Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000 — Chapter XXII
A short chapter. Karen crosses into the darkness to save Navidson. Zampanò gathers the critics; Karen's own words come from one brief interview.
The epigraph is credited to “Ino”. In Greek myth Ino was a mortal woman who became the sea goddess Leucothea; she gave the drowning Odysseus her veil to keep him afloat.
The line says the truth is more than any account of it, and prepares the chapter's doubt about what really happened.
XXII Truth transcends the telling.
Goes beyond the limits of something.
XXII Truth transcends the telling.
Of a bright type of lamp that uses halogen gas; a strong white light.
A few minutes later, she returns with a halogen flashlight and steps toward the edge.
Two invented critics in invented journals (Acoustic Lens; Ouija) debate why Karen stops at the edge. Jabara says she heard a sound; Ellsberg agrees but says the sound is imagined — the mind forcing meaning onto the abyss.
The Hi 8 tape records no sound at all.
A few minutes later, she returns with a halogen flashlight and steps toward the edge. Hanan Jabara suggests Karen heard something, though there is nothing even remotely like a sound on the Hi 8.*!?
Adds a condition that limits or softens what was said.
Only he qualifies this statement by adding, “the sound is obviously imagined.
A very deep or bottomless space.
Another example of how the mind, any mind, consistently seeks to impose itself upon the abyss.””420 As everyone knows, Karen stands there on the brink for several minutes, pointing her flashlight into the darkness and calling out for Navidson.*?!
The very edge of a steep drop.
Another example of how the mind, any mind, consistently seeks to impose itself upon the abyss.””420 As everyone knows, Karen stands there on the brink for several minutes, pointing her flashlight into the darkness and calling out for Navidson.*?!
Paul Auster (1947–2024) was a real American novelist known for stories about chance and identity (The New York Trilogy). The book credits him with an invented inner monologue for Karen as she steps in.
The pink ribbon in Karen's hair recurs through the film.
Karen’s action inspired Paul Auster to conjure up a short internal monologue tracing the directions of her thoughts.42?
Call up or create as if by magic; here, invent in the mind.
Karen’s action inspired Paul Auster to conjure up a short internal monologue tracing the directions of her thoughts.42?
A long speech or stream of thought by one person.
Karen’s action inspired Paul Auster to conjure up a short internal monologue tracing the directions of her thoughts.42?
Donna Tartt (born 1963) is a real American novelist (The Secret History); Spin is a real music magazine. The invented piece rewrites the ending so that Karen leaves and marries a rich publisher. The title echoes the Beatles song “Please Please Me.”
Karen’s action inspired Paul Auster to conjure up a short internal monologue tracing the directions of her thoughts.42? Donna Tartt also wrote an inventive portrayal of Karen’s dilemma.
As is claimed, though it may not be true.
Except in Tartt’s version, instead of stepping into darkness, Karen returns to New York and marries a wealthy magazine publisher.423 Purportedly there even exists an opera based on The Navidson Record, written from Karen’s perspective, with this last step into the void serving as the subject for the final aria.
Zampanò claims an opera exists based on the film, sung from Karen's view, with her last step into the void as the closing aria. Like the critics, it is one more retelling of a moment no camera fully shows.
… York and marries a wealthy magazine publisher.423 Purportedly there even exists an opera based on The Navidson Record, written from Karen’s perspective, with this last step into the void serving as the subject for the final aria.
A solo song in an opera.
… marries a wealthy magazine publisher.423 Purportedly there even exists an opera based on The Navidson Record, written from Karen’s perspective, with this last step into the void serving as the subject for the final aria.
Something that causes or speeds up a change.
Whatever ultimately allows Karen to overcome her fears, there is little doubt her love for Navidson is the primary catalyst.
Sexual abuse or harmful interference with a person.
Her desire to embrace him as she has never done before defeats the memories of that dark well, the molestations carried out by a stepfather or whatever shadows her childhood truly conceals.
Having the power to bring back health or strength.
In this moment, she displays the restorative power 419Hanan Jabara’s “Hearing Things.”
Treating the self as the only real thing; shut inside one's own mind.
420Carlos Ellsberg's “The Solipsistic Seance.”
A meeting to try to speak with the dead.
420Carlos Ellsberg's “The Solipsistic Seance.”
Byte was a real computing magazine; the study and authors are invented. They conclude the “star” once caught on film in the dark was only Karen's halogen flashlight. The title plays on the children's rhyme “Star light, star bright.”
42) Though it may be obvious, recent studies carried out by Merlecker and Finch finally confirmed the “high probability” that the “star Navidson caught on film was none other than Karen’s halogen.
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) was a German-American psychoanalyst and social thinker (The Art of Loving). He used the idea of “symbiotic” bonds, where two people join in an unhealthy or a healthy way.
