On page 101 of
House of Leaves, within the writings of Zampanò, there is an image of dots and
lines depicting what we know to be the morse code signal for “S.O.S.” Heard
around the house in the early hours of the morning, first by the children and
then by Karen, it solidified their idea that something was awry. It had been
seven, nearly eight days since the previous search party had ventured into the
depths of the labyrinth, and crisis seemed imminent.
When explaining
the dire-ness of exploration 4, Zampanò is compelled to scratch in the word “fuck”
above “make love” (mentioned on page 99). This gives us a visual idea, through
text, of how the situation may have felt beforehand; as opposed to meaning
something in the context of his studies, Zampanò might have been alluding to
how dreadful the situation was becoming. The pages following would only go to
show what he meant.
After searching
the house for the source of the noise, it is found that it could be on the
other side of the living room wall. As they find this, Danielewski writes a
visual representation of the knocks on the page:
“. .
. - - - . . .”
This
visual seems to be a changing point among the characters in The Navidson
Record. Immediate, Will kicks into action, organization a rescue team of
himself and Tom. Interestingly, as they point out, the scene is cut in a very
distinct way; the imagery of “SOS” is represented by the editing. There are three
short shots, three long shots, and three short shots again. This further
cements the importance of the term SOS and the corresponding imagery.
The
“SOS sequence comes to an end when Zampanò realizes that the cutting of the
film was also an expression of Navidson’s distress. In the film, he states that
Karen’s phone rings the times shortly then three times at a longer pace, which
he sees to mean “SO?” (Page 103). This is a perfect way to end; it shows the
monotony of waiting, the craziness of going to rescue the exploration team, and
the dreadfulness of their situation as a whole.
This isn't really an essay. In fact, it barely resembles an essay. You summarize some highlights of one chapter, but this is much closer to a summary of certain parts of the plot with maybe a vague hint of an argument (from the last sentence, mostly) than it is to an actual interpretation of the text which has something to say about it, or at least has a question to ask about it.
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