Faking authenticity Authenticity as intermedial performance in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000) and the Teleplays (2019) Elisabeth Frank 1. Introduction This is an act of forgetting that the dead are dead and that is that. Forgetting the candle held behind the figure speaking Behind the screen. Or does the mouth, calligraphic friend, cast its own shadows? “At Hiroshima,” you write, “the shadows of the victors were as if photographed into concrete building blocks.” Or are they just turned on for a long time? Or do we two share a forgotten tongue? Or do they funnel us both to the ideograph barely legible on the paper screen— The space around it Where the shadow and the mouth are one? *[In ink calligraphy in katakana syllabary on handmade paper looseleaf. […] Yasusada has brushed “victors” for “victims”.] (Yasusada 1997: 81) This poem, translated from Japanese to English from handwritten notes found after the author’s death, was published in Doubled Flowering - From the Notebooks of Araki Yasusada in 1997. The author, Araki Yasusada, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, constitutes writing as an act of remembering - an act of retrieval that is made possible by attempting to forget the accepted fact that the written word, the image of the photograph or the movement on the screen is an act of mediation and therefore always a reduction - an echo, a residue or an imprint - of the AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Band 49 · Heft 2 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2024-0026 Elisabeth Frank 212 real. He brings into question whether an authentic account of an experiential reality is even possible through the funnel of media, which usually results in an insufficient representation of the real. The “Yasusada Poems” would have been a valuable addition to Hiroshima literature if they had been written by a real contemporary eyewitness of the atomic bombing and not by a man from Illinois. Everything stated about the alleged author and Hiroshima survivor ‘Yasusada’ up to this point is untrue and part of the myth that the original author perpetuates to this day. There are no poems originally written in Japanese, no handwritten notebooks and no author by the name of Yasusada. Instead, the poems, written in English, are part of a literary hoax by a man named Kent Johnson, who still denies the authorship of the poems (Mead 2012: 344). After the Yasusada poems were exposed as literary forgery, this revelation caused a debate about the nature of ‘authentic’ literature and ‘original’ authorship. It was called a “criminal act” (Mead 2012: 344) by Arthur Vogelsang, editor of American Poetry Review, one of the first journals to publish the poems. What does the staging of an elaborate literary hoax have to do with Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves (2000) and the additional teleplays for a House of Leaves series (2019) that complement the novel? Both, the novel and the teleplays of House of Leaves, are about an event in the past that is attempted to be recovered through different kinds of media. Every mediation, remediation and adaptation leaves its own media-specific imprint on the original event described in the book. It is either a reduction or distancing from the event, or, in the case of the teleplays, an addition, an accumulation of data that presents the events of the book in a different light and provides readers with a new perspective. In this article, it is my contention that in House of Leaves (the novel and the teleplays) Mark Z. Danielewski creates a mode of authenticity that is of an intermedial nature. The author uses intermedial themes, techniques and structures to elicit effects of authenticity in his readers. Since House of Leaves is a book that constitutes itself in relation and in delimitation to other media, Danielewski employs authenticity-building techniques that leverage media known for their realism, such as photojournalism and documentaries, alongside digital formats like podcasts and docuseries. These diverse forms of media play with the boundaries between fact and fiction, further enhancing the sense of authenticity in his narrative. This way, it does not matter whether the incidents in the book are real or fake, factual or fictional; as long as they are immersive and ‘feel’ authentic, the referential impossibility of a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside is irrelevant: “Authenticity effects are what is necessary.” (Mead 2012: 344, emphasis original). I use a literary-centric approach of intermediality as described by Irina O. Rajewsky (2002, 2005), to investigate the relations between media and our notion of authenticity - a concept that requires an Authenticity as intermedial performance 213 intermedial approach. The theoretical basis will be underpinned by examples from the novel and the teleplays to showcase the functionality of the proposed concepts. But what exactly is authenticity and how can we create authenticity effects with the means of literature accessing the qualities of other media? What intermedial strategies can be employed to create said authenticity effects? Since the teleplays for a House of Leaves streaming series are fairly new and can now only be purchased on Mark Z. Danielewski’s official website, I want to give a brief summary of the novel and the teleplays, the latter of which add another perspective to the already proliferating diegetic layers of the novel. The story follows the Navidson-Green family - Will Navidson, Karen Green, and their two children - who move into a seemingly ordinary home. They soon discover strange dimensional anomalies, realizing that the interior space of the house is larger than the exterior. After a short visit to Seattle, the family comes back to find out that a door has appeared in the master bedroom, which leads to infinite, ever-changing hallways. Will Navidson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, attempts to document the inexplicable darkness within his home through his documentary “The Navidson Record”. Zampanò, an old blind man, writes an unfinished academic analysis of the documentary, layering it with various interpretations that corroborate the authenticity of the events. After Zampanò’s death, his scattered notes are found by Johnny Truant, who adds his own reflections and autobiographical footnotes to the manuscript. Fictional editors of the real publishing house add another diegetic layer by correcting Johnny’s translations or pointing out events, persons or references in the footnotes that they were unable to verify. By referring to real events, people, artistic or academic works, this heteroreferentiality 1 evokes an immersive effect in the recipient. Drawing on the veracity-assuring characteristics of analog media like photography (i.e. photojournalism, family photographs) and film (i.e. documentaries, surveillance footage, home videos), this effect is produced and heightened. In the teleplays, new narrative layers emerge, shaped by digital media. Rather than using formats like notes or VHS tapes, “The Navidson Record” is found on a USB drive, uploaded online, and later adapted for a podcast and new documentary. This discovery causes major repercussions for the book within the diegetic world of the scripts, with the book being labeled as a hoax and called “fake fiction” (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 3). Detailed 1 Werner Wolf coined the term “heteroreferentiality” to explain how aesthetic illusion, a mental state triggered by experiencing representational texts, artifacts, or performances, creates immersion in a fictional or factual world. This illusion generates a sense of imaginative and emotional involvement akin to real life but tempered by the recognition that it is only a representation. See Wolf’s articles “Aesthetic Illusion as an Effect of Fiction” in Style 38, 2004 and “Is Aesthetic Illusion ‘illusion référentielle’? ” in Journal of Literary Theory 2.1, 2008. Elisabeth Frank 214 passages from the book are adapted for digital screens. Additionally, previously grainy and decayed footage is restored with enhanced clarity, and other data expands on the documentary, revealing more about its production and editing. While the book’s setting revolves around analog media of the 80s and 90s, the scripts embrace digital trends like podcasts, viral videos, AR games and fake news. Social media and cloud services are key to distributing the recovered footage. Mélisande Avignon, a film studies lecturer and expert on grief in films, is