Zampanò says Karen's love for Navidson gives her the courage to cross.
of what Erich Fromm terms the development of “symbiotic relationships” through personal courage.
Of a close bond between two living things or people; here, a deep mutual dependence.
of what Erich Fromm terms the development of “symbiotic relationships” through personal courage.
An invented critic in the real film journal Cineaste. Keller argues Karen could cross only after making her two short films, What Some Have Thought and A Brief History Of Who I Love: by learning to see Navidson she began to see herself.
Critic Guyon Keller argues that the role of vision is integral to Karen’s success: I believe Karen could never have crossed that line had she not first made those two remarkable cinematic moments: What Some Have Thought …
Necessary and central to the whole.
Critic Guyon Keller argues that the role of vision is integral to Karen’s success: I believe Karen could never have crossed that line had she not first made those two remarkable cinematic moments: What Some Have Thought and A Brief History Of Who I Love.
Highly respected.
By relearning to see Navidson, she saw what he wasn’t and consequently began to see herself much more clearly.424 Esteemed Italian translator Sophia Blynn takes Keller’s comments a little further: The most important light Karen carried into that place was the memory of Navidson.
An invented translator in the real magazine Washingtonian. Blynn argues Navidson's dying word was not “care” or “careful” but the first sound of “Karen” — his only hope and meaning.
By relearning to see Navidson, she saw what he wasn’t and consequently began to see herself much more clearly.424 Esteemed Italian translator Sophia Blynn takes Keller’s comments a little further: The most important light Karen carried into that place was the memory of Navidson.
Something said; a spoken word or sound.
I believe this utterance is really just the first syllable of the very name on which his mind and heart had finally come to rest.
A doorway or the point of entering; a boundary that is crossed.
His only hope, his only meaning: “Karen,”425 Regardless of what finally enabled her to walk across that threshold, forty-nine minutes later a neighbor saw Karen crying on the front lawn, a pink ribbon in her hair, Navidson cradled in her lap.
Held gently, as one holds a baby.
… his only meaning: “Karen,”425 Regardless of what finally enabled her to walk across that threshold, forty-nine minutes later a neighbor saw Karen crying on the front lawn, a pink ribbon in her hair, Navidson cradled in her lap.
A machine that takes over the work of the heart and lungs during surgery.
Lacking a cardiopulmonary bypass machine which could have pumped out Navidson’s cold blood and replaced it with warm oxygenated blood, doctors instead had to cut into Navidson’s abdominal cavity, insert catheters, and proceed to irrigate his internal organs …
The space inside the belly that holds the stomach and other organs.
Lacking a cardiopulmonary bypass machine which could have pumped out Navidson’s cold blood and replaced it with warm oxygenated blood, doctors instead had to cut into Navidson’s abdominal cavity, insert catheters, and proceed to irrigate his internal organs with warm fluid.
Wash or flush a body part with fluid.
Lacking a cardiopulmonary bypass machine which could have pumped out Navidson’s cold blood and replaced it with warm oxygenated blood, doctors instead had to cut into Navidson’s abdominal cavity, insert catheters, and proceed to irrigate his internal organs with warm fluid.
A bump on a heart trace (EKG) often seen in very cold patients; also called the Osborn wave.
Though his core temperature rose to 85.3 degrees, the EKG continued to produce the peculiar J wave indicative of hypothermia.
Navidson's core temperature has fallen to 83.7°F. With no cardiopulmonary bypass machine, doctors warm his organs from inside with fluid; the heart trace shows the “J wave” (Osborn wave) typical of severe cold.
He lives, but frostbite takes his right hand, part of an ear, his left eye and patches of skin; his shattered hip is replaced and he needs a crutch.
Though his core temperature rose to 85.3 degrees, the EKG continued to produce the peculiar J wave indicative of hypothermia.
A dangerous drop in body temperature.
Though his core temperature rose to 85.3 degrees, the EKG continued to produce the peculiar J wave indicative of hypothermia.
A salt-and-water solution given through a drip.
Still more liters of saline were added to the IV.
Injury to the body caused by freezing; the flesh can die.
As hours slipped into weeks, Navidson began to recover, but the price he paid for living was not cheap. Frostbite claimed his right hand and clipped the top portion of one ear.
In a way that cannot be explained.
Furthermore his hip had inexplicably shattered and had to be replaced.
Breathing too fast and deeply, often from panic.
I started hyperventilating.
The only account of what happened inside comes from a short interview by a student journalist from the real College of William & Mary. Karen says she found Navidson curled and freezing, held him in the dark, and that the house simply “dissolved” into their own front yard.
When asked how that is possible, she gives no answer. A footnote from the Editors marks the rest of the interview “Missing.”
Karen: It just dissolved.
Broke apart and disappeared, as sugar melts in water.
Karen: It just dissolved.