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I'm reading House of Leaves. I checked out the book's website, houseofleaves.com and found a forum of people discussing the book. One of the forums discusses the "codes" hidden in some of the book's footnotes. To get these codes, you apparently have to write down the first letter of each name in the long list of names in the footnote. After that, you search for the hidden words. Sometimes it's a line of poetry, another time it's the author's name.
And after I read that, I said, "What exactly is the point?"
If an author is going to go through so much trouble to "hide" a code in his work, shouldn't that code have some sort of meaning to the work, something that will add further insight? Maybe unlock a mystery related to the book?
Why would I make a reader go through hours unscrambling the messages I've hidden in my book only to find my name?
As authors, what do you think of this practice?
allen
And after I read that, I said, "What exactly is the point?"
If an author is going to go through so much trouble to "hide" a code in his work, shouldn't that code have some sort of meaning to the work, something that will add further insight? Maybe unlock a mystery related to the book?
Why would I make a reader go through hours unscrambling the messages I've hidden in my book only to find my name?
As authors, what do you think of this practice?
allen