u/Dark_Throat

Hey all! For about a year I've been working on a personal project: a House of Leaves inspired Spotify Playlist! And I know how that might sound, “Really? A Spotify playlist? How original 🙄” this one’s a bit different than all the others.

When looking on Spotify for other playlists, most of them seemed to be tailored for listening to while reading our favorite book, but my playlist actually reflects the events of the book.

Whether it's correlating a song to a specific phrase from the book, or a lyric that shares parallels with the story, or even songs outright inspired by the novel itself, this playlist aims to take you on a journey both through the house on Ash Tree Lane, but also through Johnny’s descent into madness, with some songs even dipping into the appendices a lil bit.

Tone, atmosphere, and vibes were all taken into consideration when selecting songs for the playlist. Like many of Zampanò's footnotes, many songs will feel out of place or outright tonally inappropriate; this was done intentionally to mirror some of the more tongue-in-cheek moments within the book. The playlist is a little over four hours and I wouldn't recommend listening to it as background noise for reading the book, I would listen to it as is; during your daily commute or when you're relaxing at home. Keep an eye on the song titles and keep an ear out for lyrics that stick out to you, hopefully you see the vision I had when constructing the playlist.

Enjoy!! I may add more to it as I feel necessary, but for now I would consider this playlist to be a version 1.0 as it fully captures the parts of the book that stuck out to me as integral to the story.

I don't know if this is the right place or flair to utilize, but it felt like the most applicable.

I should preface, I am not diagnosed with anything on the schizophrenia spectrum, I don't experience hallucinations (though one time I did have what I believe to be an auditory hypnopompic hallucination as I was in the process of waking up), but that's honestly where this is coming from. Because I don't experience hallucinations, I simply *cannot* fathom what they are like, and I suppose I want to be more informed in what they are like. If any of what I say comes across as ignorant, it's because I am and I'm not terribly knowledgeable on the subject(s), but I want to learn.

I've seen content creators with schizophrenia use smart glasses to record their surroundings to help ground themselves when they think they might be experiencing a hallucination, and obviously what we as the viewer see in the video is the person talking to an empty space. I'm not trying to say I don't believe them and their experiences, because I've seen first hand unhoused people experiencing an episode of drug fuel psychosis where they appear to be arguing with people that aren't there.

I'm a very visual thinker. I won't say I have a photographic memory, but I can conjure vivid photorealistic imagery in my mind's eye. Despite this, I *cannot* imagine what a hallucinated individual would look like, and not *just* look like, sound like, smell like, or even *feel* like.

There's so many different factors that play into our perception of the world. When you're talking to someone, you can hear exactly where their voice is coming from within their chest, how much phlegm they might have in their airways as it inhibits their speech in minor ways; you can hear the texture of their shoes grinding against the floor or the shuffle of their clothing as they shift their footing while presenting themselves with body language; you can smell their perspiration on a hot busy day or the fragrance of their preferred perfume; if you're particularly friendly with this person, you might even feel the warmth of their connection as they pat you on the shoulder.

I'm sure it varies from person to person, but when experiencing a hallucination does the brain make an effort to take all of this into account? Are there visual or auditory artifacts that make hallucinations stand out from reality? Like an uncanny shimmer of geometry or a sound that doesn't appear to have an origin in 3D space? My one experience with a minor auditory hallucination sounded like it was passing through my head, like a quick two-syllable shout of incoherance that whipped through my ears just as I crossed the threshold from unconsciousness to consciousness.

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.