journals. They continue Calzatti's medical way of reading the explorations: surgery, invasion and cure.
This time Holloway carries with him four spools of fishing line, several flares, and some 91Consider Bingham Arzumanian’s “Stranger in a Hall” Journal of Psychoanalysis, v.14 April 12, 1996, p.
Ladies' Home Journal was a real American women's magazine. The footnote is on Karen, who walks back and forth outside, and cannot enter the space.
92See Jeffrey Neblett’s “The Illusion of Intimacy and Depth” Ladies’ Home Journal, v.
So small that it is not important.
Though Exploration #2 ends up lasting over eight hours, Holloway, Jed, Wax only hear the growl once and the resulting shifts are negligible.
Wildly angry, out of control.
Aside from feeling generally incensed by what he perceives as Holloway’s postured authority, Navidson almost goes berserk listening to the discoveries on the radio.
Names that Jed and Holloway give to the spaces they find inside the hallway. Navidson feels he lost the right to name them.
Reston and Tom try to cheer him up and to Navidson’s credit he tries to act cheerful, but when Jed announces they have crossed what he names the Anteroom and entered what Holloway starts calling the Great Hall, Navidson finds it increasingly more difficult to conjure even a smile.
A small room that leads into a larger room.
Reston and Tom try to cheer him up and to Navidson’s credit he tries to act cheerful, but when Jed announces they have crossed what he names the Anteroom and entered what Holloway starts calling the Great Hall, Navidson finds it increasingly more difficult to conjure even a smile.
An invented radio psychologist and show. She reads the Navidson–Holloway conflict as a male fight for dominance. Footnote 94 adds Calzatti's view of Karen's demand as a harsh but useful ritual.
Radio psychologist Fannie Lamkins believes this is a clear cut example of the classic male struggle for dominance: It's bad enough to hear the Great Hall has a ceiling at least five hundred feet high with a span …
To find in yourself (courage, strength, words).
… but when Holloway radios that they’ve found a staircase in the center which is over two hundred feet in diameter and spirals down into nothing, Navidson has to hand Reston the radio, unable to muster another word of support.
An order or command, often from a court.
Lamkins sees Navidson’s willingness to obey Karen’s injunction as a sacrifice on par with scarification, “though invisible to Karen.”
Cutting the skin on purpose to leave permanent scars, often as a ritual. Lamkins compares Navidson's promise to Karen to it.
Lamkins sees Navidson’s willingness to obey Karen’s injunction as a sacrifice on par with scarification, “though invisible to Karen.”
Cutting the skin to make permanent scars, as a ritual.
Lamkins sees Navidson’s willingness to obey Karen’s injunction as a sacrifice on par with scarification, “though invisible to Karen.”
Making darkness; very dark (a rare word).
This last comment is actually not uncommon, especially for individuals who find themselves confronting vast tenebrific spaces.
The “Cave of Swallows” in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is an open pit about 370 m (over 1,000 ft) deep, full of birds. American cavers first descended it in 1967. It is in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains.
Back in the mid-60s, American cavers tackled the Sotano de las Golondrinas, an incredible 1,092ft hole in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental.
Caving gear for long ropes. A rappel rack controls speed as you slide down a rope; an ascender grips the rope so you can climb up it.
They used rope, rappel racks, and mechanical ascenders to make the descent.
To slide down a rope in a controlled way (also called abseil).
They used rope, rappel racks, and mechanical ascenders to make the descent.
A clamp that grips a rope so a climber can move up it.
They used rope, rappel racks, and mechanical ascenders to make the descent.
An official order.
Florencia Calzatti also sees Karen’s edict as violent, though she ultimately considers it of great value: “A needed rite to reinvigorate and strengthen the couple’s personal bonds.”
Giving all your attention to something.
It hardly helps that Karen stays, entirely engrossed in Holloway’s presentation and the ghostly if inadequate images of a banister frozen on the monitor.
The rail at the side of a staircase.
It hardly helps that Karen stays, entirely engrossed in Holloway’s presentation and the ghostly if inadequate images of a banister frozen on the monitor.
Beetles that give off light. Chad fills a jar with them in the park; Navidson joins him. Light in a jar is a small scene of contrast to the dark hallway.
Chad it turned out was in the park filling a jar full of fireflies.
Placed here and there among other things.
Relying primarily on the team’s radio transmissions interspersed with a few clips from the Hi 8s, Navidson relates how Holloway, Jed, and Wax take fortyfive minutes to reach the Spiral Staircase only to spend the next seven hours walking down it.