introduced as a protagonist. While being interviewed by a documentary team, a student delivers a flash drive containing loose footage of “The Navidson Record” and a documentary she co-produced with Johnny Truant, titled “The Mélisande Tapes”. Mélisande uploads the footage online, which quickly goes viral and inspires new media productions. Around the same time, a popular video titled “The Keflavik Clip” shows an engineer vanishing in an endless hallway, sparking a phenomenon called ‘Server Dark’, which triggers a larger global phenomenon called ‘Shadowgate’. The first victim of Shadowgate is a boy named Tom, who disappears after stepping through a strange door in the AR game Harrow 5.5. These events are the focus of the podcast-turned-docuseries “Shadow Power”, which opens each episode of the House of Leaves teleplays, adding another narrative layer by connecting Mélisande’s upload of the footage to the Keflavik incident (see Figure 1). Figure 1. An overview of the diegetic layers of House of Leaves (2000/ 2019). Authenticity as intermedial performance 215 2. The construction of authenticity in House of Leaves and the Teleplays The term ‘authenticity’ and the attribute ‘authentic’ have undergone a change of meaning over time, which is also partially attributed to changes and developments in media and technology. In the late 16 th century the term ‘authentic’ referred to the interpretation of a (legal) text as certified, genuine or valid. Its genuineness is certified by an objective or recognized authority (IDS, online). In historical and literary contexts, the term is also used in the context of eyewitness accounts with regard to historical events or journalistic work, thus characterizing them as reliable and credible sources (IDS, online). These meanings derive from the Latin authenticus, which can mean “written by one’s own hand, original, vouched for, reliable” (IDS, online) having its etymological roots in a Greek family of words […] which includes the adjective α ὐ θ εντικός (‘of first-hand authority, original’) as well as the nouns α ὐ θ εντί α (‘original authority’) and α ὐ θ έντης (‘one who does a thing himself, a principal, a master, an autocrat’). The latter combines the prefix α ὐ τ ( ο ), meaning ‘self’, with an agent noun ἑ ντης , which derives from the verb ‘α νύειν ’ meaning ‘to accomplish, to bring about’ (Funk 2015: 28). Wolfgang Funk highlights two important aspects of the word’s etymology that clarify the link between self-expression and artistic creation. First, it signifies an act of creative effort or achievement. He suggests that the inherent ambiguity in the idea of authenticity stems from the combination of personal essence (‘self’) and the act of creating or bringing something into existence (Funk 2015: 28). What should be noted here, is this distinction’s applicability to persons and objects as well as its paradox state of constructing authenticity, while still giving the impression of naturalness and unmediatedness (Funk 2015: 28), which is especially fruitful for its later application to House of Leaves. Funk argues that authenticity often points to realms beyond the confines of language (2015: 25). It embodies an idea that escapes conventional symbolic representation, maintaining a quality that cannot be fully absorbed into established systems of meaning. Its elusive nature suggests a deeper significance, one that transcends traditional interpretative frameworks. Funk describes this as a “surplus of signification” (2015: 27), where authenticity implies more than what can be articulated within the limits of language and cultural structures. This leads Irmtraud Huber to the comparison of the inherent qualities of authenticity with that of trauma. Both, authenticity and trauma, are indescribable and impossible to represent directly: “Every verbalization, every assimilation of the event into a narrative would therefore imply a loss of authenticity.” (Huber 2012: 122). What Funk and other scholars identify as the paradox of authenticity (2015: 25) is the aspiration of the authentic subject or object to be experienced as authentic. However, Culler (1988) suggests that Elisabeth Frank 216 the moment something is labeled as authentic, it paradoxically becomes a “sign of itself” (164), thereby losing its original status as authentic. Authenticity typically refers to an unmediated and unobserved state. By describing or defining something as authentic, the very act of observation and description alters its nature, reducing it to a mere representation rather than preserving its ‘unfiltered essence’. This paradox forms the core of Danielewski’s narrative technique: first he exposes the construction of authenticity and shatters the illusion, in order to then build up a second, deeper layer of authenticity through new forms of mediation. This process already begins in the introduction to the fake dissertation on the documentary “The Navidson Record”, in which Zampanò provides readers with an initial assessment of the concept of authenticity: While enthusiasts and detractors will continue to empty entire dictionaries attempting to describe or deride it, ‘authenticity’ still remains the word most likely to stir a debate. In fact, this leading obsession - to validate or invalidate the reels and tapes - invariably brings up a collateral and more general concern: whether or not, with the advent of digital technology, image has forsaken its once unimpeachable hold on the truth. (Danielewski 2000: 3) However, he only offers a constricting perspective, which focuses exclusively on the authenticity status of the material properties of objects and then segues into a more complex question: Do digital images have the same umbilical connection to reality or ‘truth’ as analog photography? (Barthes 1981). It is inevitable that every photographic image is composed in varying proportions of a mixture of choice and coincidence, of significant and insignificant elements, signal and noise - a surplus of information. Because noise (e.g. background noise in (audio-)visual recordings, the grainy veil in photographs) and traces (e.g. evidence of presence in photographs or film footage), usually considered unintentional, coincidental information, give the impression of an especially authentic and reliable account of a photographer’s or photojournalist’s subject. However, the second the authentic quality of a trace or noise is addressed, it is aesthetically constituted, loses its status of the “untouched by mediating cultural codes” (Culler 1988: 164) and is subsequently transferred to the category of culture (Ruchatz 2008: 370). Additionally, medial representational gaps are a central point in the investigation of an authenticity represented by intermedial means. It is precisely in the failures of different media that the “singularity of experience”, its “nongeneralizability” and “nonrepeatability” (Hansen 2005: 606) become apparent. It is in these instances that moments of authenticity are performed and verbally enacted. When recording, filming or photographing an event has failed the material must be supplemented by a verbal retelling or by typographic experiments that both fill in and highlight Authenticity as intermedial performance 217 these gaps. This is where I see the authenticity-creating potential of Danielewski’s intermedial narrative strategies. Where words and recordings fail, it requires intermedial techniques that combine these media, so they can ultimately influence each other in order to achieve the impression of a better representation and a more authentic portrayal of the events described in the book. An example of an authenticity-enhancing intermedial technique, highlighting photography’s role in memory, appears early in “The Navidson Record”: Navidson immediately asks whether or not they overlooked the room. This seems ridiculous at first until one considers how the impact of such an implausible piece of reality could force anyone to question their own perceptions. Karen, however, manages to dig up some photos which clearly show a bedroom wall without a door. (Danielewski 2000: 28) The Navidsons return home from a three-day trip to Seattle and find their home changed. During their absence, a door has appeared, which now connects the master bedroom to the children’s room. What should be noted here, is Karen’s first impulse to consult images, photographs to be exact, which confirm their memories and prove unequivocally that the door was not there when the family left. Here, media are used to verify, what Karen and Navidson called into doubt. By relying