Only Revolutions I

I have a love hate relationship with this book. As I did with House of Leaves; I love it because it is completely different and makes me think about the architecture of a book itself and how it effects the reader’s interpretation of books in general. With text crammed into the sides and written upside down it is easy to be totally enveloped in the “experience of the book”.

However my love is also my problem with Only Revolutions and House of Leaves. At what point does it stop being an experience and just become bullshit. Maybe, I am just being cynical when I flip a page and think he did this just because it looked cool or just so it would be bizarre. House of Leaves felt full of its self. Like the weird kid at school who knows they are weird and parade it around like it is something to be idealized. I loved House of Leaves do not misunderstand me; some parts of that book are absolutely brilliant. However having to dig through bullshit to get the brilliant parts mars them, when Only Revolutions does it so much more easily.

Only Revolutions is a much more modest book than House of Leaves and I appreciate it more for that. When I read it I am able to get involved with the structure, composition and architecture and be a part of it rather than observe it though its strangeness.

The problem still persists in Only Revolutions of it being a little too much to be taken seriously. I understand it being an experience and I understand why it set up the way it is. I am only fifty six pages into it and I am waiting to see if the architecture leads to something brilliant or if it simply parading around to be different for different sake.