A feeling of dizziness, often when you look down from a high place.
“I got some vertigo,” Jed confesses.
Showing too little care or concern.
Wax is more cavalier, claiming to have felt no fear, though for some reason he is more exhausted than the rest.
Calm and quiet in pain or trouble, not showing feelings.
Holloway remains the most stoic, keeping any doubts to himself, adding only that the experience is beyond the power of any Hi 8 or 35mm camera: “It’s impossible to photograph what we saw.”’97 °5 Planet Earth: Underground Worlds by …
A real popular-science book in Time-Life's Planet Earth series. The caver's words about “descending into an illusion” come from it. The footnote spells the town “Alexandra”; the real place is Alexandria, Virginia.
… keeping any doubts to himself, adding only that the experience is beyond the power of any Hi 8 or 35mm camera: “It’s impossible to photograph what we saw.”’97 °5 Planet Earth: Underground Worlds by Donald Dale Jackson and The Editors of Time-Life Books (Alexandra, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1982), p.
Zampanò cites two of the invented medical articles again, on Tom's support for Karen, and points to a later chapter.
149. ®Both Bingham Arzumanian and Curtis Melchor’s pieces have offered valuable insight into the nature of Tom’s alignment with Karen.
An invented essay. Preece says Holloway's claim that the camera cannot capture the place makes him the leader of the group for a time.
9?Marjorie Preece uses this one line to launch into her powerfully observed essay “The Loss of Authority: Holloway’s Challenge” Kaos Journal, v.
A thick mass; here, grains of chemical on film that make black.
Whether chemical clots determining black or video grey approximating absence, the images still remain two dimensional.
Signals the eye uses to judge distance: light, shadow, size, overlap. Zampanò says the photos of the stairway have too little light for any depth.
In order to have a third dimension, depth cues are required, which in the case of the stairway means more light.
A deep, round hole or shaft.
The flares, however, barely illuminate the size of that bore.
Small photographs mounted on card, very popular in the 1860s, often traded like visiting cards. Zampanò uses the term for the flat, small images of a huge space.
Only knowledge illuminates that bottomless place, disclosing the deep ultimately absent in all the tapes and stills—those strange cartes de visites.
“Visiting card”: a small 19th-century photo on a card.
Only knowledge illuminates that bottomless place, disclosing the deep ultimately absent in all the tapes and stills—those strange cartes de visites.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) was a major German-language poet. The lines are from “Schwarze Katze” (Black Cat) in New Poems (1908).
Zampanò leaves them in German. The Editors give Stephen Mitchell's translation in footnote 99: the black pelt absorbs your strongest gaze until it disappears.
It is unfortunate that Holloway’s images cannot even be counted as approximations of that vast abrupt, where as Rilke wrote, “aber da, an diesem schwarzen Felle/ wird dein stéirkstes Schauen aufgeldst.”% Holloway’s assertion that the camera is impotent within the house “helps establish him—at least for a little while—as the tribe’s head.”
Footnote 98 (pp. 87–90) is Johnny's. He needs the German translated, so Lude sends him to Kyrie. The story of that night fills the next three pages.
“But there, in this black fur, your strongest looking is dissolved” (Rilke, “Black Cat”).
It is unfortunate that Holloway’s images cannot even be counted as approximations of that vast abrupt, where as Rilke wrote, “aber da, an diesem schwarzen Felle/ wird dein stéirkstes Schauen aufgeldst.”% Holloway’s assertion that the camera is impotent within the house “helps establish him—at least for a little while—as the tribe’s head.”
A German friend of Lude's who Johnny met once before in a bar. Her name is also the Greek word “Lord” from the Christian prayer “Kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy).
Actually, Lude had a German friend named Kyrie, a tall blonde haired beauty who spoke Chinese, Japanese and French, drank beer by the quart, trained for triathlons when she wasn’t playing competitive squash, made six figures a year as a corporate consultant …
A triathlon is a race of swimming, cycling and running. Squash is a fast racket sport played in a closed court. Both show Kyrie as strong and driven.
Actually, Lude had a German friend named Kyrie, a tall blonde haired beauty who spoke Chinese, Japanese and French, drank beer by the quart, trained for triathlons when she wasn’t playing competitive squash, made six figures a year as a corporate consultant and loved to fuck.
To look at someone in an unpleasant, sexual way.
I was leering about, pretty obliterated in the arms of drink, hours of drink actually, feeling like days of drink, when this monstrous guy loomed up in front of me, grumbling insensibly about bad behavior, something concerning …
Seeming to show that something important will happen.