on photographs, they draw on the medium’s inherent proximity to reality to verify the troubled notions of their memory. As Johnny recalls his first encounter with “The Navidson Record” in Zampanò’s apartment, the description of events is permeated by resorting to the diction and metaphors of the medium of photography: “Of course all of that’s gone now. Long gone. The smell too. I’m left with only a few scattered mental snapshots.” (Danielewski 2000: xvi). Just like the Navidsons rely on photographs and other images (architectural blueprints of the house, surveillance footage during their absence, history records) and Johnny’s representation of his thoughts and memories reverts to the medium of photography, media facilitate new ways of thoughts, thinkpatterns and (re-)organizing memories. The patterns of autobiographical writing also operate under the impression of representing reality under “the auspices of verisimilitude and veracity” (Depkat 2019: 280). Much like photographs, we expect autobiographies and memoirs to have a certain adherence to truth. The reality, however, is somewhat different: Even ‘factual’ narratives tend to combine the real and the fictionalized version of events, the actively remembered and the passively forgotten and retrospectively place emphases and priorities to certain life events. Autobiographical narratives organize an individual’s life by imposing patterns and integrating elements of fictionalization, despite their claims of referential truth (Depkat 2019: 281). Elisabeth Frank 218 The methods used to create authenticity in autobiographical writing - such as selecting, organizing, and emphasizing memories - can also be applied subversively. Birgit Neumann suggests that these narrative molds and cultural scripts can be undermined by the use of techniques of unreliable narration. The dissolution of a singular plot line into multiple perspectives, narrative voices or diegetic layers (as seen in House of Leaves) is another technique employed in order to obfuscate the narration or make it seem more authentic. It offers readers a multiplicity of approaches and interpretations for the text - ultimately imparting the narration with another layer of truthfulness or authenticity, as events are always considered and perceived from multiple perspectives. In House of Leaves, too, the unreliability of memory and its constant reinterpretation is elevated to a structural principle of the narrative. Two examples, one from the book and one from the teleplays, elucidate Danielewski’s technique of an unreliable narrator, who knows about common narrative constructions and ultimately uses them to imbue his story with a second order of authenticity. Johnny, during his nights out with Lude, where they usually try to attract women by telling exciting but fake anecdotes from their lives, makes use of such techniques. Lude provides Johnny with a prompt and Johnny immediately corrects him. By correcting Lude’s already made-up prompt, he obscures the lie and thereby invariably ‘confirms’ his alleged autobiographical anecdote: “Show them your arms, Johnny” Lude will say, in his most offhand over-thetop manner. “Aw come on. Well, alright just this once.” I roll up my left sleeve and then, taking my time, I roll up the right one. “He got that in a cult in Indiana.” “Idaho”, I correct him. And it goes on from there.” (Danielewski 2000: 20) The second example, this time from the teleplays, is a similar example for the whole narrative strategy employed in House of Leaves. Eddie, a hitman who is send out to recover the USB flash drive from Mélisande, is looking for other hidden flash drives in the home he lives in with his family, his wife and two sons. He goes into the closet and, using a drill, he removes the back panels, revealing “a cache of photographs of another woman, lacy garments, letters. Some money. A few hundred dollars at most.” (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 33). But this first box with compromising items is just a ploy to distract his wife or sons should they come across Eddie’s hiding place. Behind the first wall is a much more incriminating box: EDDIE now takes out some more intricate tools and removes the back wall behind this quaint little idyll to adultery. Authenticity as intermedial performance 219 The cache-behind-the-cache is much different: stacks of hard drives, video tapes, DVDs. There’s also a lot of cash, as in thousands and thousands of dollars. And that’s not all. (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 33) These examples are constitutive of Danielewski’s rhetoric and narrative strategies to expose or conceal a second layer in the narration or mediation of House of Leaves - drawing on the structural principal of a kind of Doppelbödigkeit. The first example obfuscates the lie by correcting another lie, while the second example admits to a first layer of deception and therefore hides the second layer of construction. On a bigger scale, Danielewski’s techniques and structural principles to create authenticity effects within the texts draw heavily on the utilization of other media, i.e. either highlighting or concealing their respective medial qualities, inherent medial restrictions and storage media. This dynamic will be further explored in the remainder of the article. 3. The (de)construction of authenticity via intermedial means Now that the concept of second-order authenticity or Doppelbödigkeit has been introduced, we can explore its further application through intermedial strategies in House of Leaves - both in the novel and the teleplays. The focus on concrete intermedial configurations that are found in literary works makes Irina O. Rajewsky’s categorizations of intermediality particularly useful for analyzing intermedial techniques used by Mark Z. Danielewski in his two literary renditions of House of Leaves. Her approach includes explications of intermedial phenomena “such as transposition d’art, filmic writing, ekphrasis, […] film adaptations of literary works, ‘novelizations’, visual poetry, […] comics, multimedia shows, hyperfiction, multimedial computer ‘texts’ or installations […].” (Rajewsky 2005: 50). To determine the intermediality of these disparate examples in her investigation of intermedial configurations in texts, Rajewsky proposes three subcategories that “distinguish groups of phenomena, each of which exhibits a distinct intermedial quality” (2005: 55): medial transposition, media combination and intermedial references. In order to narrow down the excessive amount of media in House of Leaves, the selected examples primarily focus on (audio)visual media like film, photography and their respective storage media. Every category will be exemplified with an intermedial configuration from the texts to prove the inherently intermedial methods employed by Danielewski. 3.1. Medial transposition Medial transposition or medial transformation is a phenomenon, where the intermedial quality is derived from the conception of the resulting media Elisabeth Frank 220 product, i.e. the transformation or ‘translation’ of one media product (text, film etc.) into another medium. Its formation is based upon the medial specifics and characteristics of the original medium. However, only the resulting medium is present in its materiality (Rajewsky 2005: 51). Film adaptations and novelizations are one example for medial transpositions, where a film is based on a novel and vice versa (e.g., H.G. Wells science fiction novel The War of the Worlds (1897) was adapted as a radio play by Orson Welles in 1938). Rajewsky describes this intermedial phenomenon as a “production oriented, ‘genetic’ conception of intermediality” (2005: 51), where one medium serves as the original or source for another. The intermedial strategy of the medial transposition is not really present in the novel or the teleplays. House of Leaves is not really the novelization of the documentary “The Navidson Record”, but it presents itself as one. The text stages the ekphrastic retelling of the fictional documentary “The Navidson Record” and does so by drawing on the media specific properties of the ‘original’ medium - the deteriorating reels and tapes of the fake documentary. It also channels the media and genre specific characteristics of cinéma vérité, reality TV shows, survival and adventure shows, (family) drama as well as crime, thriller and horror movies. However, within the diegetic world of the teleplays, the documentary is revealed to be real and the book is exposed to be a fraud as it claimed to be fictional but now turns out to be factual. In the truly clichéd style of news exposition in movies, Danielewski simulates the fragmented montage of breaking news, which are reported on various channels: ‘A literary hoax! ’ ‘Not the first literary hoax though this time with a very strange twist.’ ‘This beloved novel’ ‘cult book’ […] ‘was today’ ‘yesterday’ ‘tonight’ ‘just this morning! ’ ‘declared a fraud’. […] ‘This is not like James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces’ ‘or Wilkomirski’s Fragments’ ‘or JT LeRoy’s Sarah.’ […] ‘Quite the contrary, this novel always made clear that none of its content is true’ ‘real’ ‘actual’ ‘legitimate’ ‘factual’ ‘non-fiction.’ (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 1) In the teleplays, the book “House of Leaves” 2 is dealt with as a novelization of the documentary, thereby confirming the alleged primacy of the movie by establishing it as the original source for the book. Here, not only do the proliferating authors and contributors of the book and the confusion of diegetic hierarchies confound readers, but in addition to that, commonly held believes of an ‘original’ and ‘source material’ are questioned. What came first, the novel or the documentary? This scene highlights a core issue of medial transposition: House of Leaves stages itself as a novelization of a non-existent documentary while drawing on the specific medial qualities 2 “House of Leaves” in quotation marks means the book within the diegetic world of the scripts, while House of Leaves in italics is the physical copy and novel by Mark Z. Danielewski. Authenticity as intermedial performance 221 of both the book and the documentary. In the teleplays, however, the lines between fiction and reality blur further when the documentary is revealed to be real, exposing the book’s claim to fictionality as a deliberate construct. This reversal destabilizes the readers’ expectation of what constitutes the original source. In his typesetting of the book, Danielewski made a few noticeable choices when it comes to the paratexts, front matter and title page. Instead of taking ‘his rightful place’ as the author on the recto page of the front matter, he places himself on the verso page - the back of the page - and foregrounds Zampanò’s and Johnny’s ‘involvement’ in the creation of the book. Retracing or reconstructing the origins of the story is therefore denied, as Danielewski presents the books as a collaboration or multi-authorial project. Mélisande’s interactions with her students in the teleplays also raise significant questions about adaptation and originality, particularly in the context of medial transposition. A student points out that the book claims the film did not exist, but now it does. Mélisande responds that by posting it, she is proving its existence, suggesting it now predates the book. The discussion then questions whether the film is an adaptation, with another student proposing that perhaps the novel is the adaptation. (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 13) Through its use of medial transposition, House of Leaves foregrounds its own production process, constantly referencing its fictionality and thereby undermining its authenticity by challenging conventional beliefs about the original source and its reproduction. Mélisande’s interactions with her students highlight this issue, serving as a microcosm of the larger problem Danielewski explores - what happens when the boundaries between original and adaptation become so fluid that it’s impossible to determine which came first. This deliberate confusion is central to Danielewski’s approach, as he continuously questions and destabilizes the notion of an original source. In doing so, he underscores the inherent instability of narrative and media, where authenticity and originality are revealed to be as much a product of mediation and perception as the content itself. 3.2. Media combination Media combination encompasses phenomena in which the intermedial quality is based on the constellation and combination of different media, which are perceived as conventionally distinct, all of which are present in their own materiality (e.g., the combination of image and text in newspapers or news reporting) (Rajewsky 2005: 51). In media combination, it is essential to acknowledge that the distinct media components “contribute to the constitution and signification of the entire product in their own specific way.” (Rajewsky 2005: 52). Especially documentaries’ plurimedial Elisabeth Frank 222 structure - the combination of images and eyewitness accounts - is a constitutive feature of the medium. The reciprocal influence and conflation of images and words enhances their truth value and consequently their authenticity status. Media combinations use two different media, which can lend the other an aura of authenticity. However, the combination of images and words can also open up fields of tension and contradictions. It is precisely at this point of rupture, between the supposedly manipulated, staged film recordings and the questionable claims about the truth status of the images, that the contradictory states of truth become apparent in the case of the first releases of “The Navidson Record”: The Navidson Record did not first appear as it does today. Nearly seven years ago what surfaced was “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway” - a five and a half minute optical illusion barely exceeding the abilities of any NYU film school graduate. The problem, of course, was the accompanying statement that claimed all of it was true. (Danielewski 2000: 4) In the novel, the questionable images, here in the form of a film, are described as an “optical illusion” and a bad one at that. But what makes them so interesting is the outrageous claim that the footage of a house, which is larger on the inside than the outside, is authentic. This creates a tension, which is developed as the book progresses, but never reaches a resolution to resolve the growing unease. The images described in the book contradict general knowledge and cultural believes; they are cause for uneasiness, doubt of the veracity of images in general and their susceptibility for manipulation. The teleplays, though, raise completely different concerns. Here, ‘absolutely fake,’ digitally generated images within the augmented reality (AR) environment of the game Harrow 5.5 become part of the characters’ reality. Between the publication of the book in the year 2000 and the publication of the teleplays in 2019, a naturalization of digital images has taken place that has had a tremendous impact on how we perceive and integrate images into our everyday life. The dual nature of AR - where binary information and physical reality intersect - creates a fusion of diegetic levels that deepens immersion. The confusion between these layers is illustrated by the disappearance of the character Tom in Shadowgate. On one hand, AR visuals can seem blatantly artificial, “skittle-shiny” (Danielewski, Script 3: 57), and easily distinguishable from real-world objects. On the other hand, the same technology can produce hyper-realistic images that convincingly mimic reality. In Shadowgate, a highly realistic digital door appears in the middle of a forest, indistinguishable from a physical object. Tom opens the door and vanishes into thin air. The other children remove their AR headsets, but the door has disappeared, existing only in the digital realm - though it still has real-world consequences. This passage from the Authenticity as intermedial performance 223 teleplays, where a digital artifact becomes ‘real enough’ to cause physical consequences, exemplifies the interaction between digital and physical realities through the use of media combination in AR, as it blurs the line between mediated experiences and actual events. The normalization of AR and digital media in House of Leaves reflects broader societal shift, where the digital has become an intrinsic part of how we perceive and interact with reality, mimicking it so convincingly that its influence on the physical world is undeniable. 