Finally bought “House of Leaves.” It is wandering between fascinating and incomprehensible junk of the sort that plagued my early mornings that time I took “Feminist Perspectives in Anthropology” and had to deal with post-modernism before breakfast. I don’t recommend this. To this day, I still barely know what postmodernism is, except that I think it’s probably a good thing to get, and then get over, and at one point I believe I declaimed “Look, if anthropology is criminal then only criminals will do anthropology!” but context slips ever farther from my memory.*

The bits about the house are neat, though, and yeah, now I see all the comparisons to Gearworld, although perhaps because he came prepared for weirdness and adventure, Eland’s much more matter-of-fact about the fact that the laws of physics went on holiday, instead of the stark screaming terror that one would expect upon finding that in one’s house.

It does prove, however, that there is nothing new under the sun. And I thought Digger’s one-way hole was so original…*sigh*

If I did suddenly find passages that couldn’t be there in my house, however, I would proceed the way I always did in Shadowrun when our GM dumped portals to something or other on us. I would get a live mouse on a string, and stick it through the portal. Then I would bring it back. Mouse still alive? Excellent! Okay, I’m sticking my hand in there. My left hand. Hand doesn’t get chopped off? Great, let’s go for the face. Actually, let’s go for Bob’s face. Bob! Stick your face in here…etc, etc. Other players were often impatient with my insistence on this sort of precaution, but if the portal had ever led to a volcano, who’d be sorry then?

*I do remember that this was the class where I suggested we address the burning social injustice of women not having orgasms by sending in the Green Berets and by god GIVING those women orgasms! For reasons beyond my ken, this did not go over all that well with the professor. Go figure. *I* still think it’s a good idea.