He meant Kyrie of course who even back then was a blonde haired beauty, writing my name in Japanese and assigning all sorts of portentous things to it, things I was hoping to lead or was it follow?
To put yourself between two people.
… writing my name in Japanese and assigning all sorts of portentous things to it, things I was hoping to lead or was it follow? elsewhere, when this prehistoric shithead, reeking of money and ignorance, interposed himself, cursing, spitting and threatening, in fact so loud & mean Kyrie had to interpose herself, which only made matters worse.
To work together in secret.
I stood there tingling all over, a dangerous clarity returning to me, ancient bloodlines colluding under what I imagine now must of been the very aegis of Mars, my fingers itching to weld into themselves, while directly beneath my sternum a hammer struck the timeless bell of war, a …
Protection or support; from the shield of Zeus.
I stood there tingling all over, a dangerous clarity returning to me, ancient bloodlines colluding under what I imagine now must of been the very aegis of Mars, my fingers itching to weld into themselves, while directly beneath my sternum a hammer struck the timeless bell of war, a call to arms, though all of it still held back by …
Mars is the Roman god of war. The aegis was the shield of Zeus and Athena; “under the aegis of” means under the protection of. An opposable thumb can touch the other fingers; Johnny uses it to insult the big man as an ape.
I stood there tingling all over, a dangerous clarity returning to me, ancient bloodlines colluding under what I imagine now must of been the very aegis of Mars, my fingers itching to weld into themselves, while directly beneath my sternum a hammer struck the timeless bell of war, a call to arms, though all of it still held back by what?
The breastbone in the middle of the chest.
… over, a dangerous clarity returning to me, ancient bloodlines colluding under what I imagine now must of been the very aegis of Mars, my fingers itching to weld into themselves, while directly beneath my sternum a hammer struck the timeless bell of war, a call to arms, though all of it still held back by what?
An operation that makes a new path for blood around a blocked artery.
Every time I tried to open my door, my heart started racing for a bypass.
A written symbol or sign.
She even wrote down on a napkin the glyph she'd created for me half a year ago to reflect my name and nature.
A Jack and Coke is Jack Daniel's whiskey with Coca-Cola. Ecstasy (MDMA) is an illegal drug that gives strong feelings of energy and closeness.
Before I could order a drink, a Jack and Coke, she told me her boyfriend was out of town, working on some construction site in Poland, single handedly dislodging supertankers stuck in dry dock in Gdansk or something.
Gdańsk is a port city in Poland, famous for its shipyard. A dry dock is a basin where water is pumped out to repair a ship. Johnny mocks Kyrie's boyfriend, “Gdansk Man”, with this picture of his job.
Before I could order a drink, a Jack and Coke, she told me her boyfriend was out of town, working on some construction site in Poland, single handedly dislodging supertankers stuck in dry dock in Gdansk or something.
A basin that can be emptied of water, used to repair ships.
Before I could order a drink, a Jack and Coke, she told me her boyfriend was out of town, working on some construction site in Poland, single handedly dislodging supertankers stuck in dry dock in Gdansk or something.
A car seat shaped to hold one person.
In the parking lot, we slipped into her bucket seats and quickly swallowed two tabs of Ecstasy.
Having many curves and turns.
Kyrie took over from there, At nearly ninety miles per hour, she zipped us up to that windy edge known to some as Mullholland, a sinuous road running the ridge of the Santa Monica mountains, where she then proceeded to pump her vehicle in and out of turns, sometimes dropping down to fifty miles per hour only to immediately gun …
Mulholland Drive is a winding road along the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains above Los Angeles, with wide views of the city.
Kyrie took over from there, At nearly ninety miles per hour, she zipped us up to that windy edge known to some as Mullholland, a sinuous road running the ridge of the Santa Monica mountains, where she then proceeded to pump her vehicle in and out of turns, sometimes dropping down to fifty miles per hour only to immediately gun it back up to ninety again, fast, slow, fast-— …
Silly and without meaning.
I can’t remember the inane things I started babbling about then.
Rapid eye movement sleep, the deep stage of sleep in which most dreams occur. Johnny says he cannot reach it any more.
The Black Forest is a large forest in south-west Germany, the setting of many German folk tales with wolves. Johnny imagines where Kyrie's German words take her.