3.3. Intermedial references Intermediality in the sense of intermedial references can contribute to the constitution of a text in different ways - from the simple mentioning or thematization of an altermedial product (individual reference to a specific film, play or song) or system (reference to a whole media system like cinema, theatre or music in general) to transposing processes that attempt to reproduce certain structures and elements of another medium in verbal language. This includes phenomena and features like “filmic writing, ekphrasis [and] the musicalization of literature […].” (Rajewsky 2005: 50). The author of a text can, if they are trying to relate to film or television for example, use cinematic strategies, such as zooms, cuts, montage, fade-in and fade-out, superimpositions and other editing techniques. However, only an illusion of the other medium is created, which illustrates the simulation-forming quality of intermedial references. Rajewsky calls this the ‘as-if’ character of intermedial references (2005: 54). In House of Leaves, whether in novel or teleplay form, the written text serves as the core medium. The narrative employs its own media-specific methods to evoke, imitate, or reflect features of other media forms, while maintaining its foundation in the written word. Due to media differences, an actual realization of the referenced medium is not possible, but according to Rajewsky there can at least be an asymptotic approximation of the referenced system (2005: 55). At the same time, this highlights the medial differences and analogies and reveals medium-specific features. These metamedial thematizations are able to reveal the general insufficiency of all medial representation and the constructed character of all media. In the failings of medial representation, but also in its attempts to cover up or highlight its blind spots and insufficiencies, authenticity is attempted to be performed. By laying bare the incongruity of human experience and its representation and by pointing out the insufficiencies of every kind of representation, the question comes up, whether authenticity effects can be achieved by transcending and subverting constructed medial borders: “All types of intermedial reference can create such defamiliarizations and hence appeal to the readers’ special attention by irritating the boundaries between media, by thematizing their different relations to reality and by problematizing their degree of fictionality.” (Brosch 2015: 346). With the Elisabeth Frank 224 help of the following categorizations of intermedial references (explicit references and references via transposition), an attempt will be made to describe Danielewski’s intermedial strategies in House of Leaves, which generally involve the exposure of medial structures, subversions of established narrative and rhetoric practices and the highlighting of genre conventions of various media. 3.3.1. Explicit references According to Rajewsky, the explicit mentioning of another media system or the thematization of an altermedial product is the simplest form of intermedial reference and not a ‘genuine’ intermedial phenomenon, as it is just the simple naming of another medium and there is no simulation or imitation at any time (2004: 46). However, the explicit reference serves an important function in the text and is relevant for the intermedial character of a product. This “marker function” (Rajewsky 2004: 57) draws readers’ attention to potential implicit cinematic techniques and can even confirm their presence within the narrative (Rajewsky 2003: 66). It draws the readers’ attention to the intermedial character of the text and makes them receptive to more complex or subtle intermedial procedures that could otherwise be overlooked (2003: 79). The explicit reference is also responsible for the metaization of the narrative discourse. This way, medial, aesthetic and fictional qualities of a media system, e.g., of film and photography, can thus be reflected and commented on (Rajewsky 2004: 79). The strategies of authentication and authenticity as well as their subversion in House of Leaves, which are closely linked to the choice of media and genres mentioned in the text, question the ‘reality-guaranteeing power’ of media, like film and photography. Due to the assumed reality-mediating function of images, which results from their material properties, they are ascribed a certain power and effect on the way that our understanding of images affects textual production. Because of the inherent ‘claim to reality’ of images, authors continually attempt to approach them via rhetorical strategies, elaborate descriptions, metaphors and other stylistic devices and textual procedures, as it is a common practice for people to “create much of our world out of the dialogue between verbal and pictorial representation […].” (Mitchell 1994: 161). Here, one must distinguish between analog and digital recording processes. In the book of House of Leaves there are only cameras and camera recorders that work analogously, while the scripts reference digital recording technologies. Analog recording devices are explicitly mentioned in the first chapter of the novel, which medially frames the following plot and activates readers’ experience of film and photography as a referenced medium: The Hi 8 cameras, which are mainly used in the house and in the expeditions inside the house, are video cameras which use an analog video format for recording. The data carrier is a magnetic tape, such as those Authenticity as intermedial performance 225 found in VHS tapes. The Hi 8 is a camera that was used in many households in the 1990s, e.g., for home videos. However, the 16mm Arriflex which Navidson adds is a camera of higher quality that can be used to shoot feature films and was often found in journalistic productions (before digital formats supplanted analog ones) (Bilsky 2012: 142). Analog recording techniques continue to provide recipients with a sense of authenticity and reliability in the images captured. Roland Barthes supports this by emphasizing that the captured object or subject is not an “optionally real thing” to which an image refers but rather the “necessarily real thing” (Barthes 1981: 76, emphasis original) placed before the camera lens. Without this tangible presence, Barthes argues, the photograph would not exist (1981: 76). This connection underscores the inherent trust in analog photography’s capacity to reflect reality. A huge disadvantage of these analog recording techniques is their dependence on light for an adequate recording quality, which also proves to be a problem for the exploration team’s attempts to record the endless hallways of the house for “The Navidson Record”: “Holloway remains the most stoic, keeping any doubts to himself, adding only that the experience is beyond the power of any Hi 8 or 35mm camera: ‘It’s impossible to photograph what we saw.’” (Danielewski 2000: 86). Instead, readers have to rely on the subjectively colored descriptions of Zampanò, who tries to provide an impression of the photographs and recordings, but always refers back to the inherent inability of cameras to photograph the ‘Great Hall’ - and thus ‘reality’ itself: In one photograph of the Great Hall, we find Reston in the foreground holding a flare, the light barely licking an ashen wall rising above him into inky oblivion, while in the background Tom stands surrounded by flares which just as ineffectually confront the impenetrable wall of nothingness looming around the Spiral Staircase. (Danielewski 2000: 155) The expedition team tries to introduce depth cues to the image with the help of light sources and differing distances, which is another failed attempt at representing the true size of the hall, but nevertheless gives an impression of the magnitude of the Great Hall. All attempts are in vain, though, and the house remains unrecordable as far as the media of photography and film are concerned. Only Zampanò’s ekphrastic retelling and his insistence on including the substandard attempts to capture the interior of the house give readers a sense of its unrepresentable enormity. 