Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter XIV
A short chapter about Karen: her claustrophobia, the gossip about her affairs, and what Navidson knew. Johnny's footnote tells the story of his mother's locket.
In the ancient world, purple cloth was very costly and a sign of wealth and royalty.
XIV “Let you be stripped of your purple dyes, for I too once in the wilderness with my wife had all the treasure I wished.”
Enkidu is the wild man of the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. He lives with the animals until a woman tames him and brings him to the city, where he becomes the close companion of King Gilgamesh.
The line speaks of riches and of a life once shared “in the wilderness” with a wife. It opens a chapter about a couple who have lost what they had together.
XIV “Let you be stripped of your purple dyes, for I too once in the wilderness with my wife had all the treasure I wished.” — Enkidu Toward the end of October, Navidson went up to Lowell to take care of his brother’s things.
Lowell is a city in Massachusetts, where Tom lived. Charlottesville is the Virginia city near Ash Tree Lane. Navidson goes to Lowell for his brother's things and then returns to Virginia, not to New York.
… you be stripped of your purple dyes, for I too once in the wilderness with my wife had all the treasure I wished.” — Enkidu Toward the end of October, Navidson went up to Lowell to take care of his brother’s things.
Wild and out of control with anger or distress.
She wanted her freedom and then would go berserk when he was away.
The strip of floor at a doorway; the point of entering or leaving.
Seeing someone else but not . . . agh, I shouldn’t get into that.””309 After Navidson had vanished down the Spiral Staircase, Karen found herself trapped between two thresholds: one leading into the house, the other leading out of it.
No longer in contact or on friendly terms with a family member.
The leading theory now depends on a history given by Karen’s estranged older sister Linda.
Local TV channels that let members of the public make and show programmes.
Earlier this year, she went on a public access “talk show” and described how they had been sexually abused by their stepfather.
Claustrophobia is an intense fear of small or enclosed spaces. The drug study Karen took part in was mentioned earlier (footnote 69).
Later, he forced Linda down the well and did the same to Karen. The pharmacotherapy study Karen participated in never mentions any history of sexual abuse (see footnote 69).
Treatment of an illness with drugs.
The pharmacotherapy study Karen participated in never mentions any history of sexual abuse (see footnote 69).
KCRW is a real public radio station in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and Liza Richardson is a real KCRW DJ. The show “Bare Facts” and the interview are invented. Audrie, the friend who helped Karen with the bookshelf, says Karen was the one against marriage.
309Audrie McCullogh interviewed by Liza Richardson on “Bare Facts,” KCRW, Los Angeles, June 16, 1993, 347
Karen's estranged sister tells of abuse by their stepfather, who put each girl down a well. Public access television gives air time to anyone in the community, with little checking.
Zampanò offers the story as the leading theory for Karen's fear of dark closed places, but says no one may ever know if it is true.
Panic; lose control from fear (“freak out”).
But get me near an elevator or a poorly lit basement and I'll freak.
A failure of electric power, so the lights go out.
A blackout can paralyze me.
False or not trustworthy, though it looks real.
It was not until the film began to succeed that details concerning this relationship, however spurious, began to emerge.
Fifth Avenue is New York's famous shopping street. The Bowery Bar and Naked Lunch were real fashionable Manhattan bars in the 1990s. “Odelay-la” seems invented; the name recalls Beck's 1996 album Odelay.
The places sketch Fowler as a handsome would-be actor on the club scene.
He worked at a Fifth Avenue clothing store, specializing in Italian cuts for women.
Clothes tailored in the Italian style.
He worked at a Fifth Avenue clothing store, specializing in Italian cuts for women.
Completely, to the highest degree.
He was considered consummately attractive and spent his evenings talking about acting down at the Bowery Bar, Naked Lunch, or Odelay-la.
The raised edge between the sidewalk and the road.
Rushing to meet her mother for dinner, Karen had stepped off the curb and turned her ankle.
“(of) absolute torn-apartness”: total inner division (Hegel).
For a dazed instant she lay on the asphalt amid the scattered contents of her bag—der absoluten Zerrissenheit3'!© An instant later, Fowler reached down and lifted her back onto the sidewalk.
German: “(in) absolute dismemberment / being torn apart”. The phrase comes from the preface to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807): spirit wins its truth only when it finds itself in absolute dismemberment.
Zampanò uses it for Karen lying on the asphalt among her scattered things. Johnny (fn 310) refuses to translate it.
For a dazed instant she lay on the asphalt amid the scattered contents of her bag—der absoluten Zerrissenheit3'!© An instant later, Fowler reached down and lifted her back onto the sidewalk.
One of Navidson's foreign assignments. His long absences as a photographer are a steady theme in the couple's history.
Navidson was off taking aerial pictures of barges off the Norwegian coast.
A period of wild, violent behaviour.
Once 310, line for Kyrie, though these days she’s a little unapproachable as Gdansk Man is now officially on some kind of Halloween rampage.
Dragonfly was a real Hollywood nightclub on Santa Monica Boulevard. Kyrie's jealous boyfriend corners Lude there and gets thrown out by the bouncers, then leaves a threatening message on Johnny's machine.
