(Note that what follows is just a speculation and that I am far from claiming that I am right, let alone consider this to be any proof. Everyone should judge for themselves.)
This year readers of one of the greatest magazines of speculative/weird fiction ever published, Nemonymous, edited by DF Lewis, could read its last issue. Those who are familiar with all of the contents of Nemonymous will certainly remember the magazine's most enigmatic story that appeared in the second issue: ‘The Vanishing Life and Films of Emmanuel Escobada’. Never by-lined (its author decided to remain anonymous), this story centers around a forgotten Brazilian film-maker who disappeared while making a film entitled ‘Nos Olvidamos?’ The piece is written as a non-fiction article and approaches Escobada as a real person. It examines his films by discussing influences, innovative casting methods and experimental filming techniques. Unfortunately, we learn from the story, after Escobada’s unexplained disappearance all of his films vanished without a trace and people forgot about the existence of the director and his works.
While Emmanuel Escobada is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of oblivion, the author of the piece published in Nemonymous remains unidentified, and now with Null Immortalis (Nemonymous’ last issue) published, it doesn’t seem very likely that the author will be willing to reveal his identity. There were several attempts at guessing who might have penned TVLAFOEE. However, none of them have successfully prompted the author to step out from behind the curtain.
As a fan of the story I also have my own guess as to who this mysterious writer might be and for me his name is: Mark Z. Danielewski.
THE WEBSITE
“The film marked the first use of a frequent theme he would return to again and again, the misunderstandings that result from language barriers” Excerpt from TVLAFOEE
The idea first came to me in 2006 when, after reading the story, I turned my attention to the website devoted to Emmanuel Escobada by following the link provided at the end of the story. The site is no longer there, but back when it still existed it pointed to another site on Escobada (http://www.members.tripod.com/scott_warrick/), both of which have most probably been created and maintained by the author. The latter site has gone through a series of changes, each of them making it less and less comprehensible by erasing, adding, hiding or (google-)translating chunks of text into German, Portuguese, Russian and Italian.
This is not for you.
What immediately struck me in the 2006 version of the site was the single sentence repeated throughout the confusing text (in various languages): “This is not for you”. The sentence sounded very familiar, but at first I couldn’t nail its source. Then my thoughts became fixed upon one of my all-time favourite novels resting on my shelves: ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z. Danielewski. I opened it on its dedication page and there it was just as expected.  Regrettably, you won’t see the English version of this sentence on the site any more. It has been replaced now with other sentences, clearly messages to those who might have noticed the clue: ‘You will never understand’ and ‘Youwillneverunderstand’ and ‘Reaching beyond your means’. I guess, it looks like all of this is reaching beyond my means as I’m writing this down now and it might seem that I have no proof that this sentence was ever there, but if you look carefully you can still see the message in French and German left unchanged: ‘Ce n'est pas pour vous’ ‘Dieses ist nicht für Sie’.   But there is more to it than a simple sentence, for, doesn’t the structure and the layout of the site with its seemingly dead-end clues in the form of links, chunks of text in different languages etc. remind one of the many experimental methods used by Danielewski in his enigmatic first novel? If you use wayback machine to exhume the site from 2002, even the colours seem to indicate that this might be more than just a coincidence: http://bit.ly/ciP1Hz.
THE STORY
"REFERENCES The Endnotes below were compiled by the consensus of fifteen different Escobada fans that have been painstakingly documenting all the knowledge that is left." Excerpt from TVLAFOEE
Is there anything that TVLF and HoL have in common? I don't think that any deeper analysis is needed to notice the following similarities shared by these works of fiction:
Both are written in the form of academic studies (article on Escobada vs. Zampanò’s manuscript) from the pov of researchers (anonymous author vs. Zampanò)
Both center around a person making films/recordings (Escobada vs. Navidson)
Both contain footnotes to sources that do not exist.
However, there may perhaps be an even more important element that connects the two works: a person... a film-maker who is much less forgotten than Escobada himself and whose identity could provide us with yet another clue:
TAD DANIELEWSKI
“My father was a filmmaker. In the 50s, live television. Later avant-garde. Eventually he got into documentaries.” Mark Z. Danielewski interviewed by Sophie Cottrell for www.randomhouse.com
It is worth noting that HoL originally began as a short story, titled Redwood. In the interview available on chuckpalahniuk.net Danielewski reveals that he wrote it to his hospitalized father.
A Wikipedia article confirms that Mark Z. Danielewski’s father, Tad Danielewski was a Polish avant-garde film director and on IMDB we learn that his last film was shot in Spanish.
Danielewski frequently mentions his father as a source of inspiration, for instance in this interview for www.randomhouse.com:
“Anyway no matter what he was doing, whether shooting a film in Africa or directing a soap opera in New York, he constantly spoke about movies. And when my sister and I were young, he always brought 16mm films home. Back then we had on hand an old projector and an assortment of screens.
"The screen matters most," he would say and go on to discuss size and reflective levels and all sorts of other stuff. Most families spend money on cars, vacations and clothes--even if they're broke and at that time we were broke. Very broke. It was an important lesson. Shoes didn't matter. Dad spent money on the screens.
And it was a beautiful gift. My sister and I didn't know it then, but what a magnificent and strange education. Every week Kubrick, Reed, Chaplin, Fellini, Bergman, Ford, Welles, Lean came into our living room. All their light, all their wonder, their genius and misconceptions, flung up on the wall like some magical hallway stretching into far away places. My father always in the back, in his chair, still in his shadows.
Of course just because we had a nice screen didn't mean we a had a nice projector. And we sure as hell didn't have two. That meant every thirty-forty minutes, the reel would run out and a new one would have to be threaded. You can guess who got that job.
Well during this first break, my father would start asking the first questions: "What are we really watching children?" "Why that color?" "Why that name?" "What about the sound? The music? The performance?" "Is this truly just about cowboys?" None of which compared to what followed the film--long discussions, hours long, sometimes inspiring, sometimes raw with the words of battle; and yes, of course fear. We covered everything. Structure, political content, aesthetic (or not) achievement.
When friends came over, they expected the usual movie experience. You know, two hours of entertainment, end of story. Boy were they in for a shock. The film was just the starting point. I don't think they left the same. I bet you if you spoke with some of my grade school and high school buddies, they'd tell you just that. The movie was fine, but it was the talk that mattered most.
My father will be remembered for a lot of things but by some, TZD--as some of my friends called him--will be forever known for his passionate consideration of the art of cinema.”
Could it be possible that Danielewski’s father served as inspiration for TVLAFOEE or that the story is a tribute to him?
THE MYSTERY REMAINS
However, maybe it's all just a setup? What if the author of the story is somebody wishing to draw our attention away from himself by pointing to Danielewski, just like the author of "Double Zero for Emptiness" from Nemonymous #1, who might have prompted readers to think of Stephen King as the possible author of the piece by describing in it an event referring to a biographical detail from King‘s life? But then, of course why would anyone go into all the trouble?
Or perhaps...
Perhaps, the blog post you are reading is nothing more but a proof of the exceptional power of TVLAFOEE and that those who try reading too deep into the story or stare for far too long at the labyrinthine website devoted to Escobada attempting to decipher its contents, may start seeing things that are not there, like watching Escobada's films that seem no longer true. Maybe it would be better for their own sake to stop trying to make sense ...
Because it is all
Reaching beyond their means
e
Ce n’est pas pour eux
y
Sie werden es nie verstehen?
(unfortunately, comments are not working at the moment. Please, see the following threads at
Thomas Ligotti Online for discussion: here and here
or at Mark Z Danielewski forums here) |