3.3.2. References via transposition The second major form of intermedial references, known as references via transposition, appears in these ways: evoking, simulating, and (partially) Elisabeth Frank 226 reproducing. This approach involves recreating certain features or structures from one medium and aligning them with the rules of the referenced system. This combination of elements is what provides the technique with its intermedial nature (Rajewsky 2005: 55). The difference between media systems, which can be emphasized by explicit reference, becomes significant because it cannot be completely overcome or resolved. At best, it can only be represented by an ‘as if’ approach, in which one medium imitates or is modelled on another without fully replicating it (Rajewsky 2005: 55). In the so called ‘filmic’ writing in House of Leaves, for example, the author accesses textual strategies reminiscent of certain film techniques, such as tracking shots and other camera movements, title cards, handheld cameras, frame-by-frame playback, zoom-ins, lighting, one-take shots, montage and other editing techniques. Evocation As already explicated before, the trigger for an intermedial reception of the text is an accumulation of explicit references. In combination with a systematical “establishment of iconic analogies between literary structures and filmic conventions, qualities, and structures […]” (Schwaneke 2015: 276) a thematic evocation is achieved. These explicit remarks and thematizations of the other medium can either be done by the narrator or a character (Schwaneke 2015: 276). This form of metanarration refers to selfreflective commentary on the narration process, focusing on how aspects of storytelling are addressed within the narrative itself. As Nünning explains, these are narrative statements about the act of narration, which distinguishes them from fiction about fiction (2009: 204). Rather than examining the fictional elements of the story, this approach highlights how the narrator reflects on the structure and mechanics of the narrative. Metafiction, however, refers to commentary on the fictionality or construction of a narrative, as well as the ability to reveal the fictionality of a narrative and can, e.g., make heteroreferential or self-referential comments on the fictional status of the text (Nünning 2009: 204). Metanarrative and metafictional elements do not inherently break the immersion of a narrative; instead, they can actually strengthen the illusion of authenticity that the story aims to create (Nünning 2009: 205). This authenticity-enhancing strategy can also be used in a subversive way, as employed by Danielewski in House of Leaves. Danielewski utilizes metanarrative commentary throughout the text and does so at every diegetic level, including within footnotes or paratexts. Johnny, for example, admits to ‘compromising’ the diegetic level of “The Navidson Record” at the very beginning of Zampanò’s dissertation and description of Will Navidson’s first scenes. During his editing of Zampanò’s retelling of the Navidsons’ moving into their new home, inhabiting its space and encountering first problems like a broken water heater - Authenticity as intermedial performance 227 Johnny’s narration bursts out of the margins of the footnotes and takes over the page. He writes about his own water heater dilemma, interjecting pages upon pages of anecdotes from his life, until he finally admits his alteration of the text: Now I’m sure you’re wondering something. Is it just coincidence that this cold water predicament of mine also appears in this chapter? Not at all. Zampanò only wrote ‘heater’. The word ‘water’ back there - I added that. Now there’s an admission, eh? Hey, not fair, you cry. Hey, hey, fuck you, I say. (Danielewski 2000: 16) From the outset, Zampanò’s and Navidson’s works are undermined, their truth and authenticity status cast into doubt and their entire story is discredited by Johnny’s intrusion into the text production process. Different diegetic layers are usually used to attribute authenticity to the ‘lower’ diegetic layer by retrospectively corroborating events and asserting a certain truth status. In House of Leaves, this strategy is made impossible by the metaleptic entanglements of the diegetic layers as well as the metanarrative admissions of its multiple authors. While Zampanò tries to make “The Navidson Record” believable by asserting its existence, referencing real studies, books, authors and scholars, Johnny, on the other hand, destroys these attempts by pointing out holes and inaccuracies in Zampanò’s work, while at the same time confirming that Zampanò’s writings are real. While Johnny implicates the existence of the documentary “The Navidson Record”, he in turn affirms the existence of Zampanò’s notes for his academic treatise by editing them. In these notes and documents found by Johnny, Zampanò in turn lends authenticity to Navidson’s diegetic level by adding ample commentary on “The Navidson Record”, in which he insists on the ‘authentic’ nature of the filming and editing process since Navidson did not draw on effects, such as extradiegetic background music, actors or staging. He proves his point by repeatedly mentioning the medial, financial and productional restrictions of the medium ‘film’: “Strangely then, the best argument for fact is the absolute unaffordability of fiction.” (Danielewski 2000: 149). In House of Leaves, the authenticity of events is often questioned through metanarrative commentary. It is stated that the documentary “The Navidson Record” uses elements of cinéma vérité, a method aimed at minimizing barriers between subject and audience by avoiding technical elements such as large crews, elaborate sets, and specialized equipment, and structural features like conventional editing techniques and scripted dramatic tension, instead focusing on an unfiltered portrayal of reality. This approach contrasts with the techniques of traditional documentary and fictional film (Danielewski 2000: 139). Any attempts to refute the authenticity of the footage with Elisabeth Frank 228 cinematic evidence such as digital image manipulation or certain editing techniques are rendered obsolete when Zampanò addresses the economic aspect of digital image manipulation: Perhaps the best argument for the authenticity of The Navidson Record does not come from film critics, university scholars, or festival panel members but rather from the I.R.S. Even a cursory glance at Will Navidson’s tax statements or for that matter Karen’s, Tom’s or Billy Reston’s, proves the impossibility of digital manipulation. They just never had enough money. (Danielewski 2000: 148) Here, the metamedial and metanarrative reference to the unaffordability of digital manipulation and extensive film production, in relation to the financial situation of the producers of the documentary, is meant to reveal that any kind of medial representation is fabricated, while at the same time increasing the authenticity status of the referenced work. Danielewski, however, does not stop at this interplay of affirming and doubting the authenticity status of the narrative by pointing to intracompositional media structures and techniques. He further interweaves his narrative with outer-diegetic, intertextual and intermedial references to other media products. His metafictional entanglements heteroreferentially draw on narratives and constructions that lie outside of the narrative in order to access real life examples. In turn, the ambivalent truth status of the narrative is maintained by referencing not only other fictional media products like media hoaxes and frauds such as Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds (Danielewski 2000: 7), James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, Binjamin Wilkomirski’s Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood and JT LeRoy’s Sarah (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 1), and urban legends like slender man or momo (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 49). There is also mentioning of fake news relating to QAnon, Pizzagate, and Alex Jones (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 6) as well as conspiracy theories like Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaxxers, and Holocaust Deniers (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 5). But also, its authenticity status is enhanced by interweaving the events in House of Leaves with a network of real international media events like the Rodney King Video (Danielewski 2000: 145) or the Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 6). More worldwide images of plummeting markets, ghettoed cities, polluted coastlines, and still more cenotaphs. Then images of celebrants happily dancing when it was still a wedding and not yet the Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster. […] SITE MANAGER (CONT’D) So it had to be a hardware problem. But that was incorrect too. Something had given way. For me, the only way I can describe it, what it felt like, was the Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster. CAMERA OPERATOR (O.C.) How do you mean? Authenticity as intermedial performance 229 SITE MANAGER Like the floor just gave way. CAMERA OPERATOR (O.C.) I don’t understand. SITE MANAGER I don’t either: the hardware is functional, the software runs fine enough, the data is at least initially locatable, but somehow the data becomes increasingly inaccessible, out of reach. […] Images of the Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster when the floor gives way. (Danielewski 2019, Script 1: 7f.) In the teleplays, the fictional event of Server Dark and later “The Keflavik Tape” are compared and intertwined with the real event of the Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster from 2001, when the third floor of a large building in Israel suddenly collapsed during festivities. The images of that disaster were broadcast all around the world because a camcorder captured the event. This intermedial border crossing that the author employs extends to non-fictional events, and in doing so, accomplishes what is necessary for eliciting authenticity effects: a heteroreferential turn to other ‘real’ media and media products. Danielewski constructs his narrative in such a way as to create analogies to real experiences and comparisons to real media that have a higher degree of verisimilitude and authenticity (in this case, randomly or accidentally filmed events and tragedies) that can be seen as part of the reality of the recipients’ lives. This also has an immersion-enhancing effect on the recipients in contrast to the illusion-breaking techniques mentioned earlier; entanglements of the narrative plot of House of Leaves with mimetic experiences of real events or media are simulated by creating analogies to real experiences. Referring back to the strategy of evocation, we can observe how analogies are systematically drawn between literary frameworks and broader epistemological structures. These analogies are established through metanarrative and metafictional commentary from the texts’ characters, which, in turn, work to enhance the readers’ perception of authenticity. This method activates the connection between the narrative and the readers’ interpretative framework. Simulation The discursive simulation of one medium within another text involves mimicking qualities from another medium, such as film, to alter the text’s structure or style (e.g., changing typography or layout). This process aims to approximate the representational methods of the other medium at the discursive level. By adapting the language system, the readers’ familiarity with different media is used to engage the cognitive and perceptual frameworks typically associated with these media. This method simulates readers’ experiences with film and photography and activates their media literacy to increase their interpretive engagement (Rajewsky 2002: 88). Technical details such as a cinematic shot, a frame or a setting find expression in an equivalent textual procedure. It can either come to an iconic Elisabeth Frank 230 representation of a film excerpt as a linguistic sign or, with the help of an onomatopoeic word, the speed and suddenness of a cinematic cut can be represented (Rajewsky 2002: 114). Jed, a minor character in the novel, is given a biographical background that reminds readers of a confessional, a stylistic device used in reality TV shows, in which his hobbies and fiancée are described and he is introduced as ‘the person behind the façade’. Having its origin in documentaries, it was picked up by reality TV shows to provide immediate, often emotional reactions to events and was therefore perceived as especially authentic. Now it is mostly used as a gimmick and has lost its initial claim to authenticity and subjectivity. It is explicitly stated, without any hesitation or doubt, that Jed will survive his ordeal - only to be shot suddenly on the next page. Zampanò uses the frame-by-frame technique to reproduce the following gruesome moment in every detail because otherwise it would have happened too quickly for the human eye to perceive. The frame-byframe technique, which is similar to playing a movie in slow motion, is able to stretch out a short moment in such a way that things are revealed that were not seen before. One must distinguish that it is not the documentary itself that makes use of this device, that is, not Navidson as the creator of the documentary, but the spectator, Zampanò, who uses the technique to make his ekphrastic description as accurately as possible: As diligent as any close analysis of the Zapruder film, similar frame by frame examination carried out countless times by too many critics to name here reveals how a fraction of a second later one bullet pierced his upper lip, blasted through the maxillary bone, dislodging even fragmenting the central teeth, (Reel 10; Frame 192) and then in the following frame (Reel 10; Frame 193) obliterated the back side of his head, chunks of occipital lobe and parietal bone spewn out in an instantly senseless pattern uselessly preserved in celluloid light (Reel 10; Frames 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, & 205.) [...] Here then -- (Danielewski 2000: 193) On the following pages, the words are in a line and are meant to represent a fired cartridge moving through the still images. The moment of the shot continues to be drawn out. Here, various techniques of the cinematic frame of reference are simulated. The delay of the tragedy alone, in which a brief moment of hope is revealed, is reminiscent of every other blockbuster film released in the past few years. The referenced medium of the ‘(Hollywood) movie’ is called up with all its characteristics, clichés and qualities by taking up elements that are non-specific to the medium, such as the use of a ‘red herring’ or a ‘cliffhanger’ (e.g., in chapter VIII of the novel). The characteristics of the documentary and Hollywood film intermingle. On the one hand, Zampanò insists on the reality-depicting quality of the documentary, while on the other hand, he shapes his ekphrasis in such a way as to create Authenticity as intermedial performance 231 an artificially generated suspense through said cinematic techniques drawing on the subsystem of (Hollywood) cinema. By drawing on the structural principles of (Hollywood) cinema, the deception of the readers is achieved with the surprising moment of the shot, played out ‘in slow motion’ on the following pages. The playback of the frames is imitated when the pages are turned. Shortly thereafter, there is an explicit mention of the system and a reflection on the medium and the authenticity of what is presented, which is once again intended to recall the medial qualities of cinéma vérité: Ken Burns has used this particular moment to illustrate why The Navidson Record is so beyond Hollywood: ‘Not only is it gritty and dirty and raw, but look how the zoom claws after the fleeting fact. Watch how the frame does not, cannot anticipate the action. Jed’s in the lower left hand corner of the frame! Nothing’s predetermined or foreseen. It’s all painfully present which is why it’s so painfully real.’ (Danielewski 2000: 206) According to Burns, the authenticity of what is depicted is based on the fact that the camera did not follow the action, i.e. it was not predetermined or planned. Instead of the Hollywood film, reference is made to the documentary. This passage of the book exhibits concrete intermedial configurations throughout and makes use of more than just explicit mentioning of another medium such as simply naming the cameras and editing techniques. The simulation of filmic techniques within the text amplifies the authenticity effect by blending the readers’ familiarity with visual media into the literary form. (Partially) reproducing transposition In the case of (partially) reproducing transpositions, non-media-specific, transmedial components of the reference system are called upon, which can thus be reproduced with the instruments and means of the literary system (Rajewsky 2005: 59). These components and strategies are supplemented by media-specific elements with the aid of the recipient’s media competence and film experience and result in an illusion-creating and potentially authenticity-inducing effect. A good example from the novel is the ‘literary one-take shot’ right in the beginning of Zampanò’s dissertation, which introduces a teaser (“The 5½ Minute Hallway”) and trailer (“Exploration 4#”) for the documentary and further addresses its production, marketing and distribution process. The cinematic technique of a one-take shot is partially reproduced with the means of the textual medium. A one-take shot is a sequence within a film that consists of only a single, unusually long shot showing a completed action without any cuts or editing, also called ‘long take’ or ‘continuous shot’. In blockbuster or avantgarde movies a one-take shot is an elaborately choreographed sequence within the film. Despite its