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(quokk.au)
I'm reading this on my lunch breaks:
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this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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Memes of Production
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An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the “ML” influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
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Physical book: I'm re-reading House of Leaves
Audio book: I'm listening to the latest Wandering Inn book
I was wondering if I'd see House of Leaves on here.. I haven't read it yet but the odd style is alluring to me. I wonder if it'd keep me more engaged or if I'd have fun reading it but not have any retention
What's your take on that? Was it uncomfortably difficult to read some of the pages?
I found a lot of the formatting choices to be hostile, and I wasn't at all invested in the narrative, so I dropped it. The intro being all "This book is really spooky, you guys. It's going to do a Cthulu on your brain," was incredibly off-putting.
I agree that the style is alluring. I imagine there's a significant degree of added difficulty in getting a book published with unique and varied formatting, especially where color is made meaningful. I'd like to see more books like it.
There we go, I was struggling to put it into words. "Hostile formatting" definitely hits the nail on the head. But while that might be off-putting to some, and definitely doesn't make it an easy read, it's a big part of why I think the book is brilliant. You are not supposed to be comfortable reading it. Nothing about the subject matter is all that disturbing really, a few slightly spooky things, but nothing macabre or sadistic. But the formatting itself is what makes it unnerving. I think the dedication at the beginning of the book sets the tone perfectly:
"This is not for you."
The whole book feels like you are uncovering something that you aren't meant to know. Like reading a private diary put together by multiple schizophrenics who all glimpsed some small part of the true secret of the universe, all contained within a house that's bigger on the inside.