… much the dark language we had suddenly stumbled upon, craved to, carved to, not a communication really but a channeling of our rumored desires, hers for all I know gone to Black Forests and wolves, mine banging back to a familiar form, that great revenant mystery I still could only hear the shape of, which in spite of our separate lusts and individual cries still continued to drive us …
A person or ghost that returns from the dead.
… to, carved to, not a communication really but a channeling of our rumored desires, hers for all I know gone to Black Forests and wolves, mine banging back to a familiar form, that great revenant mystery I still could only hear the shape of, which in spite of our separate lusts and individual cries still continued to drive us deeper into stranger tones, our mutual desire to keep gripping …
Not changing in tone or pitch.
… fact prove too much after all, seconds too much, and impossible to refuse, so blowing all of everything apart, shivers and shakes and deep in her throat a thousand letters crashing in a long unmodulated fall, resonating deep within my cochlea and down the cochlear nerve, a last fit of fury describing in lasting detail the shape of things already come.
The spiral organ of the inner ear that turns sound into nerve signals. Johnny describes the sound of Kyrie's voice with medical words.
… seconds too much, and impossible to refuse, so blowing all of everything apart, shivers and shakes and deep in her throat a thousand letters crashing in a long unmodulated fall, resonating deep within my cochlea and down the cochlear nerve, a last fit of fury describing in lasting detail the shape of things already come.
The spiral part of the inner ear that turns sound into signals for the brain.
… seconds too much, and impossible to refuse, so blowing all of everything apart, shivers and shakes and deep in her throat a thousand letters crashing in a long unmodulated fall, resonating deep within my cochlea and down the cochlear nerve, a last fit of fury describing in lasting detail the shape of things already come.
A woman who uses men and then leaves them.
At the time I thought it was kind of cute but I guess “man eater” did cross my mind.
The compass fails; preparations for Exploration #4; Johnny's tooth story.
The Pa Kua (bagua) is an eight-sided chart of the eight trigrams. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese book of divination. The Lo Shu is a 3×3 magic square. The Compass School of feng shui depends on exact compass directions, so Karen buys a compass.
Since much of Feng Shui, especially in the Compass School, relies on auspicious and inauspicious directions, it is crucial to get an accurate reading on how the house sits in relationship to points north, south, east, and west.
Showing signs of future success; lucky.
Since much of Feng Shui, especially in the Compass School, relies on auspicious and inauspicious directions, it is crucial to get an accurate reading on how the house sits in relationship to points north, south, east, and west.
An invented guide, from the real bookseller-publisher Barnes & Noble. The joke: a whole feng shui manual for one film.
“I guess all we’ve got now is your sense of direction,” Wax jokingly tells Jed, which as Luther Shepard wrote: “Only helps to emphasize how real the threat was of getting lost in there.””!02 She was still crying when she drove off.
Serving as a symbol of something.
As translated by Stephen Mitchell. — Ed. !00Rosemary Park considers Karen’s dilemma highly emblematic of the absence of cultural polarities: “In this case, Karen’s inability to determine a direction is not a fault but a challenge, requiring tools more capable than compasses and reference points more accurate than …
An invented essay from an invented publisher (Urban B-light). Park reads the broken compass as a sign of a culture with no fixed poles.
See “Impossible Directions” in /nside Out (San Francisco: Urban B-light, 1995), p.
An entrance hall; a passage into something.
He asserted that the minute fluctuations of the needle proved the house was nothing less than a vestibule for pure energy which if harnessed correctly could supply the world with unlimited power.
An invented essay that says the house could supply unlimited energy. The title and publisher are named after Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, the two great 19th-century scientists of electromagnetism.
See The Faraday Conclusion (Boston: Maxwell Press, 1996).
With dry, slightly mocking humour.
Rosie O’Donnell, however, offered a different perspective when she wryly remarked on Entertainment Tonight: “The fact that Holloway waited that long to use a compass only goes to show how men—even explorers—still refuse to ask for directions.”
Rosie O'Donnell is an American comedian and TV host. Entertainment Tonight is a real US showbusiness TV programme. Her joke about men who never ask for directions is invented.
Rosie O’Donnell, however, offered a different perspective when she wryly remarked on Entertainment Tonight: “The fact that Holloway waited that long to use a compass only goes to show how men—even explorers—still refuse to ask for directions.”
A short period of doing a lot of one activity, such as shopping.
No Hi 8 records their trip but the way Chad and Daisy relate to their mother the details of their shopping spree reveals how fond they have become of their uncle.
An invented doctoral thesis about the room where Tom sleeps. Boston University is real.