highly constructed Elisabeth Frank 232 qualities, the heightened immediacy achieves a documentary style effect through the perceived congruence of depicted plot and actual time filmed. In the novel this cinematic technique is implemented by the omission of periods, developed here as the textual analog of cuts or edits. The onetake shot is one long sentence, uninterrupted by the use of paragraphs or periods: In one continuous shot, Navidson, whom we never actually see, momentarily focuses on a doorway on the north wall of his living room before climbing outside of the house through a window to the east of that door, where he trips slightly in the flower bed, redirects the camera from the ground to the exterior white clapboard, then moves right, crawling back inside the house through a second window, this time to the west of that door, where we hear him grunt slightly as he knocks his head on the sill, eliciting light laughter from those in the room, presumably Karen, his brother Tom, and his friend Billy Reston — though like Navidson, they too never appear on camera — before finally returning us to the starting point, thus completely circling the doorway and so proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that insulation or siding is the only possible thing this doorway could lead to, which is when all laughter stops, as Navidson’s hand appears in frame and pulls open the door, […] finally retracting and inspecting it, as if by seeing alone there might be something more to feel, Reston wanting to know if in fact his friend does sense something different, and Navidson providing the matter-of-fact answer which also serves as the conclusion, however abrupt, to this bizarre short: “It’s freezing in there.” (Danielewski 2000: 4f.) To create the effect of authenticity that Zampanò seeks, readers are made to share Navidson’s point of view, who is carrying the camera, bumping against a window sill giving the impression of a clearly improvised, unplanned shoot. The stumbling and shaky POV cam are cinematographic techniques created through the use of a handheld camera, giving it the documentary style of a non-staged scene that is even eliciting spontaneous laughter from the people present at the time of filming. The seemingly impromptu nature of the production appears unprepared - depicting ‘real time’ without any cuts - and therefore without any ‘falsification’ or ‘reduction’ of what is filmed. Zampanò calls the depicted events of the described recording an “exercise in disbelief”, which is an implicit invitation to tolerate this ontological impossibility. For added realism, the mimetic effect is enhanced by the rawness of the shot and demonstrative grittiness that is repeatedly emphasized in Zampanò’s dissertation, also in reference and comparison to unplanned recordings by eyewitnesses of disaster (similar to Ken Burns’ view that the footage is authentic because it is raw and gritty and therefore “painfully real”): In his article “True grit”, Anthony Lane at The New Yorker claims “grittiness is the most difficult element to construct and will always elude the finest studio Authenticity as intermedial performance 233 magician. Grit, however, does not elude Navidson. Consider the savage scene captured on grainy 16mm film of a tourist eaten alive by lions in a wildlife preserve in Angola (Traces of Death) and compare it to the ridiculous and costly comedy Eraser in which several villains are dismembered by alligators. (Danielewski 2000: 145) Here, the rawness of the production equals authenticity. The grittiness of the scenes in “The Navidson Record” stems from the surplus of noise in the recording process. ‘Noise’ in recordings is not only the muddling of the signal or the information, but, according to Bruce Clark, noise “too is information - and precisely unexpected information, an uncanny increment that rolls the dice of randomness within every communicative and calculative transmission.” (2010: 166). He goes further in his argumentation and claims “if noise is also information - noise is a ‘signature of the real’[…].” (2010: 166). The inclusion of unexpected, sudden, and unprecedented elements in Zampanò’s ekphrastic descriptions of the footage serves to enhance the illusion of authenticity. These moments, appearing random or unintentional, are framed as natural occurrences, lending a sense of realism to the otherwise artificial narrative. On the one hand, Danielewski’s intermedial strategy of authenticity relies on the reduction or elimination of mediation processes. In this case, authenticity is evoked by refraining from any common and established mediating techniques, like edits, cuts, elaborate tracking shots or any staging. On the other hand, Danielewski implements authenticity into his text by adding a surplus of information in the form of unintentional, sudden and unexpected occurrences such as tripping, stumbling or laughter, which constitutes authenticity of a second order: Danielewski tries to emulate the practice of cinema, which in turn emulates the practice of real life, or as Danielewski adds in his footnotes: “William J. Mitchell offers an alternate description of ‘grit’ when he highlights Barthe’s observation that reality incorporates ‘seemingly functionless detail ‘because it is there’ to signal that ‘this is indeed an unfiltered sample of the real.’” (Danielewski 2000: 146). Danielewski offers yet another way to depict the real and authentic - namely by stripping the medial representation of the ‘entertainment character’ of almost all medial products. Johnny, watching a scene from “The Navidson Record” in the teleplays, where the missing engineer from “The Keflavik Tape” is describing the house, is captivated by the footage, although it seems rather bleak and uninformative: JOHNNY TRUANT You gotta watch this. This guy’s for real. Listen how he analyzes the house. It’s amazing. And kinda scary too. VOICE (O.C.) Only nothing’s really happening. Elisabeth Frank 234 JOHNNY TRUANT Au contraire! That’s how reality happens. (Danielewski 2019, Script 2: 7) Interestingly, what readers perceive as ‘authentic’ up to this point is the referenced media system of cinema, which is evoked by the activation of “content-related concepts, schemata or scripts stored in the recipients’ minds mostly from previous real-life experiences but also from their enculturation […].” (Wolf 2013: 44). As recipients have become accustomed to certain technical standards, these concepts, schemata, and scripts are in turn subverted by Danielewski by disguising the recordings as spontaneous, by adding seemingly ‘unnecessary’ information or ‘noise’ to the footage, or, as exemplified above, by stripping them of their entertainment character - thereby providing the text with a second level of authenticity. In the case of House of Leaves, the text not only draws on the rules and concepts of ‘real life’, but also on the media-specific qualities, techniques and strategies of the reference system ‘film’, cinéma vérité and other recordings. In a second step, it subverts these by exposing their ambiguity and constructed nature. A glimpse of ‘real’ authenticity is provided by hinting at the possibility of authentic representation in the unexpected, the sudden and the coincidental. 4. Conclusion In House of Leaves (the novel and the teleplays), Mark Z. Danielewski uses techniques of constructing and deconstructing authenticity, much like the hoax surrounding the Yasusada poems. Both works initially attempt to present themselves as authentic - but House of Leaves reveals its fictional character and puts it on display. This deliberate unraveling of perceived authenticity allows Danielewski to establish a second-order authenticity, wherein the very act of exposing artifice and mediation becomes a new form of realism. By invoking familiar media conventions - whether through filmic writing, documentary aesthetics, or the raw immediacy of cinéma vérité - and then dismantling them, Danielewski highlights the constructedness of all mediated experiences. This strategy reflects a paradox of authenticity: that which appears real is often a product of manipulation, but the conscious unveiling of that manipulation can create a more immersive sense of authenticity. Ultimately, Danielewski’s approach forces readers to engage with the complex relationship between mediation and reality. By drawing attention to the inherent artifice of narrative and media, House of Leaves questions conventional notions of what it means to convey truth or authenticity. 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