Johnny says no translation of the German will lessen what the book has done to him; he can only copy it all down.
He apparently cornered Lude at Dragonfly intending to exact some kind of serious physical retribution.
Punishment given in revenge.
He apparently cornered Lude at Dragonfly intending to exact some kind of serious physical retribution.
A person employed at a club door to keep out or remove troublemakers.
The bouncers there, all friends of Lude’s, quickly threw the madman into the street.
An expert in logic (Johnny uses it ironically).
Gdansk Man in turn, being one of this century’s truly great logicians, left some yelling message on my machine.
Put two things side by side.
A powerful bit of articulation on his part, frequently juxtaposing murder and my name with just the right amount of grunting incoherence.
Add untrue details to a story to make it more interesting.
Nor is there any question that he embellished to keep the media interested.
A newspaper with sensational stories about crime, sex and celebrities.
“She’s a great lady” Fowler first told reporters.“ And it wouldn’t be cool to talk about it, about us, I mean.”3!2_ And then a little later to some tabloid reporters, “What we had was special.
Criticize someone very harshly.
In a rare moment, Reston called in on a late-night radio show and lambasted the host for promoting such ridiculous gossip: “Let me tell you this, Will Navidson did everything for that woman.
Move even a little; change one's position.
But he never budged.
A worthless young man.
I doubt that punk would have lasted a week.
A man who seeks a romantic relationship with a woman.
As beautiful as she was, it is not hard to believe she had suitors.
An unwise act, often a minor love affair.
Audrie, however, claims Karen only flirted and her indiscretions never went further than a coy drink or a curt meal.
Pretending to be shy in a flirting way.
Audrie, however, claims Karen only flirted and her indiscretions never went further than a coy drink or a curt meal.
Short and rather cold.
Audrie, however, claims Karen only flirted and her indiscretions never went further than a coy drink or a curt meal.
A scholar of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and how they make meaning.
As semiotician Clarence Sweeney wrote: While Navidson refused to make her infidelities a ‘public’ part of the film, he seemed 31!Interview with Audrie McCullogh.
An invented semiotician and book. The names are a joke: “Apeneck Sweeney” is a coarse character in T. S. Eliot's poem “Sweeney Among the Nightingales”.
Sweeney reads Karen's sealed ivory jewelry box as the private side of the film. The note points back to Chapter II, where Navidson opens the box.
As semiotician Clarence Sweeney wrote: While Navidson refused to make her infidelities a ‘public’ part of the film, he seemed 31!Interview with Audrie McCullogh.
Being unfaithful to one's partner.
As semiotician Clarence Sweeney wrote: While Navidson refused to make her infidelities a ‘public’ part of the film, he seemed 31!Interview with Audrie McCullogh.
People is a celebrity magazine, New York a city magazine, and The Star a supermarket tabloid; the articles are invented. Jerry Lieberman's title “Fowl Play” puns on “foul play” and Fowler's name. Cahill Jones's radio show is invented.
Fowler's story grows each time he tells it to the media.
312See Jerry Lieberman's “Fowl Play” in People, v.
An act that breaks a rule or a moral law.
Consequently he symbolizes her transgressions in the sealed hand-carved ivory case containing Karen’s valuables, thus creating a ‘private’ aspect to his project, which in turn prompts yet another reevaluation of the meaning of interiority in The Navidson Record.3\7 3!7§ee …
The inner, private life of a person; here also the idea of “inside”.
Consequently he symbolizes her transgressions in the sealed hand-carved ivory case containing Karen’s valuables, thus creating a ‘private’ aspect to his project, which in turn prompts yet another reevaluation of the meaning of interiority in The Navidson Record.3\7 3!7§ee Clarence Sweeney’s Privacy and Intrusion in the Twenty-First Century (London: Apeneck Press, 1996), p.
Johnny writes about the letters people keep. His mother always wore a heavy silver locket shaped like a deer, and it was the only thing she left him. The deer shape comes a few pages after the doe in Holloway's story.
It’s amazing how many people save at least a few letters during their lifetime, leaves of feeling, tucked away in a guitar case, a safety deposit box, on a hard drive or even preserved in a pair of old boots no one will ever wear.
Johnny's image for letters: “leaves” are also pages.
It’s amazing how many people save at least a few letters during their lifetime, leaves of feeling, tucked away in a guitar case, a safety deposit box, on a hard drive or even preserved in a pair of old boots no one will ever wear.
Heavy and awkward.
It’s actually a pretty clunky thing, supposedly over a hundred years old, made out of polished sterling silver with platinum plated antlers, emerald eyes, small diamonds on the fringe of its mane and a silver latch disguised as the …
Silver of a standard high purity (92.5%).
It’s actually a pretty clunky thing, supposedly over a hundred years old, made out of polished sterling silver with platinum plated antlers, emerald eyes, small diamonds on the fringe of its mane and a silver latch disguised as the tail.
A small catch that keeps something closed.
