#ergode

[prokopetz]

The history of ergodic literature is kind of a trip because half the time you end up looking at something you didn't know you could do with the written word, and the other half of the time it's just a guy who clearly wants to be writing hypertext fiction but has the misfortune of being born in 1899.

[kittykat-pikachu]

list of things about mussed up houses

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski

skinamarink by kyle edward ball

the house in the ocean by mister manticore

myhouse.wad by veddge

this house has people in it by alan resnick (possible? its more like the people are the strange thing)

monster house by gil kenan (maybe not messed up in the right way for this list)

burning down the house by the talking heads (only in passing)

additions:

the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson (book)

the haunting of hill house by mike flanagan (tv adaptation of the book)

rose red by stephen king

vivarium by lorcan finnegan

changing planes by ursula k. le guin (not a house, but thematically close)

charlotte markham and the house of darkling by michael boccacino

slade house by dave mitchell

little, big by john crowley

the inner room by robert aickman

phantom architecture by phillip wilkinson

bite size terrors: erobos heaven by anoverthinker (seems like possibly the house isnt whats strange? but i dont know for sure i havent played it)

anatomy by kitty horrorshow

childhood homes (and why we hate them) by qrowscant

the house next door by annie rivers siddon

white is for witching by helen oyeyemi

haunted by poe (album counterpart to house of leaves??? holny crap)

the house with a clock in its walls by john bellairs (also has a movie adaptation)

p.t. by hideo kojima

coraline by neil gaiman (more like the creature is making the house messed up but yeah ill count it)(EDIT: okay yeah that house IS just messed up. forgot the beldam didn't make the other house)

starling house by alix harrow

the witch's house by fummy

house (hausu) by nobuhiko obayashi

the house is alive and the house is hungry by the paper chase

my house walk-through by nana825763

control by sam lake

house of bones by jeffery scott lando

lungbarrow by marc platt

if anyone knows of other things that fit this niche, any type of media, feel free to add on. i'll edit and add it to the original post. i just really like this specific niche

thank you to @bas-fish, @eggmixercortex, @ohiotpke, @posteriorpeasantpresents, @hadoom, @dougielombax, @lite-weaver, @mimillion, @elvriskastello, @apotheoseity, @hauntedhousez, @sophiewooloo, @jumbledthemes for contributing :3

i should sort this + add links putting that on my to-do list

[hashtagcaneven]

I Spy and Where’s Waldo are Baby’s First Ergodic Literature

[floralfractals]

studying for my LAST EXAM EVER wish me luck

[kiennwrites]

Ghosts in the Narrative

what's stopping authors from adding hidden messages and codes into their novel?

that's right. ciphers.

we're talking ergodic literature babey. house of leaves. S. pale fire.

i like to call this device ghosts in the narrative.

and the way i write these ghosts is by sneaking acrostics into dialogue between characters. it's like... literary possession.

How do I do this?

you hide a message using an acrostic- which is basically just a null cipher. if you take the first letter of every word in a specified sequence, you get a hidden message.

Here's an example from "The Vane Sisters" by Vladimir Nabokov (1951):

I could isolate, consciously, little. Everything seemed blurred, yellow-clouded, yielding nothing tangible. Her inept acrostics, maudlin evasions, theopathies - every recollection formed ripples of mysterious meaning. Everything seemed yellowly blurred, illusive, lost.

- "The Vane Sisters" Vladimir Nabokov (1951)

which, by taking the first letter of each word, reads:

Icicles by Cynthia. Meter from me Sybil.

The prose on its own reads nicely, but is innocuous to the unknowing reader. Upon noticing the hidden message, the narrative takes a twist- the ghosts of the sisters have been speaking to the narrator this whole time!

The cipher can be worked on many levels- the first letter of each page, paragraph, sentence, word. the complexity is up to you, whether you start at the word, sentence, or line level.

for my works, i usually like to string out my acrostics at the paragraph level. For example, within each line of dialogue between characters, separated by breaks. as a rule of thumb, the less fine it is, the easier to work your hidden message in.

Give it a try!

Just imagine:

first you lay out your core plot, the de facto happenings of your story that can't be denied- concrete stuff.

out of nowhere, or maybe even gradually as a tease, your mc starts making remarks or comments that could have double meanings. like they might be talking to someone else. listening, speaking, to a ghost- A GHOST- this whole damn time.

of course, placing some clues for an acute reader might clue them in and give them extreme catharsis during the reveal, if that's what you want- or you can punch them in the face with it.

with a bit of literary grit and wordsmithing, you can add a nice layer to your narrative. might even be something you employ to change the reality of your story entirely- all in the hands of the sneaky author devil.

ergodic literature babey.

Favorite tool in my writer toolbox: Ghosts in the Narrative

make your writing ergodic with ciphers!

just like i did with this post.

[fiddlesqueak-fables]

Hello, I’m here to advertise my Victorian/Gilded age inspired medical-horror artwork on my Etsy!

I hand-crafted and fully illustrated a short story in the form of an 1880’s medical journal, and it’s now available as a scanned PDF for only $5. If stories aren’t your thing, there are prints and stickers of the various illustrated elements as well!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FiddlesqueakFables

[zetexkindasucks]

i fucking love house of leaves because zampano can be rambling about the most confusing pretentious shit ever and truant will hit you with the

³⁷ damn that's crazy. wanna hear about this hot stripper that's like super hot

[quicksilverlightning]

I respond to lots of stimuli, but these will get my attention immediately.

[weeweewhirlwind]

I just finished reading House of Leaves and while I was going down my rabbit-hole, I found out that Mark Z. Danielewski’s sister, Poe, released the album Haunted as a counterpart to the book. Each song is filled with references to the book and I treat the album as a appendix of its own tbh.

[coelacanth-girlprince]

marva's kinda serving Raw Shark Texts rn

[power-chords]

Oh my god my weekend trip to Chicago is so soon. This is so exciting. I'm going to do some architecture tours and visit the American Writers' Museum again because they have a whole exhibit on game narrative.

[shiftwux]

a few weeks ago i gave everyone on my twitter, tumblr and instagram the chance to post whatever they wanted.

the only thing that came out of it was 20 ish pages of ergodic literature for the soul

https://shiftwux.itch.io/drunkmoms

[lesbiassoon]

Rate my beach read

(There’s a non 0 chance I’m concussed rn)

[cthyga]

it is with a heavy heart that I must admit: i have had the displeasure of reading reddit recommendations for books similar to house of leaves. if one more person recommends a horror story purely because the house is scary to them i am going to lose it. the book is not about the house. It really isn't. please please please recommend to me something that has the depth and sharpness of meaning in it. it's not a book about a scary house please help me

even just the people who see it as a pure "descent into madness" leave me feeling like we read different books...

[situationlately]

Random smattering of some of my favourite books with reds in the cover art

[knifehecker]

m'house lovers,

throwing this post out with the wind and a hail mary to follow, but i'm looking for some resources and need some help!

i've been trying to research what would be required to create an accessibility-driven, digital adaptation of house of leaves. being new to both the going-on 25 years discourse around this book, AND the challenges + best practices in digital accessibility, i've been having a hard time of figuring out where i should start looking. or even who i might talk to. especially with the MZD forum being Particularly Difficult to search through as it stands :')

i'm aware this is a very wide net to cast over an entire breadth of subjects that can already be extremely layered even without the unique challenges this book adds to the conversation, but! i'd be lying if i didn't admit it's this exact conversation i'm most interested in.

so please if there's anything you can point me towards anything u think could be useful (or just interesting!) i am on my knees. begging