He and Tom both live at the house, Tom in the study,!% Reston crashing on the pull-out in the living room, while Holloway, Jed, and Wax —at least up until Exploration #4—stay at a local motel.
Footnote 104 (pp. 92–93) is Johnny's. Chad's silence makes him admit that he changes details to avoid a story. Then he tells the real story of his broken tooth.
The outer edge of an area.
Upon hearing what the men are discussing, she angrily withdraws to the periphery of the house.
Lasting longer than expected.
She clearly despises anything that might suggest a longer, more protracted relationship with the oddities of their home.
Comedy based on falls, hits and silly physical action.
… one, always shifting and re-shifting details, smoothing out the edges, removing the corners, colorizing the whole thing or if need be de-colorizing, sometimes even flying in a whole chorus of cartoon characters, complete with slapstick Biff!
Comic-book sound words, famous from the 1966 Batman TV series. Bugs Bunny is the Warner Bros. cartoon rabbit. Thumper is also the rabbit in Disney's Bambi (1942), a joke on the name of the stripper Johnny knows.
… always shifting and re-shifting details, smoothing out the edges, removing the corners, colorizing the whole thing or if need be de-colorizing, sometimes even flying in a whole chorus of cartoon characters, complete with slapstick Biff! Blam! Pow! antics,—this time leave in the blam—which may have some appeal, can‘t underrate the amusement factor there, even though it’s so far from the truth it might as well be a cartoon because it certainly …
Invented; not real.
And fuck, now I know exactly where I’m going, a place I’ve already managed to avoid twice, the first time with a fictive tooth improv, the second time with that quick dart north to Santa Cruz and the troubles of a girl I barely know, though here I am again, right at this moment too, again heading …
Improvisation: something made up on the spot.
And fuck, now I know exactly where I’m going, a place I’ve already managed to avoid twice, the first time with a fictive tooth improv, the second time with that quick dart north to Santa Cruz and the troubles of a girl I barely know, though here I am again, right at this moment too, again heading straight for …
Johnny admits that he twice avoided this story: once with an invented tale about his tooth, and once when he turned to the Santa Cruz woman's story in footnote 82.
And fuck, now I know exactly where I’m going, a place I’ve already managed to avoid twice, the first time with a fictive tooth improv, the second time with that quick dart north to Santa Cruz and the troubles of a girl I barely know, though here I am again, right at this moment too, again heading straight for it, which I suppose I could still resist.
A former marine and Johnny's foster father in Ohio. He is the man with the beard “rougher than horse hide” from Chapter VI.
Eventually—though it did take awhile—I ended up with Raymond and his family.
Covered with a pattern of small tiles or shapes that fit together.
Then one night, late at night, much closer to dawn than dusk, while ice still gathered outside along the window frames and tessellated walks, I woke up to find Raymond squatting on my bed, wearing his black dirt-covered boots, chewing on a big chunk of beef jerky, jabbing me in the face with his fingers, murdering all …
Dried, salted strips of meat.
… while ice still gathered outside along the window frames and tessellated walks, I woke up to find Raymond squatting on my bed, wearing his black dirt-covered boots, chewing on a big chunk of beef jerky, jabbing me in the face with his fingers, murdering all remnants of sterno or park dreams.
Sterno is canned jelly fuel, used for heating food and also drunk by poor alcoholics. Beef jerky is dried, salted meat.
… woke up to find Raymond squatting on my bed, wearing his black dirt-covered boots, chewing on a big chunk of beef jerky, jabbing me in the face with his fingers, murdering all remnants of sterno or park dreams.
Having a very strong, bad smell.
He leaned closer, forcing on me that rank smell of meat clinging to his teeth.
A person who attacks another person.
A whole week, fifteen faceless assailants racing after me right when school rang out, mostly eighth graders but a few ninth graders too, always bigger than me, telling me no seventh grade newcomer ever gets a say back, but I …
A very small stream (here, of blood).
I mean there were rivulets on his parka and on alot of the snow and he kind of froze up, frightened I guess, I don’t know, but I apparently fractured his jaw and loosened a couple of his teeth …
A break between school lessons.
Right at noon recess.
Happening at the same time as something else, as a result of it.
Holloway, for his part, does not permit these domestic tensions and concomitant stresses to distract him from his preparations.
Not direct or clear.
The ever oblique Leon Robbins in attempting to adequately evaluate these efforts has gone so far as to suggest that “Operation” would in fact be a far more appropriate word than “Exploration”: Holloway in many ways resembles …
An invented book (the University of Pennsylvania is real). Robbins compares Holloway to a surgeon before an operation; Zampanò calls the comparison a little misguided.