… actually a pretty clunky thing, supposedly over a hundred years old, made out of polished sterling silver with platinum plated antlers, emerald eyes, small diamonds on the fringe of its mane and a silver latch disguised as the tail.
Heavily decorated.
It was awkward, ornate and most of all cold, every now and then blinking out odd bits of light, a warped mirror, attempting a reflection when she took care of it.
A Flemish painter of animals and hunting scenes, who worked in Antwerp with Rubens and Snyders. Johnny won a paid summer in Europe with an essay on him.
Hunts and deer run through this part of the book, and Johnny next describes himself in the Prado “like a pack of hounds howling for a hart”.
An essay I'd written on the painter Paulus de Vos (1596-1678) had won me an all-paid summer abroad.
A bundle of belongings carried by a tramp, often on a stick.
By the third day I was heading for the station, looking for something, maybe someone, a bindle on my back, a Eurorail pass in hand, not more than three hundred bucks in traveler checks in my pocket.
Pre-paid paper cheques used by tourists before cash cards.
By the third day I was heading for the station, looking for something, maybe someone, a bindle on my back, a Eurorail pass in hand, not more than three hundred bucks in traveler checks in my pocket.
A Eurail pass lets travellers ride the trains of many European countries. The Prado is Spain's national art museum in Madrid. The Ionian islands lie off western Greece.
Johnny tours Europe alone, poor and hungry, and sleeps on the quays (stone banks) of the Seine in Paris.
… very little, hustled from place to place, peeking into Czechoslovakia, Poland and Sweden before looping west so I could race all the way down from Denmark to Madrid where I stalked the halls of the Prado like a pack of hounds howling for a hart.
An old word for an adult male red deer.
… Poland and Sweden before looping west so I could race all the way down from Denmark to Madrid where I stalked the halls of the Prado like a pack of hounds howling for a hart.
Spend a lot of money on a treat.
In Paris I lived at the bistros during the night, occasionally splurging on beer and escargots, while during the day I slept brokenhearted on the quays of the Seine.
Snails cooked as food.
In Paris I lived at the bistros during the night, occasionally splurging on beer and escargots, while during the day I slept brokenhearted on the quays of the Seine.
A stone platform along a river or harbour.
In Paris I lived at the bistros during the night, occasionally splurging on beer and escargots, while during the day I slept brokenhearted on the quays of the Seine.
Very thin from hunger or illness.
I guess it’s the way I felt, all emaciated and without company.
Extreme poverty.
Everything I saw in me somehow only reflecting my destitution.
Navidson's knowledge of Fowler, the letters and the kiss he saw between Karen and Wax helps explain his wish to go back. Zampanò notes that later chapters cover this in more detail.
It is safe to assume Navidson knew Karen better than anyone else.
An invented reporter's unused interview. Fowler, crude as ever, says Karen had changed: she was editing a film and she needed Navidson, who was no longer around.
No doubt his knowledge of Fowler, the cache of letters, certainly the discovery of Wax and Karen’s kiss, contributed to his decision to return to the house for one more exploration.>2° He left her to New York because by then …
A hidden store of things.
No doubt his knowledge of Fowler, the cache of letters, certainly the discovery of Wax and Karen’s kiss, contributed to his decision to return to the house for one more exploration.>2° He left her to New York because by then he knew …
Wanting to be something but not yet successful at it.
Jerry Lieberman who wrote the original People interview with Fowler had spoken with the would-be-actor for a possible follow up article but lack of interest in the affair caused him to shelve the story.
Put a plan aside and not continue with it.
Jerry Lieberman who wrote the original People interview with Fowler had spoken with the would-be-actor for a possible follow up article but lack of interest in the affair caused him to shelve the story.
Arguing about a price or terms.
After a little haggling, he agreed to send the tape of their last conversation.
Too emotionally dependent on another person.
Anyway I didn’t need to worry that she’d get clingy or anything.
Lloyd's of London is the old London insurance market. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it lost billions of pounds sterling in huge claims. Johnny puns on losing pounds of body weight.
I’m living off of tuna, rice and water, losing pounds faster than Lloyd’s of London, but I'd sell body parts before I'd consider taking cash for this relic.
An old object kept for its history or its meaning.
I’m living off of tuna, rice and water, losing pounds faster than Lloyd’s of London, but I'd sell body parts before I'd consider taking cash for this relic.
The back of the locket carries words from Johnny's father; the Editors (fn 319) say this means his biological father, not Raymond. Inside, Johnny finds the first letter he wrote to his mother at eleven, the only one she saved.
It’s from my father?!9: “My heart for you, my love—March 5, 1966”—practically prophetic.
Correctly telling what will happen in the future.
It’s from my father?!9: “My heart for you, my love—March 5, 1966”—practically prophetic.
Get excitement or pleasure from something.
I know how they get off on dicking over their husband.
16mm is a film gauge used for documentaries and home editing. The chapter ends with Karen seeing Navidson only as a projected image on a white wall.
… every day and in a way she had never seen him before—not as a projection of her own insecurities and demons but just as Will Navidson, in flickering light, flung up by a 16mm projector on a paint-white wall.