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What are your favorite examples of 'media within media' (e.g., shows, stories, or movies inside of other shows or books)? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by merari42@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.

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[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I haven't finished the book, but I have to give it to the "Navidson record" in "House of leaves".

House of leaves is a book about a guy who finds a manuscript about a movie that doesn't exist. So there are multiple layers on the narrative, from near to far you have:

The editor who's editing the book
The writer of the book (Johnny) who tells his story and what he finds in the manuscript
The person who wrote the manuscript (Zampano) and his views on the movie
The documentary "The Navidson record" which the manuscript is describing. Filmed by Navidson (who's, as far as Johnny can tell, a fictional character in a fictional movie that never existed)

The reason why I have to give it to that particular piece of media within media is that everyone else in the book is a pain in the ass that feels that you have to drag yourself to in order to get to the next chapter of the Navidson record. So in a way it's a fictional media within a fictional media that's better than the fictional media it belongs to.

And in case you haven't heard of house of leaves, I'll leave you with a page from the book:

[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

The book is brilliant, even if it's difficult to read and follow. The satire of art criticism is just so on point.

...And it's hard to know if the Navidson record and house never really existed or not (in the context of the book) because of the way Johnny is slowly unraveling. It's got strong elements of cosmic horror to it, along with razor-sharp satire, and the delineation in writings styles between Johnny's personal narrative, Zampano, and the various journal articles are written really sells the entire piece.

this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024

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