The ever oblique Leon Robbins in attempting to adequately evaluate these efforts has gone so far as to suggest that “Operation” would in fact be a far more appropriate word than “Exploration”: Holloway in many ways resembles a conscientious …
Careful to do your work well and correctly.
… Robbins in attempting to adequately evaluate these efforts has gone so far as to suggest that “Operation” would in fact be a far more appropriate word than “Exploration”: Holloway in many ways resembles a conscientious medical practitioner in pre-op.
The time before a surgical operation.
… adequately evaluate these efforts has gone so far as to suggest that “Operation” would in fact be a far more appropriate word than “Exploration”: Holloway in many ways resembles a conscientious medical practitioner in pre-op.
Lightsticks are plastic tubes that glow when bent. Monofilament is single-strand nylon fishing line. An altimeter measures height above sea level.
Most of all, he confirms that they have ample amounts of neon markers, lightsticks (12 hours), ultra high intensity lightsticks (5 minutes), spools of 4 Ib test/ 3,100 yard monofilament fishing line, flares, extra flash lights, including a pumper light (hand generator), extra batteries, extra parts for the …
A single strong strand of nylon, used as fishing line.
Most of all, he confirms that they have ample amounts of neon markers, lightsticks (12 hours), ultra high intensity lightsticks (5 minutes), spools of 4 Ib test/ 3,100 yard monofilament fishing line, flares, extra flash lights, including a pumper light (hand generator), extra batteries, extra parts for the radios, and one altimeter (which like the compass will fail to function).
An instrument that shows height above sea level.
… high intensity lightsticks (5 minutes), spools of 4 Ib test/ 3,100 yard monofilament fishing line, flares, extra flash lights, including a pumper light (hand generator), extra batteries, extra parts for the radios, and one altimeter (which like the compass will fail to function).
Always correct; never making a mistake.
Though Wax puts his faith in Jed’s unerring sense of direction, Jed admits to some pre-exploration apprehensions: “How can I know where to go when I don’t know where we are?
Excited public talk and activity.
Who knows, if we do that then maybe we'll even discover something before Navidson starts all the hoopla involved with raising '05Leon Robbins’ Operation #4: The Art of Internal Medicine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1996), p.
Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico is one of the longest and deepest caves in the world, known for rare crystals. Michael Ray Taylor is a real American caver and writer; Cave Passages (1996) is his book on caving.
479. !06See “The Crystal Cavern” chapter in Michael Ray Taylor's Cave Passages (New York: Scribner, 1996).
An invented book. The imprint is odd: the University of California Press is in Berkeley, not Stanford. Young stresses Holloway's words “discover something”.
As Gavin Young later writes: “Who could have predicted that those two words ‘discover something’ would prove the seeds to such unfortunate destruction?
In a firm way that will not change.
The problem, of course, was that the certain ‘something’ Holloway so adamantly sought to locate never existed per se in that place to begin with,”!07 Unlike Explorations #1 thru #3, for Exploration #4 Holloway decides to take along his rifle.
“By itself”; in itself.
The problem, of course, was that the certain ‘something’ Holloway so adamantly sought to locate never existed per se in that place to begin with,”!07 Unlike Explorations #1 thru #3, for Exploration #4 Holloway decides to take along his rifle.
To be logical or believable.
… pointedly reminds Navidson, he is the team captain and the one responsible for everyone’s safety: “With all due respect, since I’m also the one actually going in there, your notions don’t really hold much water with me.”
Easily angered; difficult to control.
Wax though proves a little more fractious.
Producing the desired result; effective.
Navidson briefs Holloway for the last time on the most efficacious way to handle the cameras.
A chapter in Calzatti's invented book. It plays with the saying “the straw that broke the camel's back”: the small last thing that makes a burden too much.
108A gain Florencia Calzatti’s The Fraying of the American Family proves full of valuable insight.
To say strongly that something is bad.
An interview with Navidson. The footnote sends the reader to Exhibit Four for the transcript.
guess” he says in The Last Interview.
A real American film company known for independent films in the 1990s. Zampanò names it as the distributor of The Navidson Record.
… didn’t have to turn out like this.””!09 The clip of Karen and Wax did not appear in the first release print of The Navidson Record but apparently was edited in a few months later. Miramax never commented on the inclusion nor did anyone else.
In a boring and too long way.
Their conversation circles tediously around Wax’s girlfriends, intermittently returning to his desire to get married someday.